How to Create a Easy2Boot USB Drive

Introduction have you ever used tools such as Rufus,SARDU,Xboot or some multiboot making tool? most of the time these work for just s...

Introduction

have you ever used tools such as Rufus,SARDU,Xboot or some multiboot making tool? most of the time these work for just small things but dont always work. like tools such as SARDU or even Rufus, whenever you wanted to add a new ISO or make changes they required you to reformat the entire USB to make changes. well what if their is a free open solution that works the same way but without a program or having to reformat every time. EASY2boot allows you to turn any USB drive or even a portable HDD into a multiboot drive that allows you to boot from many ISO images such as

*UEFI &MBR Easy2Boot allows you to boot systems with both new and old BIOS and the new UEFI bios in newer laptops.

*Windows Install ISO's
*ERD
*MSDart
*Haiku
*MS-DOS
*All Linux LiveCDS
*Hirens Boot CD
*UBCD
*FreeDos
*Hitman Pro
*Linux+Persistence
*AntiVirus
*XBMC
*Eset
*KonBoot
+XP Install to SATA disk
*MemTest86+
*OpenElec Live
*FreeBSD
*WinBulider Custom Made ISO's
*WinPE ISO's
*HP ISO Utilities
*USB Drive images YUMI,XBOOT,WinSetupFromUSB
Hackintosh .dmg, + 100's More

to see more details about Easy2boot go to steves website: www.easy2boot.com

Tips and Other General Info:

Linux users - please go here. If possible however, use Windows to make the E2B USB drive as it will be easier and more compatible.

Tip: To make a multiple-partition USB E2B boot drive or use your existing USB drive without re-formatting or make an exFAT USB drive - see the 'Make an E2B USB drive using RMPrepUSB' page. Note that under Windows, Removable USB drives can only have one partition accessible to Windows at any one time.

WARNING: If using a large USB hard disk, use this method: http://www.easy2boot.com/make-an-easy2boot-usb-drive/make-and-e2b-usb-drive-using-rmprepusb/ instead and make sure that E2B is in the first partition and it is below 137GB in size.
This is because many BIOSes have problems accessing USB sectors beyond 137GB!

Steps (8 total)

1

Download Easy2boot

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1. Download Easy2Boot (either the basic download, or the 30MB DPMS version of E2B with XP 32-bit Mass Storage drivers)

2

Extract the Easy2Boot zip file

2. Unzip the Easy2Boot zip file to a new empty folder on your hard drive (DO NOT EXTRACT TO THE WINDOWS DESKTOP!)

3

Insert the USB drive into your computer's USB port.

simple step,no need to explain

4

Run the Easy2Boot batch file as Administrator

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In Windows Explorer, right-click and choose 'Run as Administrator...' on either...
\Make_E2B_USB_Drive (run as admin).cmd
or
\_ISO\docs\Make_E2B_USB_Drive\Make_E2B_USB_Drive.cmd
in the extracted E2B download and follow the instructions (requires elevated privileges/Admin rights).

you can find these files in the directory / folder you put the Easy2Boot files for setting up the drive.

5

Select the USB that you want to be a E2B drive.

Enter the USB drive number and then choose FAT32 (Y) when prompted, or press N for NTFS if you will need to add files larger than 4GB to the E2B drive.

Note: Even if you intend to use .imgPTN partition images for UEFI booting, you can format the E2B drive as NTFS, i.e. you can still UEFI boot from .imgPTN files, even if the E2B USB drive partition is formatted as NTFS. If you have a small (1GB to 16GB) USB Flash drive and all your files are less than 4GB in size, I suggest you use FAT32 which is easier to defrag (especially under linux). Also, E2B can enumerate files on a FAT32 E2B drive twice as fast as a NTFS formatted drive, so the Main menu will load twice as fast if formatted as FAT32.

Even if you are booting a linux distro ISO file that does not support NTFS, it should still boot from an E2B NTFS drive!

6

Specifying Language,Keyboard & Menu Options

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Make_E2B_USB_Drive.cmd will ask you to specify a language, keyboard and menu option and will create a \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file for you - if you don't want to use a MyE2B.cfg file, type S to skip that section.

7

Your E2B Drive is ready to be used

The E2B drive is now ready for use.
Now go to Add Payload Files: http://www.easy2boot.com/add-payload-files to add your own payload files.

Looking for things to do with your new E2B USB drive? Look here:
http://rmprepusb.blogspot.co.uk/p/easy2boot-useful-blogs.html

Tip: if it fails to format the USB drive as NTFS, run it again and select FAT32 - then re-run the script again to format it as NTFS.

If you are very short of space, you can delete the 500MB \_ISO\CONTIG.ISO file (but you will have to remember to defrag all your ISOs).

Some AntiVirus products may block the \AutoRun.inf file from being copied to the USB drive (or may warn of a possible virus) - this file is not essential. You can either disable your AV or just not have a nice E2B icon displayed in Explorer. There is no virus and this file does not run any program

Note: For E2B pre-v1.58 versions - If you used FAT32, the E2B USB drive will contain UEFI boot files (xxx.efi) which will run MemTest86 from a UEFI system. If these .efi boot files are present, some UEFI systems (e.g. Fujitsu LifeBook) may not boot to the E2B Main menu but always boot and run MemTest86, even if CSM is enabled in the BIOS. To ensure that the USB drive always boots to the E2B Main menu, delete the \EFI folder.

8

Other Troubleshooting Steps / Information

Other Troubleshooting Steps / Information

Trouble when Installing Windows Vista\7\8 ISOs?

Note: Check if your USB Flash drive is of the 'Removable' or 'Fixed' type (as listed by Windows Explorer or RMPrepUSB).

If the USB Flash Drive or USB HDD drive is listed as a 'Local Disk' or 'Fixed Disk' then you will either need to

A) also make a USB E2B Helper Removable Flash drive: http://www.easy2boot.com/make-an-easy2boot-usb-drive/how-to-make-a-helper-usb-flash-drive/ for some functions (e.g. Windows Vista/7/8 install ISOs)

- OR -

B) you will need to use MakePartImage: http://www.easy2boot.com/add-payload-files/makepartimage to create .imgPTN bootable files from your Vista/7/8 Windows PE ISOs.

Conclusion

Here are a List of OEM bios keys for laptops / Desktops to get into the BIOS / Boot screen depending on your system. if you have a newer laptop / Desktop with UEFI enabled, for security reasons UEFI will not allow booting from a USB unless UEFI is disabled in the UEFI Bios.

BIOS Boot Keys Laptops / Desktops
HP⁄Compaq - Esc (starting to use F9 also)
(F10 will usually access BIOS)
Dell - F12 (F2 will access BIOS)
Gateway⁄eMachines - F10 (moving to F12 with newer models)
(F2 will access BIOS)
Acer - F12 (not always) (F2 will access BIOS)
Toshiba - F12 (older systems will be different)
Sony - usually will boot to CD, may ask you to
"Press any key to boot from CD"
Asus - Esc (F2 will access BIOS)
Samsung - Esc (F2 will access BIOS)
Nokia - F12 (F2 will access BIOS)
Lenovo - F12 (Del wil access BIOS)

References

• Easy2boot website