Before, when we want to make the ISO installer bootable, we burn it to CD/DVD. But today when all the laptop manufacturers started to make a thin laptops like the ultrabook, which they remove the CD ROM drive to fill all the components, having an installer on a CD is not an option.
Although you can use the external CD ROM drive to install using the CD, it is better to use a USB stick directly as a bootable device will you can easily plug in to any computer that has a USB port.
Read Also: How to Erase or Format Write protected USB stick or SD Card
But how to make USB bootable? In this article you will learn it the easy way, as always. We will use a free software called Rufus to create our bootable USB. Rufus is a utility that can help you to create a bootable USB Flash Drive. Follow the steps below.
How to Create Bootable USB
NOTE: You can use this on any computer running Windows XP or later versions, I am using Windows 10 in this tutorial.
- Go to Rufus website and download the small executable file, less than 1mb in size. (https://rufus.akeo.ie/) Scroll down to see the download link.
- It is an executable file, no need to install. Double click the Rufus file that you downloaded, click “Yes” to confirm running Rufus on your computer.
- Rufus will now open, insert your Flash Drive or USB Stick, it will automatically detected by the software, you will see in the “Device” section. Now to add the ISO file that you want to create bootable, click the ISO Image icon, to find the file and attached it.
- Now it is ready to create your bootable USB, all you have to do is click the “Start” Button, All the files inside your USB stick will be erased when you check the “Quick Format” check box. Click “OK” to confirm.
- Wait until finish copying all the files in your USB stick, then click Close.
That’s it, you can now use your USB Stick to install (in my sample I created a Windows 7 bootable installer). All you have to do is change the boot sequence of your PC, make sure that Removable USB is on the first boot device.
You can also use Diskpart in MS-DOS to create bootable USB but, I think it’s more complicated to follow unlike using this small piece of executable file which you can create without typing any command.
Like this article? Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter or Like our Facebook fan page to get our latest updates.
More helpful tutorial from EfrenNolasco.com