USB Installation Media Creation

Written By: Nick
  • Comments: 2
USB Installation Media Creation

Difficulty

Easy

Steps

4

Time Required

30 minutes - 2 hours

Introduction

If you are unsure how to write an ISO to a USB flash drive, this guide will show you how to use Rufus. Many modern systems do not include an internal optical drive and require a USB flash drive to boot unless you use a USB optical drive. This is especially common on modern laptops as well as some desktops where it is an option and is not standard. In many cases, using a USB drive is a more practical workaround for these systems.

Unless your application REQUIRES a DVD, it is generally better to use a USB flash drive that is at least 16-32GB*.

*An 8GB drive can often be used but you will be cramped on spare drive space for things like files, drivers, and Linux NF firmware. 8GB drives are generally no longer sold today but may still be sold in bulk as disposable items. Most of these are no-name drives. If you own it, use it; but the minimum I would recommend is 16-32GB, with 32GB being the current recommendation as they cost $10 or less on average now, 16GB drives aren't that much less (~$1-2 cheaper average).

READ: Important note about legacy operating systems.

Important: OSes without USB boot support are not guaranteed to work. While the risk of a problem is low, results outside of Linux and modern Windows releases are NOT GUARANTEED.

This guide was originally written just for Linux. However, it can be used with any operating system that supports USB boot and is not tied to one specific operating system in practice. Since these operating systems can create unforeseen issues I cannot easily figure out. You are on your own with these issues.

Guide notes

  • If you have a used USB drive, format it outside of Rufus before use.
  • This guide is on Revision 3. If you are using Rufus 2.x, refer to Revision 2.

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    • THIS PROCEDURE WILL ERASE YOUR USB DRIVE! IF POSSIBLE, USE A NEW USB DRIVE.

    • If you are reusing an old drive, format it first!

    • To write the ISO, download Rufus. Place this somewhere it is easily found.

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    • Torrent clients require additional configuration NOT COVERED in this guide.

    • After downloading Rufus, download the ISO you want to write to the USB drive.

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    • Default download location: Windows 7/8.x/10: Downloads

    • Plug the USB drive in and select the ISO you want to use.

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    • If your system has a buggy legacy BIOS, click on "Add fixes for older BIOSes".

    • Open Rufus and click SELECT. Find the ISO and click Open.

    • Rufus will ask you to choose ISO or DD mode. If unsure, choose ISO mode.

    • After configuring the writing process, click start. Click OK on the formatting warning.

Author

Nick

Member since: 11/11/09

88431 Reputation

2 comments

Unetbootin does not work anymore and is considered unstable to use when installing any Linux OS, also 4GB USB drives are more than big enough to get the job done

Will Unknown -

My reasoning for saying 8GB is because 4GB sticks are all but nonexistent (8GB is more popular now), but if you already own the 4GB stick then it'll work. I even use one from 2006 in the guide, to show that reuse is possible.

Oh really? I always thought it was still a usable option - thanks for letting me know that I was wrong.

Nick -