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Make an Easy2Boot USB drive

New! E2B 130-page eBook now available (complete course on making a multiboot USB drive)!
 

Contents on this page

  • Quick Start
  • UEFI-booting
  • More Information
  • Recommended USB drives
  • Make_E2B.exe controls and buttons
  • Adding bootmgr
  • Applications that may interfere with E2B
  • Make a USB drive from extracted E2B files
  • Expert Instructions
  • Updating E2B
  • More things to do with E2B
  • Problems using Make_E2B_USB_Drive.cmd?
  • Trouble when installing Windows Vista\7\8\10 ISOs?
     

Quick Start

 
just Download the executable, select the language (1) and USB drive (2) and click the big red arrow button (3).
 
Note: For instructions for linux users go here.
 
YouTube videos (old): 'Create Multi Windows USB Installer' by Britec here. Deutsche Anleitung: U-Labs.de. Russian (русский) here, Espanol here.
 

UEFI-booting

It is possible to set up your E2B drive for MBR and UEFI-booting - answer Y when prompted to download and add the UEFI boot files - see here for more details.
 

More Information

IMPORTANT INFORMATION about USB drives and Windows Installer ISO files

There are two types of USB drive - Fixed/Local Disk type or the Removable type.

E2B works best with large Removable USB Flash drives.

Most USB Flash drives (aka 'pen drives' or 'thumb drives') are of the Removable type, but some USB Flash drives are of the Fixed Disk type. You can check this using RMPrepUSB. Windows 10 Explorer will display 'USB Drive' for the Removable type and 'Local Disk' for the Fixed Disk type.

If your E2B USB drive is of the Fixed-Disk type, then Windows Install ISOs may not work correctly unless you convert the ISO file to a .imgPTN file or add a 'Helper' USB flash drive or use an IODD 2531 HDD caddy.

E2B is intended to be used with a large USB drive - so use at least a 16GB USB drive. To make a non-contiguous 6GB file contiguous, you will need at least 6GB of free space on your USB drive. If you have a small USB drive, try using Rufus instead of E2B which is not multiboot! E2B will work on smaller drives if you use small ISOs/payloads of less than 3GB in size.

The maximum partition/USB drive size for E2B is 2TB (GPT USB drives are not supported by E2B).

Recommended USB drives

Tip: Always buy USB 3.0/3.1 drives if possible - they are faster and are fully backwards compatible with USB 2.0, so there is no good reason to buy USB 2.0 drives!
 

Removable USB Flash drive - I highly recommend the SanDisk Extreme range 64GB/ 128GB USB 3.1 - it is the best and fastest USB drive for E2B that I have found (note: avoid older versions which may be of the Fixed-disk type. Also, avoid 'fast' USB drives such as the Lexar  P20 Flash drive or Kingston HyperX because they are very slow with small files and WindowsToGo!). See here for an interesting comparison between the SanDisk Extreme Pro, Pro 3.1 and Sandisk Extreme. I do not recommend flash drives over 128GiB - there can be BIOS compatibility issues with USB drives >137GB.

External USB HDD (max 2TB), for best compatibility, I recommend a non-UASP USB 3.0 SATA drive enclosure (such as the IT-CEO USB  3. 0 IT-700 - see blog post on enclosures here).  I also highly recommend the IODD 2531 HD D encl osure- see blog post here, this drive can emulate USB CD/DVD drives and can also be used to boot E2B without needing a 'Helper' USB flash drive and you can write-protect the HDD whilst in use.
Beware of some native 4K-sector external USB Hard Disk drives - they do not MBR-boot!

Note that some BIOSes cannot access files on USB drives which are past the 137GB (128GiB) point. Keep the first E2B partition below 137GB. 

  • Linux users - please go here. 
  • Make E2B USB using Windows (Español) video here

If possible, use Windows to make the E2B USB drive because it will be more compatible on a wider range of systems (2 partitions should be created for best compatibilty).

Write-Protected USB - When booting from an E2B drive, the drive must not be write-protected. However, when connecting it to a Windows\Linux system to run software from the drive, it is useful to write-protect the USB drive to prevent infection from the user's OS. WP USB3 drives are available from Kanguru or Netac.

Quick Setup Guide - For help on what choices to make and how to add payload files.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO WIPE YOUR EXISTING USB DRIVE...

You do NOT need to reformat your existing USB drive, but I highly recommend it if you want to boot from many different types of systems.

To make a multiple-partition USB E2B boot drive or to make an exFAT USB drive - see the 'Make an E2B USB drive us ing RMPrepUSB' page.

If you don't want to re-format it, see Use an existing drive.

Make_E2B.exe

To make an E2B drive, download the executable and use the large red 'Make E2B Drive' button...
The other buttons are:
  • Make_E2B_USB_Drive.cmd - you can choose a physical USB drive number to partition, use a partition size larger than 137GB, choose FAT32 or NTFS and choose various language/keyboard combinations and menu 'stamps' - see below. Use this if your USB drive is not formatted or it not listed in the drive list box.
  • Extract E2B - extract all the files in the download to a new folder on your Desktop
  • Update E2B Drive - updates any connected E2B drive to this version of E2B
  • Test with QEMU - use this to check that your USB drive boots to the E2B menu correctly - you may even be able to boot to some 32-bit ISOs too!
 

Bootmgr

Note: To support direct booting of Windows .VHD, .VHDX and .WIM files using E2B, bootmgr must be copied to \_ISO\e2b\grub\DPMS\NTBOOT.MOD\bootmgr on the E2B USB drive. The Make_E2B utility will try to download or find the correct version for you and copy it to the E2B drive.
 
E2B will warn you if the bootmgr file on the E2B drive is not compatible. Only certain Windows 8/8.1 versions of bootmgr will work. Windows 10 versions of bootmgr will give a BSOD. Win8.1 Bootmgr versions that work have sizes of 389720, 389720, 398144, 398156, 398356, 427680, 404250, 409154, 403390 or 400517 bytes. You can obtain the correct version from an official Microsoft Windows 8.1 Install ISO.
 
Tip: Download and run Add_bootm gr_to_E2B to automatically add the correct version of bootmgr to all your old E2B drives (internet connection required). The same file can be found at \_ISO\docs\Make_E2B_USB_Drive\Add_Bootmgr_to_E2B_drives.cmd on your E2B drive.
 

Applications that may interfere with Make_E2B.exe

The following applications are known to cause issues when making E2B USB drives, you may need to uninstall/disable them:

Make a USB drive from the extracted files

For more experienced users, you can also extract the E2B files from the self-extracting (rar) executable.

 

1. Extract the E2B download to a new folder using the Extract E2B button in the Make_E2B.exe GUI.
 
You can add payload (e.g. ISO) files to the new folder now if you wish, or directly copy your payload files to the E2B USB drive later, after you have made it.

   Now insert your USB drive.
   I recommend you temporarily turn off anti-virus protection for the next step...
 
2. Run the MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE (run as admin).cmd script (NTFS is the recommended choice when prompted) - the USB drive must have a drive letter assigned by Windows (C: to Z:).  If using a large USB HDD, I recommend a maximum of 128Gib for the E2B partition - you can create a 2nd Primary partition later for any other files if one has not been created already (delete any existing 2nd partition first).

3. Copy any more payload files (ISOs, etc.) into the correct sub-folders under \_ISO (e.g. \_ISO\MAINMENU) of the USB drive.

4. Run \MAKE_THIS_DRIVE_CONTIGUOUS.cmd from the USB drive. This step is only required if the payload files are fragmented, but you might as well do it now.
 
 

Expert Instructions (more details)

WARNING: If using a large USB drive (>128GiB), use this method instead and make sure that E2B is in the first partition and the partition is below 137GB in size. 
This is because many  BIOSes (even modern ones!) have problems accessing USB sectors beyond 137GB (internal system hard drives >137GB may be OK, but USB drives >137GB may not work because the BIOS USB driver code in many BIOSes has still not been updated!).

1. Download Easy2Boot (either the basic download, or the DPMS version of E2B with XP 32-bit Mass Storage drivers if you want to install XP to SATA systems).  

2. Insert the USB drive which is to be wiped, into your Windows computer's USB port.  

3. Run the download .exe file which runs the Make_E2B.exe GUI, and click the 'Make_E2B_USB_Drive.cmd' button.

4. Turn off  AV.

Note: Some AntiVirus programs such as Trend Micro may interfere with the copy process. Either disable the AV program, whitelist the autorun.inf file or delete the autorun.inf file from the download first (autorun.inf just displays an E2B icon when the E2B USB drive is displayed in Windows Explorer - it does NOT run any program). Note that a 'PUP' or 'PUA' warning is NOT the same as a virus!

Defraggler may also interfere with the script (see above for a list of known 'problem' software).

5. Enter the USB drive number (e.g. 4) and then choose F=FAT32, or choose N=NTFS if you want to add files larger than 4GB to the E2B drive. 

    NTFS is recommended for UEFI-booting using .imgPTN files.

If you want to support UEFI booting, instead of copying over ISO files, you will need to create FAT32 .imgPTN partition image files from the ISO files. You can UEFI-boot from .imgPTN files, even if the E2B USB drive partition is formatted as NTFS, so there is very little disadvantage in using NTFS and many advantages.

If you have a small USB Flash drive (1-16GB) 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 will enumerate files on a FAT32 E2B drive twice as fast as a NTFS formatted drive, so the Main menu will load twice as fast from a FAT32 volume.

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. Make_E2B_USB_Drive.cmd will ask you to specify a language, keyboard and other options 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 for default USA settings.

         Add an E2B animated icon, QR code (E2B site URL) and/or E2B Boiler Plate

Tip: If you add the QR Code stamp to the E2B menu, you can use your mobile phone to go straight to the 'list of tested ISOs' page on the E2B website!

The script may also prompt you to make, change or delete the CONTIG.ISO file.

7. Finished! - The E2B drive is now ready for use. You can test the E2B menu by running \QEMU_MENU_TEST (run as admin).cmd from the USB drive.

To boot on a real system from a USB drive, you will typically need to press a Function key (e.g. F8 or F12) to get a BIOS Selection Menu pop-up - see here for more details.

Now go to Add Payload Files to see how to add your own payload files.

Tips: 

  • 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.
  • You can run \_ISO\docs\Make_E2B_USB_Drive\Make_MyE2B.cfg.cmd if you just want to change the MyE2B.cfg file settings (e.g. keyboard type or language) or change the QR and Boiler Plate options.
  • E2B will work from an exFAT USB drive, however SWITCH_E2B.exe will not work - see this page if you want to make an exFAT USB E2B drive.
Note: To boot Windows .VHD and .WIM files using E2B, the file bootmgr must be copied to the E2B USB drive folder \_ISO\e2b\grub\DPMS\NTBOOT.MOD\bootmgr.
Only certain Windows 8/8.1 versions of bootmgr will work, do not use the Windows 10 version of bootmgr as it will give a BSOD. Most Windows 8/8.1 boot managers should be compatible. Bootmgr versions that work are sizes 389720, 389720, 398144, 398156, 398356, 427680, 404250, 409154, 403390 or 400517 bytes. E2B will warn you if the version is not compatible.

Updating E2B

Download the latest version (you can update E2B+DPMS USB drives using the non-DPMS version) and click on the Update E2B Drive button.
 

Or  - extract E2B to an empty folder and then run .\UPDATE_E2B_DRIVE.CMD.

See this page for more details.

If you wish, you can add all the ISOs and .mnu and .txt files, etc. into the extracted folder too, so that when you run UPDATE_E2B_DRIVE.CMD, any new or updated files will be copied across to your E2B USB drive (but no files will be deleted from the USB drive). 

If you run the MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE (run as admin).cmd file from an E2B USB drive, then a new E2B USB drive will be made and all your payload files, etc. will be copied across to the new USB drive as well.

If you have more than one E2B USB drive and you want to update them all, just connect as many E2B USB drives as possible to the Windows computer (e.g. use a multi-port USB hub) and double-click on \_ISO\docs\make_E2B_USB_Drive\Update_all_E2B_drives.cmd.

More things to do...

Looking for things to do with your new E2B USB drive? Look here.

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

Problems using MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE.cmd?

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 the E2B autorun.inf file does not run any program.

Some products which may interfere with process of making or using an E2B USB drive are:

Trouble when Installing Windows Vista\7\8\10 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 for some functions (e.g. Windows Vista/7/8 install ISOs) 

- OR - 

B) you will need to use MakePartImage to create .imgPTN bootable files from your Vista/7/8 Windows PE ISOs.

 


Recommended for Easy2Boot (fastest flash drive!)
SanDisk Extreme SDCZ880-128G-G46

Fastest USB 3!
See Blog post

 

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