TechTips - How to Make a Bootable Vista Installation Thumb Drive

I don't like CD's or DVD's they too often get lost, scratched or broken and then become useless. So what was I going to do with my Vista install disks? Well I figured I would make a bootable USB stick just in case I did damage or lose my Vista installation disks. It's a fairly simple process and can be done with two free programs.

First let's get the free programs that you will need to complete the process of making the Vista Installation USB Key. These two programs are ImgBurn and the Trial Version of UltraISO. Download and install the two programs before you go on to the next steps.

Now you will need a few other things before you get started. Make sure you have a USB thumb drive that is at least 4GB in size and a Retail Vista installation DVD. Now if you want to do a 32bit or 64bit version of Vista you have to make sure you are doing this process in that OS so to make a 32bit Vista USB key you have to be in a 32bit OS (Vista or XP) same goes for 64bit you have to be in 64bit OS (Vista or XP).

Ok so now you know what you need and have the programs installed that you will be using so let's get started. First thing you will need to do is create an ISO file of your Vista disk. Open ImgBurn and in the opening window choose Create image file from disk button, choose the settings you want and then click the big Read button at the bottom and wait for it to create the ISO file in the folder you or the program set for Destination.

Now you will want to plug in your USB key (make sure there is nothing important on it, it will all be erased during this process), right click on the UltraISO icon and choose Run as administrator. Click on File and then open, find where you saved your Vista ISO file and highlight it and choose Open. In the bottom left hand window choose your USB Thumb Drive. Click on the menu Bootable and Write Disk Image. Make sure the locations are correct and check the Verify check box, and then click on Write. Click yes to confirm that you want to write to the USB thumb drive, let the program do its thing. When it is done click the Close button. Now test out your Vista thumb drive install key.

That is all there is to creating a bootable Vista thumb drive. Pretty straight forward and easy. If you have a large enough thumb drive you can also add all of your drivers to it so once you are done installing then you already have the drivers on the same stick!

If you are having problems with booting to your thumb drive then check you Bios settings you may have to set the thumb drive priority higher than the Hard drive. I had to change mine in order for it to boot from the Thumb Drive.