The following steps show how to use Rufus to quickly create a bootable flash drive in Windows. Of all the tools available, Rufus, a free and open source application, is one of the best. In fact, Rufus is one of the few necessary tools that every Windows user should have in their software catalog.
advice: You can also use Rufus to format a USB drive in FAT32, which is not possible with the standard formatting tool in Windows 10 and 11.
What is a bootable USB?
A bootable USB drive (or “Live USB”) refers to any USB hardware device that has had its file systems reformatted, allowing it to install an entire operating system. The bootable USB drive folder can be viewed in the File Explorer window and contains various configuration files and preloaded commands. You cannot use a bootable USB to store regular text, image, music or video files unless you reformat it.
CD/DVD ROM is very hard to find these days, so most people prefer to use a bootable USB drive instead of installing an operating system or software release. They are lightweight and bootable USB drives can be cloned, making the data indestructible.
Use Rufus to create a bootable USB drive
- Download Rufus If you haven’t already. Scroll down the page to where you can select the latest updated links or any older version. Along with a regular installer, Rufus also comes in a portable version. Download the portable version if you don’t want to install Rufus on your system. In this case, we download the mobile version. After downloading the .EXE file, install and open Rufus.
- You will receive a notification asking if you would like to allow Rufus to search the web for updates. Click “Yes” to continue.
- Plug in the USB drive to instantly see it in Rufus’ top drop-down menu. Once you see the drive, click the “Select” button.
- In the Browse window menu, locate the folder where you stored your ISO file. Select it and click the “Open” button. In this case, since we wanted to create a Linux Mint bootable USB drive, we choose the ISO.
note: This guide assumes you already have the ISO file. If you don’t have the ISO file, you can download it from the developer site. Also, make sure the USB drive you are using is at least 8GB and has no important data on it.
- Optional: Click the small “Check” icon next to the “Boot Selection” drop-down menu to calculate and see the MD5, SHA1, and SHA256 checksums of the ISO file. This is used to verify if the ISO file has been handled before.
- Wait a few seconds for the calculation to finish.
good to know: Facing the annoying endless boot loop problem in Windows? We show you how to fix it.
- If no red flags appear, it means the operating system/software edition is safe to use on your PC.
- Back to the main process, select “MBR” from the “Partition Scheme” drop-down menu and “BIOS or UEFI” from the “Target System” drop-down menu. If you are trying to use this bootable USB drive on an older system, select the “Add patches for older BIOSes” checkbox in the “Advanced Drive Properties” section.
- Optional: Rename the USB drive using the “Volume Label” field. Also, under “Advanced Format Options”, make sure the “Quick Format” checkbox is selected. As the name suggests, Quick Format formats the drive quickly by skipping the marking of bad sectors.
- Click the “Start” button.
- Depending on the ISO file, Rufus may ask you to download additional files. For example, to create a bootable Linux Mint drive, Rufus asks you to replace a file named “vesamenu.c32” as shown here. Click the “Yes” button, and Rufus will take care of everything.
- In the next prompt, select the recommended option “Write in ISO image mode” and click the “OK” button (if it appears on your screen).
- Once you start the formatting process, you will receive a warning that all data on the device will be destroyed. Don’t worry, as you can restore the data later, so click “OK”. If you want to use the USB drive again for data storage, follow the steps in this guide.
- As soon as you click the button, Rufus starts creating the bootable USB drive. Depending on your USB drive, it can take a few seconds or minutes to complete the creation process.
- When you’re done, you won’t see a completion message but you’ll hear a completion sound, and the progress bar will turn solid green.
- From Windows 11 or Windows 10 File Explorer, check if a new boot drive has been created.
As you can see, it’s pretty easy to create a bootable USB drive using Rufus. No matter how complicated the operating system/software edition is, Rufus will convert it to a usable drive, provided the drive has enough space.
advice: Have you received the message “Windows has detected a problem with the hard disk” on your computer? Here’s what to do about it.
Common questions
Is Rufus safe to use?
Rufus is an extremely safe software application, as it is completely free of malware, adware, or bundled software, making it a top recommended program for creating bootable USB drives. Its mobile version doesn’t even require installation on your device.
Is Rufus available on Linux or Mac?
Unfortunately, Linux is only available with Windows. It doesn’t support Linux or Mac, but these Rufus alternatives do: BalenaEtcher (Windows, macOS, Linux), ISO power (Windows, macOS, Linux), and and italic (Windows, Linux).
Windows has lots of other software to help you create bootable USB drives. Even Microsoft has its own tools which allow you to create Windows installation media on a USB drive.
Why is the bootable USB with Rufus not working?
If the bootable USB created with Rufus fails to boot properly, it means that the boot mode (UEFI or legacy BIOS) of your USB drive may be different from that of the computer where you are installing the operating system. Converting legacy BIOS to UEFI is the best way to ensure a successful boot.
Image credit: Paxels. All screenshots by Sayak Boral.
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