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How to create a bootable USB flash drive using Rufus. Creating a bootable USB flash drive in Rufus

So you know for sure that without operating system your computer will not be able to work and perform all the tasks you have installed.

Fortunately, in most cases computer technology implemented with an installed operating system. For this reason, you can immediately start working on your PC after purchasing it.

However, not everyone is so lucky; sometimes computers can be implemented in trading network completely "empty". Take care of Windows installation in such cases the acquirer will have to.

Of course, you can use the help of friends who are knowledgeable and experienced in this matter, or you can install the operating system yourself.

If you have decided to take such a responsible step, we welcome your decision, but we point out that you must first have the media on which the recordings will be recorded. boot files OS.

A bootable USB flash drive via Rufus is ideal for solving such problems. If this is your first time performing such manipulations, you need instructions that will describe the entire process as scrupulously as possible, how to create a bootable Windows flash drive 7.

You can find a lot on the Internet interesting offers, using which you can download software, with the help of which it is created without special problems bootable flash drive.

However, each program comes with its own specific capabilities. Based on them, a certain circle of admirers of such a program is formed.

Currently, the Rufus program is widely popular, thanks to which it is possible to create quickly bootable media. Those who have not previously heard of such a program may hesitate, not understanding whether it is worth spending time getting to know Rufus and studying the instructions for creating a bootable flash drive.

Manufacturers claim that Rufus, as a program for creating bootable media, is a promising application because it supports any operating system.

It even allows you to create a bootable USB flash drive that can be used to flash the BIOS.

So, if you also decide to use unique opportunities Rufus program, figure out how to create a bootable USB flash drive for Windows 7, we recommend that you also decide which type of program you prefer to use.

The manufacturer offers desktop and portable software. The principle of their operation is the same; they differ from each other only in the folder in which the settings that you will make after launching the program are written.

Program settings

After you launch the utility, a small window will appear on the screen prompting you to carry out some actions related to making changes to the program settings.

If the window has foreign text, do not rush to be disappointed that nothing will be clear to you; it will be difficult to understand Rufus, how to create a bootable USB flash drive for Windows 10 or another OS.

WITH right side in the upper corner you will find an icon with the image globe. Click on it and you will have the opportunity to select the interface language you want.

Until you connect a USB flash drive to your PC, the first field called “Device” will remain empty.

Now it will be easier for you to work with the Russified utility.

Of course, since you have decided to create a bootable USB flash drive when help Rufus, connect your flash drive to the PC. Of course, we strongly recommend that you give preference to the media that has sufficient capacity.

After connecting the digital drive, the name of your flash drive will appear in the “Device” field, and its capacity parameters will also be indicated.

If suddenly you connected not one media, but several at once, then in this field you can open a list and select the media on the basis of which you will create a bootable flash drive after some manipulations.

Your next steps should be to fill out all the fields below.

In particular, in next line specify the partition scheme and system media type.

If you have BIOS installed on your PC, there will be only one partition scheme option - MBR. If your PC has UEFI installed, then you will have to choose between MBR and GRT.

Practice shows that in most cases, users choose MBR for both BIOS and UEFI.

After this, the utility will prompt you to select a file system. Since operating systems currently occupy more than 4 GB of space, it is recommended to select the NTFS option.

By the way, even if you unknowingly choose something different, don’t worry, the smart utility will correct your mistake and, after launch, will automatically change the file system to an acceptable option.

It’s better not to touch the “Cluster size” parameter, let it remain the “Default” option. The “New Volume Label” field can also be left unchanged if you don’t want to be creative in everything.

Essentially, this field provides a new name for your digital media so that you don't confuse it with anything else later.

There is still a whole section “Format Options” at the bottom, and in it there is one subsection “ Extra options" It’s better for you to leave him alone and move on to the next steps.

Recording to a USB flash drive Windows To Go

Please note that in the “Advanced Settings” subsection, one line “Windows To Go” may appear if Windows 8 is installed on your PC.

If you check the checkbox next to this item, you will be able to write to a flash drive via Rufus special version OS, in particular, Windows Enterprise - Windows To Go.

This is where we may have to disappoint you a little, since recording such a unique OS requires a special flash drive with a capacity of at least 32 GB. Even if you have such digital media with a large amount of memory, no one can guarantee that it will be suitable for such purposes.

We invite you to visit the official Microsoft website, where you can familiarize yourself with full list supported and recommended by flash drive developers, figure out whether your drive is suitable or not.

I would also like to warn you against a rash step, a technical temptation. If you use the Rufus utility when figuring out how to create a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 8.1 To Go, keep in mind that in most cases the utility fails with an error.

To avoid such an error, you need to use the program on a computer that already has the Windows 8.1 operating system installed.

And after you have managed to create such a bootable USB flash drive, you can use it on other PCs to install a new operating system.

Capturing a System Image in Rufus

So, we continue to delve into the details of how to burn Windows to a flash drive using Rufus.

Experienced users will confidently tell you that in most cases, to ensure maximum quality recordings use disk images.

We will not make an exception; we will download the ISO image from the Internet or from friends. Now opposite the “Create” option boot disk» select the ISO image option. Of course, the utility will need you to indicate to it the path where the OS image you previously downloaded was saved.

Click on the drive icon and specify the path. Now you have completed all the preparatory part of the work. There is a responsible part ahead, but one that practically does not require your participation.

The utility will warn you that it will have to format the media on which recording will be carried out. Of course, she will ask for your confirmation in order to exclude any accidents or erroneous actions.

After your confirmation, the recording will be carried out automatically, and the time will count down at the bottom of the window.

Upon completion, the word “Ready” will appear; all you have to do is close the utility window.

If you then open "Computer", there you will be able to visualize your successful completion of the creation tasks bootable media.

If you have been puzzling over how to create a bootable USB flash drive for Windows 10, then after reading these instructions, you will not only be able to figure out how to burn an ISO image, but you will also understand that the media you created will be easy to boot onto your PC, installing the version of the operating system that you have long dreamed of.

We believe that you will now be able to convince others that loading an OS is not such a troublesome task if you prepare for it technically and informationally.

Question that the program helps you answerRufus - how to create a bootable USB flash drive for Windows 7.

It occurs quite often among those users who may need to install a new operating system using a USB drive.

Rufus Features

The main difference between the Rufus program and most analogues is the ability to simple and quick recording bootable usb drive not only for computers with BIOS, but also for devices with a newer interface - UEFI.

In addition, using a flash drive created in the application, you can install Windows 7 (and other OS) on disks with both MBR and GPT partition styles (the latter option is used on hard drives larger than 1 TB), and without any problems create an installation drive for operating systems on Linux based, disks for system or password recovery, and even a flash drive key.

The same steps are performed in WinSetupFromUSB program, but it will take more time.

Features of work

In addition to the fact that the Rufus program provides the creation installation disk with Windows 7 and most other operating systems, its features include:

  • work even on computers without an installed operating system;
  • no installation required, which is not possible, for example, when using local account on a work computer;
  • the ability to identify problem sectors on flash drives, format and restore such drives that Windows cannot always handle;
  • the speed of writing information to the boot disk is approximately doubled compared to other applications;
  • There is only one menu screen, making it impossible to select unnecessary item. Although, due to this simplicity, the application is not capable of creating multiboot disks.

Using the program

The program interface is quite simple and understandable even for regular user.

And in order to start creating a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 7 using it, just insert the USB drive into the appropriate connector and launch Rufus.

  1. Devices. Here you need to check which USB drive Windows 7 is installed on. Basically, the installation drive is detected automatically, however, if another device is selected in the window, you should select the one you need from the list (Fig. 2).
  2. Section diagram (Fig. 3). For most computers, the MBR value is suitable for devices with BIOS or UEFI. However for hard drives larger than 2 TB, you should use the GPT option. Opportunity to work with UEFI interface makes it possible to install any modern operating system using a flash drive using full mode EFI (extensible firmware interface with more correct hardware initialization).
  3. File system (Fig. 4). NTFS is usually chosen here, since the average operating system image is larger than 4 GB in size. But, if the distribution takes up less space, you can set the value to FAT32. The section with cluster sizes can be skipped, leaving the default value.




Advice: For full support GPT and UEFI will need to use Windows Vista versions or later. So create a bootable one for these modes Windows disk 7, for example, with using Windows XP (which also supports Rufus) will not work.

ISO image. When you click on the triangle next to this item, a window should open in which you should find and select a disk image with Windows 7.

New volume label. Here you should only use English layout. The name is chosen at the discretion of the user.

If you do not change it, the bootable USB flash drive will be named the same as before.

After checking whether all items are selected correctly, taking into account the characteristics of your hard drive, you should click on the “Start” button and confirm your actions to create bootable media by clicking “OK”.

After some time (from 5 to 20 minutes, depending on the size of the image and system, the parameters of the flash drive and USB input), the application will complete its work and display a readiness message.

The free Rufus program is designed to create bootable USB drives. An operating system image recorded using the Rufus program can be used to install the operating system on a computer, restore the system, and perform other tasks.

The Rufus program runs on the Windows operating system, starting with Windows XP SP2 and higher. According to the program's manufacturer, Rufus creates Bootable USB drives with Windows and Linux is faster than many other well-known utilities that are used for these purposes.

On the Rufus developer site, you can look at the list of supported Windows ISO images, numerous Linux distributions, and other disk images.

According to the app's creator, Rufus utility it will be useful to use in following cases:

  • Creation Bootable USB drive from bootable ISO image(Windows, Linux, UEFI, etc.)
  • the need to work on computers that do not have an installed OS
  • you need to flash the BIOS or make another firmware from under DOS
  • you need to run a low-level utility

There are two versions of the program available for download: regular and portable (Rufus Portable). There is no difference between them, except that the settings regular version programs will be recorded in system registry, and after closing the portable version of the utility, the settings file will be saved next to it.

Therefore for more convenient use portable versions programs, it would be better to create special folder Rufus Portable, where you should place the file for the portable version of the Rufus program so that the application settings are in the same folder with executable file utilities.

When using the regular version of the program, if necessary, application keys from the registry can be deleted using the keyboard shortcut “Alt” + “R”.

Download Rufus program you can from the official website of the developer.

The Rufus program does not require installation on your computer; it can be run from any drive on your computer.

To start the program you will need to click on the “exe” file.

Rufus program settings

After launching the utility, the Rufus program window will open. On the right top corner There is an icon with which you can change the language of the program interface. Since, in this moment, not connected to the computer USB flash drives, then nothing is displayed in the “Devices” field.

IN in this case, this is USB Transcend drive 8 GB in size. Information about this will be displayed in the “Device” section. If several flash drives are connected to your computer at the same time, then in the “Device” field you will need to select a specific flash drive.

After this, you can go to the system image recording settings.

  • MBR for computers with BIOS or UEFI
  • MBR for computers with UEFI
  • GRT for computers with UEFI

This different variants that Rufus supports: regular BIOS or GUI UEFI options MBR partitions and GRT.

In most cases, the following option will do: MBR for computers with BIOS or UEFI. Other options are relevant for modern computers, and even then not for everyone.

  • FAT32 (default)
  • exFAT

You will need to take into account that if the image of the operating system being recorded is more than 4 GB in size, then you will need to select a file NTFS system. After adding a system image, the Rufus program itself changes the file system to the one that the utility considers necessary for recording this image.

Leave the Cluster Size field at its default value.

The New Volume Label field will display the name of the system image. You can replace the standard name of the system image with your own, for example, Windows 10, or something similar. In this case, when you connect the flash drive to the computer, you will immediately understand what exactly is written on this bootable flash drive.

In the “Format Options” section, you can see “Advanced Options” by clicking on the arrow button.

Recording to a USB flash drive Windows To Go

If your computer has Windows 8 or higher operating system installed, then when writing an image to a USB flash drive Windows systems 7 Enterprise, Windows 8.1 Enterprise, or Windows 10 Enterprise, a special “Windows To Go” item will appear in the Rufus program window.

If this item is activated, using the Rufus program, you can write to USB drive a special version of the Windows Enterprise operating system - Windows To Go, which can be launched from a flash drive.

To do this, you need special large-capacity flash drives, from 32 GB or more. Just keep in mind that not all flash drives are suitable for recording the system to a flash drive. List of some supported USB flash drives can be found on the Microsoft website.

The process of creating a portable version of Windows is not easy and is not always successful. According to the program developer, for creating Windows 8.1 To Go, recording the system to a flash drive in the Rufus program, must occur on a computer with the Windows 8.1 operating system installed, this also applies to the Windows 10 operating system.

After creating a bootable USB flash drive with Windows To Go, you can run this special version of the system from a flash drive on different computers.

Capturing a System Image in Rufus

Next, using the appropriate buttons, you will need to select the image and boot method. Click on the "Download Method" button and select the ISO image. Then, using the next button with the DVD-ROM image ( optical drive), select the disk image on your computer.

In the Explorer window that opens, select the desired image systems.

After completing all the settings in the application, click on the “Start” button.

Immediately after this, a window will open warning that all data is on USB disk will be destroyed. Click on the “OK” button in this window to continue the process of writing the system image to the USB flash drive.

Once the process is complete, you can close the Rufus program window.

Now you can open an Explorer window and see that a bootable USB flash drive, written using the Rufus program, is connected to your computer.

In this image, you can see that I assigned the flash drive on which the operating system image was written to a clear name: Windows 10 x64. Therefore, after connecting this flash drive to any computer, I will immediately understand that this is a bootable flash drive with a specific operating system.

After this you can boot from external USB drive for installing the operating system on this computer. Boot image I installed the Windows operating system, created using the Rufus program, on a VHD (Virtual HDD) on your computer as a second operating system.

Conclusion

By using free program Rufus can create a bootable USB flash drive with the Windows or Linux operating system. To install the operating system on your computer, you can boot from an external USB drive.

Bootable Windows USB flash drive in Rufus

Question that the program helps you answer Rufus - how to create a bootable USB flash drive for Windows 7.

It occurs quite often among those users who may need to install a new operating system using a USB drive.

Rufus Features

The main difference between the Rufus program and most analogues is the ability to easily and quickly write a bootable USB drive not only for computers with BIOS, but also for devices with a newer interface - UEFI.

In addition, using a flash drive created in the application, you can install Windows 7 (and other OS) on disks with both MBR and GPT partition styles (the latter option is used on hard drives larger than 1 TB), and without any problems create an installation drive for Linux-based operating systems, system or password recovery disks, and even a flash drive.

The same steps can be performed in the WinSetupFromUSB program, but it will take more time.

Features of work

In addition to the fact that the Rufus program provides the creation of an installation disk with Windows 7 and most other operating systems, its features include:

  • work even on computers without an installed operating system;
  • no need for installation, which is impossible, for example, when using a local account on a work computer;
  • the ability to identify problem sectors on flash drives, format and restore such drives that Windows cannot always handle;
  • the speed of writing information to the boot disk is approximately doubled compared to other applications;
  • There is only one menu screen, so there is no opportunity to select an unnecessary item. Although, due to this simplicity, the application is not capable of creating multiboot disks.

Using the program

The program interface is quite simple and understandable even for the average user. And in order to start creating a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 7 using it, just insert the USB drive into the appropriate connector and launch Rufus.

  1. Devices. Here you need to check which USB drive Windows 7 is installed on. Basically, the installation drive is detected automatically, however, if another device is selected in the window, you should select the one you need from the list (Fig. 2).
  2. Section diagram (Fig. 3). For most computers, the MBR value is suitable for devices with BIOS or UEFI. However, for hard drives larger than 2 TB, you should use the GPT option. The ability to work with the UEFI interface makes it possible to install any modern operating system using a flash drive using the full EFI mode (extensible firmware interface with more correct hardware initialization).
  3. File system (Fig. 4). NTFS is usually chosen here, since the average operating system image is larger than 4 GB in size. But, if the distribution takes up less space, you can set the value to FAT32. The section with cluster sizes can be skipped, leaving the default value.



Advice: To fully support GPT and UEFI, you will need to use Windows Vista or later. So it will not be possible to create a Windows 7 boot disk for these modes, for example, using Windows XP (which also supports Rufus).

ISO image. When you click on the triangle next to this item, a window should open in which you should find and select a disk image with Windows 7.

New volume label. Only the English layout should be used here. The name is chosen at the discretion of the user. If you do not change it, the bootable USB flash drive will be called the same as before.

After checking whether all items are selected correctly, taking into account the characteristics of your hard drive, you should click on the “Start” button and confirm your actions to create bootable media by clicking “OK”.

After some time (from 5 to 20 minutes, depending on the size of the image and system, the parameters of the flash drive and USB input), the application will complete its work and display a readiness message.

Using the created media

After the system is recorded on a USB flash drive, the drive can be used to install an operating system Windows systems 7. However, before this you should not only install the drive in the appropriate slot, but also configure the system BIOS.

To call it, you usually need to press one of the function keys(F1 or F2) during the system boot process. And to install a flash drive as the first one to be checked for the presence system files disk perform the following steps:

  • find and open the Advanced menu BIOS Features;
  • go to the BootSeq & FloppySetup;
  • open Hard Disk Boot Priority, selecting a USB drive (already connected to the computer) from the list of connected devices;
  • save the changes made (F10);
  • reboot the computer.

The steps to boot a flash drive on a computer with a UEFI interface are practically no different from systems with a BIOS. The difference lies in the use of the mouse and the menu names. First, the user must open the Fixed Boot Order item, then Boot Option #1 and select a USB flash drive in the list that appears after clicking. After saving (the same F10 command as for the BIOS), the computer is rebooted and booting from the media begins.

conclusions

Using a useful and simple program makes it possible to get a bootable disk without spending much more time on it than formatting a regular flash drive. At the same time, it is important to download a reliable and efficient Windows distribution 7, otherwise even an application that recorded it well will not help install the system from a USB drive.

In today's article we will look at how to use Rufus. This program designed to create bootable flash drives with Windows. With its help, we can write the downloaded ISO image of the operating system onto a flash drive and then install the system on the computer, restore its operation after serious failures, or use it to solve other problems. The Rufus program supports work in all Windows versions starting with Windows XP. The main advantage of this program, according to the developers, is that it can create a bootable USB flash drive with Windows or Linux faster than its other analogues, while the program is free.

Since Rufus is completely free utility, then I recommend downloading it from the official website of the developers.

As the creators assure, the program will be useful to us in the following cases:

  • needed from the installation ISO image (Windows, Linux, UEFI, etc.);
  • you need to work on a computer that does not have an installed operating system;
  • you need to flash the BIOS;
  • you need to run a low-level utility.

As you can see, the developers themselves are pushing us to acquire such a wonderful program in our arsenal. I would also like to draw your attention to the fact that the program has a very small weight, less than 1 MB, thus it will not take up space on any media.

There are two versions of Rufus:

  • regular version, requires installation on a computer;
  • Portable version, i.e. portable, it does not need to be installed, but it will be enough to launch the downloaded distribution kit.

In order to download the program you can go to the official website: http://rufus.akeo.ie

In the browser window that opens, scroll down the page and under the “Download” field, click on the link and download the version you like.

Another plus is that the developers’ website is entirely in Russian. This way we don't have to look for the page translation.

How to use Rufus? Setup before launch!

After we have downloaded the program distribution, let's figure out how to use Rufus. To do this, run the utility, if you see that the program has English language interface, then click the globe icon, which is located in the upper right corner and select the Russian language.

In order to start setting up the program, you need to connect USB flash drive. As soon as it is installed on the system, the program will immediately detect it.

Note! If more than one computer is connected removable drives, then select the one on which the image will be recorded. Otherwise, you may lose data from the flash drive if you select it incorrectly.

After you have dealt with the media, you can go to the recording settings ISO image.

In the "Partition scheme and type" field system interface» the following options are available to us:

As you can see, the Rufus program supports creating a bootable USB flash drive for different motherboards with BIOS and UEFI.

If you don’t know which option to choose, then choose the first item – “MBR for computers with BIOS or UEFI”, as it will be suitable in most cases for almost all computers.

The next item that can be configured in the program is “Type file system", which will be on .

Note! If the downloaded Windows ISO image is more than 4 GB, then you need to select the NTFS file system.

Generally available following types file system for the drive:

  • FAT32;
  • NTFS;
  • exFAT.

This item can be left by default, then the program will make changes, if necessary, independently. We also leave the “Cluster size” item unchanged.

In the “New volume label” field, you can enter the name that will be assigned to the created bootable flash drive. It is advisable to provide a clear name.

At the end of the setup, you need to indicate to the system that we will burn an ISO image and by clicking on the button in the form of a disk, indicate the path to the image.

If you don't have the most current Windows image 10, then read the article from the official website.

To begin the process of writing an image to a flash drive, click the “Start” button.

Recording to USB Windows To Go using Rufus.

If you use the Rufus program on Windows 10 or 8, then you may have noticed the “Windows To Go” item. By checking this box, you will be able to write images of the Windows Enterprise system – Windows To Go – onto a flash drive; such an image can be launched directly from the flash drive.

Note! For this purpose you will need a USB drive large capacity: from 32 GB and above. Also, not all flash drives are suitable, but only those recommended by Microsoft. If you need exactly this version of the operating system. Able to run without installation, Rufus will help you create it.

The process of recording an image in Rufus.

Since you and I have figured out a little how to use Rufus, let's look at the process of recording the image itself. After we have completed all the program settings and are ready to start the process, click the “Start” button.

The program will display a message warning that all data on the flash drive will be deleted. Accordingly, if there is nothing important on it, then click the “Ok” button, otherwise cancel the process.

After the start the process will begin ISO recording image onto the media. You just have to wait a while. By the way, the timer that counts down the remaining time is located in the lower right corner.

After the recording is completed, close the program window and open “My Computer” and see that we have a disk with Windows 10. I recorded this image on my flash drive, you may have a different name. This is our created bootable USB flash drive.
Now you can insert it into any computer and reinstall the system. By the way,