Tutorials:USB Installation - UBCDwiki (2024)

This tutorial will guide you through the steps to formating and copying over the UBCD to your USB Flash Drive with the program RMPrepUSB. This guide does not contain help on modifying any of the extracted content; if you are looking for a specific guide that is not available here, please check the UBCD forums for more help and information. It is highly recommended that after completing this tutorial that you test the USB Flash Drive by booting your computer from it. The good news is that if it doesn't work the first time you can easily just edit/update files and try again unlike a cd/dvd where it is permanent. Makes adding more programs just as easy.

WARNING: If you skip requirements, you do so at your own risk, as you may encounter issues that will be traced back to not being prepared.

Requirements

Before we jump into the guide, you will need the following:

• 1. The UBCD ISO, of course. Download it here if you haven't already. The ISO should be extracted by following the extracting instructions from a previous tutorial, located here: Tutorials:Remastering#Extracting_the_Contents.

• 2a. RMPrepUSB RMPrepUSB program (Freeware - for private use only). The RMPrepUSB version used in this tutorial is v2.0.737. There is an alternative tutorial number 87 at RMPrepUSB Official Site. Nevertheless, you should download the latest version of it. We have already extracted it to the same folder as the extracted UBCD ISO. For directions with RMPrepUSB, see Let's Begin! Option Two.

• 2b. RMPrepUSB is not 100% needed to create a bootable USB. For directions without it, see Let's Begin! Option One.

• 3. At least a 512MB USB Flash Drive. These and larger sizes can be picked up for relatively cheap just about anywhere. If you are going to be adding more programs to it, always make sure you have extra space.

After checking that you have met all requirements we can proceed with the tutorial.

• There is also a YouTube video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX6BHnefIms This video demonstrates the procedure using RMPrepUSB.

Let's Begin!

Option One

Using Windows Vista or 7

1. Download the UltimateBootCD ISO and burn a copy to a disk

• A real disk isn't necessary, a virtual disk will also work.

2. Format your USB key, if it is not setup to be a USB Flash or Drive device

• A good tutorial for formatting a bootable USB can be found here

3. Open a Command Prompt with Administrator privileges

• Go Start > All Programs > Accessories
• Open the context menu (if using a mouse, right-click on the icon)
• Select Run As Administrator

4. Change to the drive letter of the burned disk

• For example, If the burned disk is in drive D, type d: and press Enter

5. Change to the directory holding the startup script

• For example, in the version current at the time this was written,
• type cd ubcd\tools\win32\ubcd2usb and press Enter

6. Enter the script file followed by the drive letter of the burned disk then the drive letter of the USB device

• In the version 5.1.1, the script file is called ubcd2usb
• If the burned disk is in drive D and the USB is labelled as drive E
• type ubcd2usb d: e: and press Enter

7. The following output will appear:

UBCD2USB: Creating bootable UBCD memory stick ...
UBCD2USB: Making USB KEY bootable...
UBCD2USB: Copying files to USB KEY...

• Once completed, this additional output will appear:

286 File(s) copied
UBCD2USB: Bootable UBCD memory stick was successfully created

8. Use Safely Remove or Eject to remove the USB from the port to prevent data corruption.

9. Your done! The USB key is ready to go.

Option Two

Using RMPrepUSB

1. RMPrepUSB extracted in the same folder as the extracted UBCD ISO (ubcd-extract).

2. Going into the RMPrepUSB extracted folder you will find several items. The program you want to run is "RMPrepUSB"(.exe). Note: In Vista/7 you will have to run this program as Administrator.

3. The program should open and look something similar to this.

4. At this point I recommend you "Clean" the drive using the red Clean button near the bottom right side of the program. It will overwrite the MBR with 0's on the drive and could prevent errors from occurring during the next steps. You may skip this step tho, if you so chose, but if you get an error in the next step, then you may have to Clean it anyways. You will receive a prompt confirming whether you want to format or not, choose "OK" to continue, or "Cancel" to cancel.

5.b The program has been convenient numbered. All you really need to do is follow the numbers in order, but I would like to describe the items for you in order:

• 1. Size - You may chose to shrink the size (Default is Max Size)

• 2. Volume Label - You may chose a name for your drive so you can distinguish one drive from another. Note 1: Max Characters for a windows drive is 11, anything after will be trimmed to 11. Note 2: The Label MAY ONLY contain the following: Letters (A-Z) and Numbers (0-9) [unfortunately it doesn't stop you from trying]'

• 3. BOOT Options - Allows you to choose several ways to boot the drive depending on your need and configurations.

• 4. Filesystem and Overrides - Formatting options with several advanced features.

• 5. Location to folder you would like contents to be copied.

• 6. Prepare Drive - Starts the process of formating and copying files.

5.b The settings I will be using on an unmodified version of UBCD v5.0 are (See image):

• 1. Size = MAX
• 2. Volume Label = UBCDv5
• 3. BOOT Options = SYSLINUX Bootable
• 4. Filesystem and Overrides = FAT32 + (Check the Box) Boot as HDD (2PTNS)
• 5. Copy OS Files - (Check the box) = Location (dependant on Windows version):
• For XP: C:\Documents and Settings\Your_Username\My Documents\ubcd-extract
• For Vista/7: C:\User\Your_Username\My Documents\ubcd-extract

6. After you have selected the options/parameters, you may proceed and select the last step of 6 (see above image).

6.a The program will immediately ask you if you are sure you would like to use the selected parameters we have selected. Clicking "OK" will continue and "Cancel" will halt the process.

6.b Followed by asking you if it's "OK" to format and partition the drive. Note: You will lose all data on the drive if you continue.

6.c You may see a Command Prompt open and then suddenly close, this is normal. After the drive has been formated and partitioned, it will start copying the files over from the folder location we provided earlier, in this case "ubcd-extract" folder.

6.d Finished copying files over. A reminder that once we have finished, to eject (unmount) the drive instead of just unplugging the drive.

7.a There will now be a series of Prompts relating to SysLinux parameters. This gallery shows all the Prompts (IN ORDER) and short answers:

• (Optional) For RAID Drives ONLY, Boot from next drive if USB drive fails.

• (Optional) Stupid option for old buggy BIOSes

• ("1" is correct) Folder location for SysLinux boot loader.

• ("OK" Required) Asks you if you want to install SysLinux boot loader to selected location.

8. After all the Prompts, will go back to RMPrepUSB program. You may now want to check your USB Flash Drive to see if everything worked and boot from it to test it. Note: Make sure you enable "Boot From USB" in your BIOS. The finished USB Flash Drive should look similar to:

This concludes the tutorial. If you have any questions regarding help or the instructions provided, please visit us on the UBCD Forums. You may also want to check out more Tutorials.