How to Make a Bootable USB Flash Drive? Using with 3 Method!

January 05, 2023 ・0 comments ・Topic： Computer

Hello!

Dear friends, my name is ARYA. Today I am going to show you! How to make a bootable USB Flash Drive.

How to Make a Bootable USB Flash Drive.

Bootable USB drives work similarly to the legacy floppy disk drive (FDD) boot. It provides an alternative way to repair, recover, or install an operating system. You'd need a legitimate bootable USB drive to connect to the PC to perform a USB boot.

A bootable USB drive is a USB drive that allows you to use the file system stored in a flash drive to boot the computer rather than using hardware. A bootable USB drive has a lot of benefits. The most common use is to install and run operating systems such as Windows and macOS.

Method 1 - Command-Prompt

Bootable USB is a disk that is used to boot up a system for the installation of an Operating System. A USB can be made bootable using a command line only for systems that have Windows(7/8/8.1/10) operating systems. Linux Distributions can’t be used to create a bootable USB device without using third-party tools. Early versions of Windows i.e. before Windows 7, can’t be used for making a USB bootable.

Command-prompt in Windows is easily available in all versions of Windows. Creating a bootable USB using a command prompt is quite an easier task. You can follow the steps given below in order to make your USB bootable.

Steps to Create a Bootable USB Using CMD:

Connect the USB device to the computer that is to be made bootable.
Search for cmd in Start menu, right-click on the command prompt, click on Run as Administrator.
Type the command ‘diskpart’ and then press Enter.
Type the command ‘list disk’ to display a list of all the available storage devices on your system. Press Enter to continue.
Select the disk that is your pen drive. Generally, it is marked as Disk 1, it might vary system to system. Make sure not to select any other available disk as it will get formatted. To choose the disk, type the command ‘select disk 1’ and press Enter.
To make a pendrive bootable, there is a need to format it to clean the existing data. This can be done by the use of ‘clean’ command.
Type the command ‘create partition primary’ and press Enter. This will make the disk primary and ready to be made bootable.
To choose the partition created as primary, type the command ‘select partition 1’ and press Enter.
Before making the disk bootable, there is a need to format it as NTFS because Windows uses NTFS file system for storage. This can be done with the use of command ‘format=fs NTFS’ and press Enter.
Type the command ‘active’ and press Enter. This will mark the primary bootable partition as Active.
Type the command ‘exit’ to exit DISKPART and press Enter.

Now copy all the data from the OS(Windows/Linux/etc.) installation disk to your USB drive that is just been made bootable.

Now, this Pendrive can be used to install the desired Operating System on any computer.

Method 2 - Rufus

Rufus is a utility that helps format and create bootable USB flash drives, such as USB keys/pen drives, memory sticks, etc.

It can be especially useful for cases where:

you need to create USB installation media from bootable ISOs (Windows, Linux, UEFI, etc.)
you need to work on a system that doesn't have an OS installed
you need to flash a BIOS or other firmware from DOS
you want to run a low-level utility

Despite its small size, Rufus provides everything you need!

Oh, and Rufus is fast. For instance, it's about twice as fast as UNetbootin, Universal USB Installer, or Windows 7 USB download tool, on the creation of a Windows 7 USB installation drive from an ISO. It is also marginally faster in the creation of Linux bootable USB from ISOs.

A non-exhaustive list of Rufus-supported ISOs is also provided at the bottom of this page.

Steps to Create a Bootable USB Using Rufus:

Open up Rufus and plug your clean USB stick into your computer.
Rufus will automatically detect your USB. Click on Device and choose the USB you want to use from the drop-down menu.
Make sure the Boot Selection option is set to Disk or ISO image then click Select. Rufus will open a file explorer browser window; locate the ISO image you want to burn onto the USB and select it.

Method 3 - Ventoy

Do you want to run multiple operating systems from a single USB stick? Perhaps boot into a live environment or even install the operating system? Learning how to boot from USB is easier than you'd think!

Multiboot USB drives can host live Linux distributions and installation media for Windows. That is, small operating systems explicitly designed to provide maintenance to a computer from outside of the computer's operating system.

This article will look at several free Windows programs that can create dual-boot and multiboot USB media. Be sure to use a high-quality USB drive, preferably one that's larger than 8GB.

About Ventoy Subscription Service

Ventoy is open-source software under GPLv3 license.

But the Ventoy project needs to pay for the server hosting, domain name, bandwidth, many USB sticks for test, large capacity of HDD (for downloading ISO files) and so on.

Steps to Create a Bootable USB Using Ventoy:

Open and unzip the downloaded file.
If you're using a 32-bit or 32-bit compatible x86 processor, open the Ventoy2Disk.exe app inside the unzipped folder.
If you're using a 64-bit x86 processor, a 32-bit ARM processor, or a 64-bit ARM processor, you have to go inside the altexe folder, copy the applicable install file back onto the main folder, and then open it from there.
In the Ventoy2Disk window, under the Device dropdown menu, select the correct removable drive where you want to install your multiboot USB. Important: Ensure the drive you chose is empty because Ventoy will erase its contents and format it.
Click on the Options menu and ensure that Secure Boot Support is checked. You can also look for the lock icon on the left of the Ventoy In Package version number to ensure that secure boot support is activated. This action digitally signs your boot drive so modern, more secure systems will read your boot drive as valid.
Once you're ready to format your USB drive, click on Install.
A Warning window will pop up, asking you if you want to continue. Select Yes.
The app will open another Warning window confirming if you want to reformat the drive. Click on Yes.
Once the formatting completes, an Info window will appear congratulating you for a successful install. Click OK.

This simple process lets you boot off multiple ISO files from a single drive. You're not limited to two, three, or even four different boot drives. As long as you can fit the image files in your thumb drive, you can have as many as you want.

How to Make a Bootable USB Flash Drive.

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