Most of the readers must not be very familiar with this topic, and it’s ok not to be, after all, there’s always a first time for everything. It’s a necessary tool nowadays, and all you need to do is, read all the information provided below about How to make a USB Bootable. Still, we need first to understand what a bootable USB drive is and why is it necessary?
Bootable USB drive
A bootable USB drive is any random USB drive that contains a picture of a specific bootable operating system. The condition is that these images should have a particular file extension .IMG, .DMG etc. and it is more of use when there is no CD/DVD-ROM. Before reading about How To Make A USB Bootable lets read about uses of a bootable USB drive: –
- Such bootable USB drives are mostly used to install or repair damaged, or virus attacked operating systems like Windows, Linux, Unix etc.
- It is also used sometimes to start an app outside the operating system.
- Before installing, different Linux distros can be tried.
- Administrative level system tasks can be performed like wipe formatting and disk partitioning etc.
- Viruses and several other malware can be removed by using a bootable disk.
- If formatted the hard drive by mistake, you can quickly get it recovered by using a bootable disk.
- If you forgot your system password, you could recover it using bootable USB.
- It is also used to recover a PC which is not running currently.
Converting Pen drive into Bootable drive
Having a bootable USB drive is great, after all, it provides so many benefits, and there are no disadvantages to that. Though you can get a pocket-friendly bootable USB drive from the market, imagine if you can convert your usual USB into a bootable one. You can convert a pen drive into a Bootable USB in many ways. Some of the ways of How To Make A USB Bootable are mentioned below.
The Easy Way To How To Make A USB Bootable
The following steps will tell you how you can change your drive into a bootable one.
- First of all, you need to insert a USB flash drive in a computer, required that the computer is working correctly.
- Then as an administrator, open a command prompt window pop up on the screen.
- In the window, type Diskpart.
- When a new command line window opens up, we need to determine the USB flash drive number also known as a drive letter, for that, type “list disk” at the command prompt, and then press ENTER. Now what the list disk command does is, it displays all the disks in your system. Now keep in mind what the drive letters of the USB drive were.
- Now as the command prompt opens, type select disk <X>, where X represents the drive number or the specific drive letter the USB flash drive has, then click ENTER.
- Then in the typing bar, type clean and press ENTER. As soon as the command is given, all the data from the USB will be deleted.
- Now, you need to create a new primary partition in the USB flash drive, for that, type “create primary partition”, and then press ENTER.
- To visit the partition you created recently, type “select partition 1”, and then again press ENTER.
- You also have an option to format the partition, for that type “format fs=ntfs quick” and then press ENTER.
Then after completing the above steps, you need to do the following few more steps to complete the process: –
- Type active in the typing bar, and then click ENTER.
- Then type “exit” and after pressing enter, the work is done.
- When you are finished preparing your custom image, save it in the root of USB.
Note: After booting the pen drive if you want to use it as a normal one, only quick format it as Fat32.
How To Make A USB Bootable Using The Universal USB Installer
The following steps can be used in Windows XP, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10.
- Go to the store and type “universal USB installer” in the search bar. You’ll get the software quickly. Download the 1 MB installer tool.
- Go to the downloads section of your laptop or computer and click on the latest download Universal USB Installer.exe.
- It will open up and after reading all the information and instructions, click on “I agree”.
- Now with the software window open, install your usual USB in your system, and you’ll get a variety of options for operating systems. Select the one you wish to make bootable USB for.
- In the next step, you need to browse for the required iso file for the operating system.
- A USB option will show up where you need to select the USB you plugged in, the one in you want to make bootable. You can do this by selecting the option “show all drives” and choose your USB.
- Now you need to search for a box with “FAT32” written on it and click on create.
- Now you need to wait for the process to complete. It will start as soon as you click on “create”. As soon as the process is complete, your USB will be converted into a bootable USB drive.
How To Make A USB Bootable Using RUFUS
Just like a universal USB installer, it will also work for Windows XP, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10.
- First of all, you have to download RUFUS. Directly type “RUFUS” in the search bar of your browser or click on this link https://rufus.ie/downloads/.
- After downloading, please install it using Rufus installer.exe. After the installation, it’s ready to use.
- As soon as the installation completes, insert your USB in your system.
- Just like the previous software, open the RUFUS installer and select your required ISO file.
- Select the required specifications according to your needs and then click on create.
- This will start processing, and after the completion, your USB will be turned into a bootable USB drive.
How To Make A USB Bootable Using The Power ISO
Like the above two, power ISO is also fit for windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10.
- As is evident by the title, you need to open the power iso in your system.
- Then plug in the USB drive in which you want to install windows.
- When you see the menu, select “tools” and further select “Create Bootable USB Drive”. It will open up, although, if you are using Windows VISTA you do need to confirm the dialogue box first to continue the process.
- Then a folder will show up, click the folder type icon button so that it will open the ISO file for the windows.
- Look for the “Destination USB drive” option and from there, choose your USB drive.
- Then to start the process of creating the USB drive bootable, click on the “start” button.
- If an alert window pops up, saying all the data will be formatted, click on ok.
- After the process is completed, restart the computer or laptop.
How To Make A USB Bootable From An Image On MAC
Yes, you can also convert an image (these steps are particularly for the MAC users) into a bootable USB drive and there are some straightforward steps to do so. It would be best if you made sure that the file extension of the image should be IMG or IOS. Then you need to follow the following steps: –
- Select an image specifically with the extension .IMG, .DMG or .DSO
- Then you need to download Etcher. Etcher is a free and highly recommended tool that is used to create bootable devices from the image on the MAC system.
- You can type “download Etcher” in the search bar of your browser or click on the link provided here https://www.balena.io/etcher
- Now the most critical and common step. You take the USB drive which you wish to make bootable and insert it in the computer or whatever system you are using.
NOTE: This process deletes all the data present in the USB drive and if you don’t want to lose all the previous data, then keep in mind to back up all the critical data.
- Now, after inserting the USB, install the etcher app and click on the “insert image” option and then insert the required image from your system.
- Then have a look at the flash drive. Sometimes the app has a pre-selected drive, and you need to change that. So, fill it accordingly.
- Now, click on the “flash” button to start the booting process, when the process will be completed, you will see a window with a “success” message on the screen.
- Then select the eject option for the USB to get a safe exit, and your Bootable USB drive is ready.
After reading How To Make A USB Bootable and before proceeding further, we need to keep in mind some key points that’ll be indeed very important and helpful throughout the process of booting a USB device.
- Suppose you are a beginner with computers. In that case, you must understand that USB can be inserted in a specific rectangular cavity in the laptop or computer and inserting it in the wrong area can damage the system’s hardware or the USB.
- Also, maximum USB drives can be inserted only by one way and forcing it through another way will damage the hardware cavity.
- Never directly eject the USB out of the system without ejecting it virtually from the system as it can sometimes erase the material of the drive. So always remember to eject it from the screen and then do it practically.
- Sometimes it isn’t easy to find the images in the system. The recently downloaded images are found in the download folder of the computer or laptop. And if you are not able to find the download folder, type “downloads” in the search bar near the start menu.
Related Questions: –
- How To Make A USB Bootable back to the usual one?This is the most frequently asked question but with the most straightforward answer. You can do it with your bootable USB device and any system or laptop. Open your system and click on the start button, then open the RUN box, and in the Run box, type “diskmgmt.msc” and then click ENTER to start the Disk Management Tool. Then you will see “bootable drive” written and right-click on it and select “FORMAT”. Then keep on clicking the NEXT button and then click on “FINISH”. By following these simple steps, you can convert your Bootable USB into a normal one.
- Can a bootable USB be made for android?
One of the most wondered questions, and with a straightforward answer. Let’s start with the essential thing if the readers don’t know, ANDROID is also an operating system, but it is mostly used in phones. And yes, the android phone can be turned into Bootable Linux. You can do this with a useful utility “DriveDroid” which will let you boot your system directly with a USB using any ISO or IMG file present inside your android. Here, you don’t need to use any flash drives or anything. All you need is your android phone or a tablet with an Android operating system. So, by following the above easy steps, the android can be converted into bootable USB.
- How to know if the USB is bootable or not?
If you are converting your USB into a Bootable USB drive, then before starting the process, the first thing to know is whether the device is bootable or not. There is an effortless way to check this. It can be done with MobaLiveCD. It’s an emulation software wrapped- for-the-qemu-system. Now what this software does is, it runs an ad-hoc virtual machine and then it actually attempts to boot the USB you plucked in, so basically there’s no specific test to do this, but attempting booting will give the required results. Hence, it’s a robust way to check whether the drive is bootable or not.
- What is UEFI boot mode?
The UEFI stands for unified extensible firmware interface, and it is a minimal operating system that runs above the system’s firmware. And it performs a lot more work than BIOS (Basic Input Output System). The motherboard of the computer contains flash memory where it may be stored. It can also be loaded from the system’s hard drive or network share. The different PCs that have UEFI features also have different interfaces and different kinds of features.
- Do windows 10 require UEFI?
When I got aware of UEFI, the most wondered question would be if Windows 10 requires UEFI or not. Well, the straight forward answer is “NO”. It is not necessary to enable UEFI to let the Windows 10 run. Windows 10 is a smart OS which is entirely compatible with both BIOS (basic input-output system) and UEFI. However, if we talk about the shortage device, UEFI can be used. So, you don’t specifically need to get UEFI for your windows 10, and it’ll work as best without it.
The article above gave a detailed explanation about all the information related to How To Make A USB Bootable . Other important information like how to convert a usual USB drive into a bootable USB is also given here. The article covers explicitly related questions and information regarding the booting process.