Create bootable USB from ISO image with Rufus

If you want to reinstall operating system on your PC or laptop, you can install it from USB flash drive which is very easy and faster compare with optical drive like CD, or DVD.

Last time, I wrote an article about how to create bootable USB with UNetbootin which is a good tool, but there might be some issue with large image file (NTFS file system). So I’m going to recommend another tool which works great and have no problem . It is Rufus.

Rufus is a free software (GNU GPLv3) that can format and create bootable USB flash drives. It can create USB installation media from bootable ISOs (Windows, Linux, UEFI, Hiren’s, etc.). It works only on Windows, but you can use it to create any bootable operating system. It also has full support on UEFI and GPT.

Requirement

  1. ISO image file (Windows, Linux, etc).
  2. An USB flash drive

In this article, I will show how to make my USB flash drive, SanDisk Cruzer Fit (8 GB), bootable using Windows 8.1 installation ISO image with Rufus.

Watch on YouTube

Step-by-step

  1. Download Rufus from https://rufus.akeo.ie and scroll down to download section and click on Rufus to download.
    Download Rufus
  2. You don’t need to install Rufus, just run the downloaded file to open Rufus and follow steps below:
    1. Select your USB flash drive from the drop-down option Device. In this example, I have my USB flash drive, SanDisk Cruzer Fit (8 GB), connected on ‘F’ drive.
    2. Make sure that the check box Create a bootable disk using is checked.
    3. Select ISO Image from the drop down option.
    4. Click an icon next to the drop-down option to browse an ISO image file.

    Open Rufus and select ISO image file

  3. Browse to an ISO image and click Open.
    Browse to ISO image on Rufus
  4. Click Start to begin.
    Start creating bootable USB on Rufus
  5. You will be asked to confirm that all data on selected USB device will be deleted. Click OK to continue.
    Confirm start on Rufus
  6. Wait for Rufus copying files to USB drive. In this example, it took about 20 minutes to create bootable USB from Windows 8.1 installation DVD (4 GB).
    Copying files to USB flash drive on Rufus
  7. Now my SanDisk USB flash drive is bootable and I can use it to install Windows 8.1 on any computer that supports USB bootable.
    A bootable USB flash drive created by Rufus

3 Comments

  1. Steve September 24, 2016
  2. John October 17, 2017
  3. John October 17, 2017

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