I want to create a USB Flash drive that would allow me to restore my backup image, stored on the same USB Flash Drive, in case my computer becomes unbootable, but in addition to that, I want the same USB Flash drive to contain boot-able/useable Windows 8.1 installation. That way I will have both. Please let me know if such a thing is possible and how I would go about making it happen. I am an advanced user and can easily learn, follow instructions, but I am not knowledgeable in WinPE, ADK, AIK environments and such. I would need a step-by-step guide. I recall someone has provided me with some info regarding creating such a USB flash drive - an ultimate boot-able USB flash drive that could load whatever application I would pick, be it Windows 8.1 setup or Acronis True Image 2015. I only care for UEFI mode! I actually have a boot-able Windows 8.1 Pro installation for UEFI Mode. I then used ATI2015 Rescue Media Builder, which simply dumped "Recovery Manager" folder in the midst of Windows 8.1 Pro installation folders. I will try to boot from this USB, but something tells me that Windows 8.1 Setup will boot, but ATI2015 will not... FYI: I will be using a very fast USB 3.0 64GB flash drive from SanDisk.
YUMI can do what you what to do easily. Run it for every ISO/boot cd you want on your USB. Its pretty easy to use. Another way is to use GRUB to boot different ISOs.
You could just add entries to the BCD to boot different Wim files. \Boot\BCD is for legacy/bios \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD is for UEFI When I boot my key in legacy I get options to boot WinPE (32 or 64bit) & Win81SE 64bit (has Acronis). In UEFI it's 64bit WinPE & Win81SE.
I don't always get the ISO for an image. For example, Acronis just formats the drive in some special way that makes it bootable. Would simply copying & pasting all the files suffice or are there some hidden files or some special formatting that would not be pasted? Like, I remember back with Windows 98 boot files, simple copy and paste job does not do the trick. You have to use the USB tool from HP. Another example of Rufus! Does it simply extract all the files of the ISO onto the USB drive and calls it a day? No, it creates some kind of sub-partitions GPT/MBR Legacy UEFI, hidden folders, etc. I may be wrong - I do not know what it does, but I don't think a simple copy & paste would work. Could someone please explain?!
once the USB device is made bootable, you can add or remove at will. The device will stay bootable as long as you don't mess with its MBR. e.g. You use rufus to make it bootable with any iso you choose. After you that, you can format it in windows "quick" and then extract another iso to it and it would remain bootable. Another example would be simply deleting everything on it and extracting another iso to it, that would also retain its boot capacity.