Nov092012

Will these 3 operating systems work on a USB flash drive?

KamilKozyra asks:

Can I install Windows 7 Home, newest Ubuntu & a Hiren Boot CD (all 3) on one single USB flash drive?

How many GBs on a USB do I need? Is there any guide or do I need several different guides? Thanks!


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System: Windows 7
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0 votes
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ha14

November 9, 2012

Yumi
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/
tutorial
http://raywoodcockslatest.blogspot.fr/2012/06/multiboot-usb-drive-with-windows-7.html
select Hiren’s Boot CD in the drop-down box and show the location of Hiren*.zip.

MagicIso
http://www.magiciso.com/
it features a Multi-Boot Image Editor.
http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-createmultibootcd.htm

WinToFlash
http://wintoflash.com/overview/en/
-Pull the contents of a Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8 install disc and prep the USB drive to become a bootable replacement
-Windows 32 bit and 64 bit full support
-Support all editions of Windows – Home, Professional, Media Center, Ultimate, etc.
-Transfer a Recovery CD or a tiny OS (BartPE based on Windows XP/2003, WinPE based on Windows Vista/2008/7/8) to a USB drive

WiNToBootic
http://www.wintobootic.com/

Sardu can help
http://mytechencounters.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/create-a-multi-bootable-usb-drive-with-linux-and-windows/

WinSetupFromUSB 1.0 Beta
http://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTABLE-SOFTWARE/System/System-Enhancements/WinSetupFromUSB.shtml
Windows Ubuntu, Bartpe, UBCD4Win

Guide for Multi-booting from a USB Drive
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=18846

0 votes
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Erlis Dhima

November 9, 2012

Well, you can use your usb to install different version of os, but not on a single USB drive. You can run linux in an USB flash drive, but I don’t think you can do the same with win7.
You can check ubuntu help page how to install/run ubuntu from a usb flash drive:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick
To run win 7 from an usb drive, check this links:
http://www.clickonf5.org/9184/how-to-install-and-run-windows-7-from-usb-flash-drive/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvWGV9YJxfQ
To run Hiren’s boot cd from USB, check this site:
http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd-on-usb-disk

Hope it helps! But keep in mind that you can’t run all the 3 os on a single usb pen drive.

0 votes
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Lisa Santika Onggrid

November 9, 2012

Yes, you can. For Ubuntu and Hiren Boot CD you can use SARDU or YUMI, but if you want Win7 to be ‘Live’ and not just an installation CD it’s a little bit more complicated. I’m currently trying to add it to my bootable USB too, but it’s much complex than I imagined. Here:
http://www.instantfundas.com/2010/12/how-to-create-windows-7-live-cddvdusb.html
http://www.vikitech.com/8098/create-windows-7-live-cd
http://superuser.com/questions/151642/how-to-make-a-windows-7-live-cd
4 to 16 GB should be sufficient for Hiren and Ubuntu, but you’ll need more for Win7.

Drew Butler

Totally agree. In my experience having the multiple partitions that what you’re looking to do would require is also a problem because the different Operating Systems require different formatting (NTFS,FAT,FAT32) this would still work but can cause errors on the drive or cause the drive to “Die” sooner… This is all just my opinion of course but it comes from experience losing a terabyte external that I had 6 different partitions on(they weren’t all different formats but they all had a purpose and the drive died way sooner than it should have). Anyways… I agree with the recommendations above and would consider one USB stick for Linux and Hirens and one strictly for windows. As a final recommendation you also might consider using xp or 2000 for greater compatibility with different hardware if you’re going to be using this for a bunch of different systems. Thanks for not ranting about my grammar, sentence structure or spelling everyone LOL.. hope this helps

November 10, 2012
Lisa Santika Onggrid

Yes, that’s what I’m doing. I have Mint, Puppy, DamnSmall, UbuntuStudio, and some other distros for testing purposes, and various rescue CD in one USB, and Windows in another. That should solves your problem nicely and with less hassle than you want with multiple types of partition in one USB. Besides, that would ensure you have enough space for your data.

November 10, 2012
0 votes
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musicphann

November 9, 2012

You should be able to. Be sure to partition your thumb drive first. Then you can use a utility like YUMI below to install different Linux OS’s. I believe Hiren’s boot CD is on there as well:

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/

You can then install Windows 7 to one of the partitions. Not sure how you handle setting up GRUB so you can choose which OS to boot. I would get as large a thumb drive as you can if you’d like to install programs as well. 32GB or larger.

Raj Bhag

Oh my! I was literally just about to recommend YUMI and then saw your post aha. (=

November 9, 2012
0 votes
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Naveen Kumar

November 9, 2012

i think yes you can.try the following steps given below
http://www.tweakhound.com/usb/usb5.html

0 votes
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josemon maliakal

November 9, 2012

Yup

0 votes
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Alex Downs

November 9, 2012

You can run and install them all, but Ubuntu is the only one that can run the OS off the flash drive.

0 votes
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Justin Pot

November 9, 2012

I know there’s a way to put multiple Linux disks onto one flash drive, but not combined with Windows. You’re just going to need to switch at times, or acquire multiple drives. Sorry.

0 votes
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Boni Oloff

November 12, 2012

You cannot install Windows 7 in USB.
Even it can be Windows 7 can get up to 20GB, and it can be really slow if you run it from USB Flash Disk.

0 votes
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Harry Barnes

November 15, 2012

yes, you will need a 64gb drive minimum though realistically

0 votes
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Abba Jee

November 24, 2012

i laready have them on usb, beside them i do have fedora, gparted live, opensuse :d as ha14 said Yumi Pen drive linux is best choice to have multiple Os on single usb

0 votes
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Vishal Srivastava

December 8, 2012

Yumi- http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/
is the best and I’ve tried it but never tried Windows 7. 7 takes a 10GB partition on my laptop so a 16 GB pendrive is recommended.

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