Booting From An ISO Image On A USB Flash Drive

ARNKUSA

New Member
The idea is I'd like to create an image of my current Windows 7 system, including a few core programs, so that in the event of a catastrophic failure I can very easily boot from a USB flash drive.

I've tried several methods documented online but nothing seems to work. I made an image using EaseUs, which creates a .pbd file. I then saved it as an .iso file using PowerISO.

My USB flash drive is 256GB. The image file is roughly 20GB. I've read to format the drive as NTFS. I've also read that Windows could never boot from an NTFS formatted USB drive, and to use FAT32. Which apparently has a limit of 32GB.

Being that my files are around 20GB, I have tried both formats to no avail. I've used most of the suggested apps too, like RUFUS or the Windows 7 USB Tool for example. I've also tried some command line tutorials. Nothing.

But what if the image file is 75GB? 100GB? All I want is to create a mirror image of my setup, so that when Microsoft updates & reboots & jacks my computer I can get back up & running right away.

If you could provide some insight into what I'm doing wrong I would really appreciate it. I'd like to get to work (and not for Microsoft for free).

Advanced thank you...
 

StrangleHold

Moderator
Staff member
What computer do you have? Older computers and some newer ones don't have the capability/option to boot from USB. Does your bios list USB as a boot option.
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Acronis True Image can image your pc in case disaster strikes. The backup would go on an external or a second internal drive. You would just have to boot to the Acronis recovery cd in order to copy backup back to good drive. It also costs money, not free.
 
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