Tip: you can also use Rufus to format a USB drive in FAT32, which isn’t possible with the regular 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 whose file systems have been reformatted, enabling it to install an entire operating system. The bootable USB drive folder can be viewed in a File Explorer window and contains various setup files and preloaded commands. You can’t use a bootable USB to store normal text, image, music or video files unless you reformat it. It is very difficult to find a CD/DVD ROM nowadays, so most people prefer to use a bootable USB drive instead to install an operating system or software edition. They’re lightweight and you can create clone images of bootable USB drives, which makes the data indestructible.
Use Rufus to Create a Bootable USB Drive
Note: This tutorial assumes you already have the ISO file. If you don’t have the ISO file, you can download it from the developer website. Also, make sure the USB drive you are using is at least 8GB and that it has no important data in it.
Good to know: Facing the exasperating infinite reboot loop problem in Windows? We show you how to fix it.
As you can see, it is pretty easy to create a bootable USB drive using Rufus. No matter how complicated the operating system/software edition is, Rufus will convert it into a usable drive, provided the drive has enough space.
Tip: did you get a “Windows detected a hard disk problem” on your PC? Here’s what to do about it.
Image Credit: Pexels. All screenshots by Sayak Boral.
Windows has a ton of other software programs to help you create bootable USB drives. Even Microsoft has its own tools that allow you to create a Windows installation media on a USB drive.
