Ultimate Edition Forum

Here we will assume that you are using either Vista or Windows 7 to create a boot-able USB.

• 1. Insert your USB (4GB+ preferable) stick to the system and backup all the data from the USB as we are going to format the USB to make it as boot-able.
  
• 2. Open elevated Command Prompt. To do this, type in CMD in Start menu search field and hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter. Alternatively, navigate to Start > All programs >Accessories > right click on Command Prompt and select run as administrator.
  
• 3. When the Command Prompt opens, enter the following command:
  
  DISKPART and hit enter.
  
  LIST DISK and hit enter.
  
  Once you enter the LIST DISK command, it will show the disk number of your USB drive. In the below image my USB drive disk no is Disk 1.
  
• 4. In this step you need to enter all the below commands one by one and hit enter. As these commands are self explanatory, you can easily guess what these commands do.
  
  SELECT DISK 1 (Replace DISK 1 with your disk number)
  
  CLEAN
  
  CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
  
  SELECT PARTITION 1
  
  ACTIVE
  
  FORMAT FS=NTFS
  
  (Format process may take few seconds)
  
  ASSIGN
  
  EXIT
  
  Don’t close the command prompt as we need to execute one more command at the next step. Just minimize it.
  
• 5. Insert your Windows DVD in the optical drive and note down the drive letter of the optical drive and USB media. Here I use “D” as my optical (DVD) drive letter and “H” as my USB drive letter.
  
• 6. Go back to command prompt and execute the following commands:
  
  D:CD BOOT and hit enter. Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.
  
  CD BOOT and hit enter to see the below message.
  
  BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 H:
  
  (Where “H” is your USB drive letter)
  
• 7. Copy Windows DVD contents to USB.

You are done with your bootable USB. You can now use this bootable USB as bootable DVD on any computer that comes with USB boot feature (most of the current motherboards support this feature).

Note that this bootable USB guide will not work if you are trying to make a bootable USB on XP computer.

Good guide. Lazy people like me might opt to use something like WinToFlash. I've used it successfully with a streamlined XP, but it claims it works with "Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8." Not that this is the only choice out there, I would encourage people to do a little research on the subject, and find what they feel comfortable with.

I don't mean to take anything away from your great guide, just sayin' there is more than one way to skin a cat (though why the heck would you want to skin a cat? -- I know the cat would object!)

Utilities at PenDriveLinux and SARDU may help; they work with FAT32-formatted usb flash pendrive sticks.
Careful - they make exploring non-Windows options dangerously convenient! ByTheWay, formatting flash-drives with NTFS can be done in XP; it's a little tedious, but may speed XP setup.
PenDriveLinux used to publish MultiBootISO (last version 2.1.5.2), which used GrUB4dOS; easy to add an ISO & update menu.lst
For going overboard, there's RMprepUSB.com tutorials, and BootICE