When your Windows operating system crashes and won’t boot at all, the only thing to worry about is that the data has not been backed up. You never know when your Windows computer will crash. The bad thing is that this crash comes when you least expect it.. It’s best to always back up your data before something like this happens to you.. Also, the best thing to do before these things happen is to install the operating system on the USB.. We will need a working computer to install the operating system on the USB. In this article, we will explain how to recover data by installing operating system on USB on Windows computer.. If you do not have the opportunity to find a working computer, you can also install the operating system on the USB with an Android phone.. You can see how to install the operating system to USB with Android phone here.

How to Install Operating System to USB?

1. What You Need

Of course, to install the operating system on the USB, we will first need the flash disk.. It is an operating system that we can boot, that will help the computer to boot.. Since we will be dealing with data recovery today, we will prefer Puppy Linux from Linux, which is a fast, light and simple operating system.

• For the process we will do with Linux, a flash with at least 4GB memory space get a driver. You can also install Windows on USB with this method.. If you prefer an operating system such as Windows, you will need 32GB more storage space.. That’s why we chose the Linux distribution for data recovery, which is fast, lightweight and simple.
• Then you will need an external hard drive with enough space to store a backup of your files.

2. Creating the USB Drive

We chose Puppy Linux, a Linux distribution, for this work. It is very light and fast under 250MB.

1. Visit this page. Choose 32 or 64 from the site according to the 32-bit or 64-bit status of your computer.. If you do not know the computer processor version, you can find out by browsing this article.. If you are still unsure. You can choose 32 bit. Download the file marked in the images below. If you are going to use 32-bit, download the file “slacko-6.3.0.iso” in the 32-bit folder, and if you are going to use 64-bit, download the file “slacko64-6.3.0.iso” in the 64-bit folder.

2. Download the Rufus USB tool and find yourself a working Windows computer and install Rufus You can run it directly when you download Portable. In fact, both are files that do not require one-click installation.

3. Plug your USB drive, from which you will install the Puppy Linux operating system, into the working PC.

4. Go to your Rufus application, right click and select “Run as administrator”.

5. On the start page, there is a setting you need to make. Probably Auto will be selected if only one USB is inserted.. If there is more than one USB, first select your flash memory from the first menu “Device“. Do not interfere with the remaining parameters.

Go to the drop-down menu and select the “ISO Image” option in the marked image above. Then find and select the downloaded Puppy Linux ISO (slacko) file.

6. Now click on “Start” and a menu like the picture above will appear with “Print in ISO Mirroring Mode” option selected. Press “Ok“, this will format your flash drive and install a bootable Puppy Linux operating system on your flash drive. Make sure that there are no important files on your flash disk, because this process will format the USB and everything will be erased.

You will see green progress in the Rufus program, wait for it to show “READY” when the process is finished.. USB is ready after green progress finished. It will be ready in a minute.

3. Operating System Installed USB on Computer

1. Plug your ready USB into the computer you are having trouble with.

2. At this stage, our goal will be to boot the computer with USB while turning on.. We write this method for informational purposes.. In the continuation of our article, the shorter method of turning on the computer with USB is explained.. When we press the computer crash, try to enter the BIOS settings of the computer and enter. This is an action when the computer is booting. BIOS is the area you enter before the operating system boots up. This has shortcuts that vary from computer to computer. Esc can be F10, F8, Delete or F12. “Delete” is one of the most frequently used. Open the BIOS somehow by trial and error or by searching the Internet according to the computer or motherboard brand model.. One of the shortcuts will definitely work.

3. After opening the BIOS, we will make the boot option of your computer USB. It is usually done from the “BOOT” menu.. It is in the “Hard Disk Drives” area under the “BOOT” menu in my BIOS menu.. This field may vary depending on the motherboard of your computer.. Your goal here will be to rank the USB drive first in the hard disk ranking.. Thus, it will be enabled to boot with USB while the computer is booting.. After the processes are finished in the BIOS, go to “Exit”, make “Save” and exit. The save changes and exit shortcut is usually the “F10” key, you can also save and exit by pressing this key.. After all the processes are finished, take the hard disk of your computer from the same place in the first row.

Another method; It is the operation you will do with one of the F keys.. None of the above steps are required.. Has a shortcut BIOS menu that lets you choose which drive your computer starts with. This key is usually; It is one of the keys like F8, F12, F10, F11. It is opened with the F11 key on the computer I use. It may vary according to the brand and model.. Your process will be easier when you open this menu.. In the menu that opens, it only offers driver options, you choose the driver to open the computer and that’s it.. When you open this menu, it will be enough to start with USB.. This is a one-time operation. There is no need to edit the settings again.

4. When your computer restarts, it will start from USB and if everything went well, your computer will boot with Puppy Linux operating system.

4. Back Up Your Data

1. When your computer is booted with Puppy Linux operating system, you will get the above image.. At the bottom left you can see the drivers and USB devices connected to your computer. These icons are the available storage and partitions on your hard drive.

2. By clicking on these drives, you can locate and backup the files you want to recover.. Remember not to plug in another external hard drive to the computer for backup.. A space will be needed to store the data.

3. Right-click on the file you want to recover and select the “Copy” option, find the external disk you have inserted to the computer from the bottom left and paste your data there by right-clicking.. Continue like this for each file you want to recover. Normal is the copy-paste situation we know.

There are some features in the left menu in this operating system, you can use them too. If you need to use the Internet, you can browse the Internet by clicking the World icon at the top of the left menu and there are features where you can do simple operations like this.. After all, this is also an operating system.

Finally;

You can also install Windows versions on your USB device with this method.. All you have to do is to find the Windows ISO file instead of Puppy Linux ISO and run the Rufus application that way.. However, more storage space will be needed for Windows installation. For Puppy Linux 4GB was more than enough, but for Windows you will need as much as 32GB USB. Puppy Linux is great for fast data recovery. Before the computer crashes, it would be great to have a USB with 4GB of Puppy Linux at hand.