Android image to run from USB. Installing OS Android on a computer

It's no secret that the Android operating system is the most popular and accessible all over the world. According to analysts, up to eighty-five percent of gadgets have this operating system. Using an Android smartphone, you can install the operating system on your computer using your phone or tablet as a bootable USB flash drive. In this article you will learn what a bootable Android flash drive is and how to create one.

Android bootable flash drive for PC

Google, which owns trademark Android freely distributes its product among manufacturers modern gadgets. Therefore, this operating system can be found both on budget Chinese devices and on expensive flagships. Thanks to this, the possibilities of Android are almost limitless.

You can install the operating system on your computer using your phone or tablet as a bootable USB flash drive. The most popular program to create a bootable Android flash drive - DriveDroid, which complements the functionality of the device.

DriveDroid supports ISO files and IMG and emulates a USB flash drive or CD based on need. Using a flash drive emulator you can download IMG files and most of Linux distributions, and CD emulation makes it possible to load any ISO files. DriveDroid is also necessary if you need to restore your computer, but there is no way to do this from the PC itself. You can format your hard drive, restore files and perform other important operations.

What do you need to create a bootable USB flash drive for Android?

The DriveDroid application is suitable for users who have experience or have ever encountered installing an operating system on a computer. To use the program you will need:

operating system Android 2.3 or higher
sufficient quantity free memory on the device to transfer the required image. Preferably 0.3 gigabytes larger than the size of the image itself
battery charge at least fifty percent
access to root rights on the device. The owner of the gadget assumes responsibility for all actions involving superuser rights. Since if they are used incorrectly, the consequences can be irreversible

How to create a bootable USB flash drive on Android?

Bootable USB flash drive Android is easy to create. Follow the instructions:

install the DriveDroid application on your smartphone
then run it and allow access to root rights
install UltraISO on your computer (if it doesn’t exist)
in DriveDroid click on plus top panel. Next select Create blank image
In the menu that opens, set the required amount of memory for the image and the name of the operating system. In the lower field indicate file system FAT
check the box in the upper right corner
after this, the created image will appear in the menu of the application itself with the name you selected
when you click on the created image, a window will open in which you need to select the upper left USB read/write icon
connect the device to the computer using a USB cable
Go to UltraISO on your computer
in the “File” menu, click “Open” and select the folder in which the created image is located
V top menu select "Boot". In the menu that opens - “Burn hard disk image”
in the menu that opens, you need to specify the Android device that was used as a bootable flash drive
then select the recording method - USB-HDD+ and click the “Record” button

After completing all the steps in the above instructions, you need to restart your computer. The next step is to BIOS mode Continue the process of installing a new operating system on your computer.

If you have any questions or difficulties regarding creating a bootable USB flash drive for Android, write in the comments. We are always happy to help.

Answers to questions

Are there similar DriveDroid programs to create a bootable Android flash drive?

One of the most popular programs besides DriveDroid is - Android USB Tool. With this program, a bootable Android flash drive is created quickly and easily.

Sometimes there is a need to work with the Android mobile operating system on personal computer. This idea can be implemented using the VirtualBox program. This program is designed to run virtual machines running operating systems such as Windows, Linux, etc. The Android operating system is no exception.

What do you need to install Android on your computer?

To install Android on your computer you need to download 2 files:

VirtualBox. The latest version can be downloaded.
Disk image Android x86 4.2 or another version. You can download.

After this, you need to install VirtualBox on your computer.

Creating a virtual machine and installing Android

Open VirtualBox program and in the menu press the button Create. As a result, the creation wizard will start virtual machine. Enter the name of the virtual machine, type - Linux and version - Other Linux.

Volume RAM– minimum 512 MB
Hard drive – minimum 1 GB

On the next screen select Create/Modify Partition

Then we create the main one boot partition. To do this, select the item New, after him Primary, Bootable And Write. After creating the section, select the item Quit.

Now we see that the section you created has appeared at the top of the list. You need to select it and click OK.

After this, you will be asked to select a file system to format the partition. Choose ext3 . At the end of the formatting process, a window will appear asking you to install the GRUB boot loader. Choose Yes. We also agree to the proposal to install the system directory in read/write mode.

After completing the above steps, the process of installing Android on your virtual machine will begin. After it is finished, you can extract the image installation disk and reboot the virtual machine. Now you can download Android 4.2.2.

First launch after installation

After loading Android, you need to select the default language.

Menu items are controlled using the mouse. If the mouse cursor is not visible, you need to go to VirtualBox in the menu item Car choose Turn off mouse integration. After this, the cursor should appear, but to release the cursor from the virtual machine window you need to press the host key (right Ctrl by default).

That's all. Now you can work with Android on your computer.

The popularity of the Android operating system is growing every day, which is explained by the availability of unique content from Google Play, a large number interesting applications, games, high performance systems and a minimum number of malicious objects that are written specifically for this OS. Therefore, users often ask the question: how to install Android on a PC without losing the data of the second system?

Preparing your computer for installing Android OS

Before you install Android on your computer, you need to create a boot disk. To do this, download from this section any suitable software, for example Alcohol 120%, DAEMON Tools or UltraISO and install it on your PC.

Now download any version of Android OS that you want to install.

After downloading installation file launch the software to create boot disk. IN in this example will be the UltraISO used. Launch the program, click “File”, “New”, “CD/DVD image with data”. Add the file and click Write.

If your PC has one hard drive, you need to create a separate partition on the HDD. To do this, you can use Acronis Disc Director Suite or download MiniTool Partition Wizard.

Launch Acronis Disc Director Suite, select the disk on which the new OS will be installed and click “Create partition”.

A new window will open. Enter the name of the section, then select “File system”, click “Create as” logical drive, indicate the disk size and click “OK”.

The section has been created.

Installing Android OS on a computer

Reboot the PC and go into the BIOS by clicking F2 or Del a couple of times. Let's move on to Boot section and choose Boot Device Priority. A list with options will appear boot devices. Select your drive.

In the next dialog box, the system will prompt you to select a partition to boot. Typically this will be sda1 and sda2. Select the first one if you made a partition on drive C.

Now you need to select the file system type. For Android, ext2 and ext3 are acceptable. A type such as NTFS is not supported by the OS, and FAT32 is not recommended.

After selecting the file system type, you must accept a special bootloader. Without which Android will not boot. Click “Yes” and click “Enter”.

After OS determine installed version system, and will also offer to integrate a universal bootloader for both OSes. Click “Yes”, since this operation is very important. With its help, you can select the desired system at the start of your computer.

The system installation process will begin.

Upon completion, the system will offer to launch Android on your PC.

If all actions are performed correctly, problems with system performance should not arise.

Android bootable flash drive for PC

Google, which owns the Android trademark, freely distributes its product among manufacturers of modern gadgets. Therefore, this operating system can be found both on budget Chinese devices and on expensive flagships. Thanks to this, the possibilities of Android are almost limitless.

You can install the operating system on your computer using your phone or tablet as a bootable USB flash drive. The most popular program for creating a bootable Android flash drive is DriveDroid, which complements the functionality of the device.

DriveDroid supports ISO and IMG files and emulates a USB flash drive or CD based on your need. Using a flash drive emulator you can load IMG files and most Linux distributions, and CD emulation allows you to load any ISO files. DriveDroid is also necessary if you need to restore your computer, but there is no way to do this from the PC itself. You can format your hard drive, restore files and perform other important operations.

What do you need to create a bootable USB flash drive for Android?

The DriveDroid application is suitable for users who have experience or have ever encountered installing an operating system on a computer. To use the program you will need:

operating system Android 2.3 or higher
sufficient free memory on the device to transfer the required image. Preferably 0.3 gigabytes larger than the size of the image itself
battery charge at least fifty percent
access to root rights on the device. The owner of the gadget assumes responsibility for all actions involving superuser rights. Since if they are used incorrectly, the consequences can be irreversible

Before you start working with superuser rights, we recommend that you do backup data from the device. Read about how to do this correctly in our article - How to make a backup Android.

How to create a bootable USB flash drive on Android?

A bootable Android flash drive is easy to create. Follow the instructions:

Install the application on your smartphone DriveDroid
Then run it and allow access to root rights
Install on your computer Ultra ISO(if it doesn't exist)
In DriveDroid, click on the plus in the top panel. Next select Create blank image
In the menu that opens, set the required amount of memory for the image and the name of the operating system. In the bottom field, specify the FAT file system
Check the box in the upper right corner
After this, the created image will appear in the menu of the application itself with the name you selected
When you click on the created image, a window will open in which you need to select the upper left USB read/write icon
Connect your device to your computer using a USB cable
On your computer go to UltraISO
In the menu " File» press « Open" and select the folder in which the created image is located
Select "" in the top menu. In the menu that opens - “ Burn a hard disk image»
In the menu that opens, you need to specify the Android device that was used as a bootable flash drive
then select the recording method - USB-HDD+ and press the " Write down»

The Android mobile operating system is most often used by smartphones and tablets, but no one forbids installing Android on a flash drive and running it on a personal computer and laptop.

In this article, we will tell you how to install Android on a flash drive so that you can run it on your computer.

By installing Android on a flash drive, you will be able to run two operating systems on your computer: Android and main Windows OS.

What is needed:

USB flash drive.
4 GB of free memory on a flash drive.
Android-x86 5.0.2 Lollipop ISO image. You can download it.
Universal USB Installer Tool USB Installer to create bootable usb flash drive. You can download the program from this link.

Installing Android on a USB flash drive

Step 1: Using the Universal USB Installer Tool USB Installer, you must create a bootable USB flash drive from the ISO image you downloaded earlier.

Open Universal USB Installer Tool USB Installer. Next, you need to select Android from the drop-down menu. Then find Android file x86 ISO and select the USB flash drive, then click the Create button.

Step 2: After that, restart your computer or laptop and select the USB flash drive as the boot drive. (Select USB flash drive in BIOS settings).

Step 3: Now when the menu appears, simply select "Install Android x86 on external hard disk". You can also run Android as a Live CD, which means that any changes made will not be saved. But, if you install Android on a USB flash drive or hard drive, then any changes you make will be saved when you boot into Android.

Step 4: Select the appropriate external hard section disk for Android installations. As you can see in the image below, "sdb1 win95 FAT32 v220w" is the flash drive partition.

Step 5: Next you will receive several messages that ask for permission to install GRUB bootloader. Confirm all requests.

Step 6: You will receive another message that asks you to make a /r/w system. Click Yes.

Step 7: After this, you will receive another prompt to install the virtual SD card. Enter 2048 MB of available memory.

Step 8: You can now restart your computer. After rebooting, you will be able to choose either Android download system (you will need to insert a USB flash drive) or boot Windows.

That's all! Congratulations! You have successfully installed Android on a USB flash drive. Enjoy one of the latest Android versions on the computer.