Creating a bootable USB flash drive in Rufus. How to use Rufus

Probably many users associated with the creation bootable media, have heard of a program like Rufus. The instructions for using it are quite simple. However, there are several key points and nuances that should be mentioned separately. For the Rufus 2.7 program, instructions for use will be considered (although today this particular modification is not relevant).

What is Rufus for?

The application is universal remedy For quick creation bootable media, which are USB devices. For application Rufus instructions by application directly indicates that ordinary flash drives, external USB hard drives and even removable cards memory (their file system is supported).

Let us immediately note that this program is focused exclusively on USB devices, so create bootable media in the form optical disk or another hard drive will not work.

Main features of the application

For Rufus, the instructions for indicate one interesting point, associated with some non-standard application capabilities.

The program itself is designed to work in the operating systems Windows, Linux, etc. (Windows supports modifications from XP to 10). But the most amazing thing is that the application is capable of creating firmware for BIOS and UEFI or recording system images for working on computers that do not have any OS.

IN BIOS support you won't refuse either. For the Rufus application, the instructions indicate that both are supported. outdated versions, and the newest ones in the form of UEFI.

The scope of the program is quite wide. You can create bootable media not only for cases where you need to install an operating system from scratch (or reinstallation). It is actively used to recover OS and passwords. In addition, when writing to media, the application can find bad or problematic sectors, format or restore USB drives.

Released versions

Today there are two main modifications of the program: stationary and portable. Both versions take up little space, and the difference is that all the settings for the stationary modification are registered in the system registry keys, while for the portable version they are used specifically created file settings.

Rufus program: instructions. Beginning of work

It doesn’t matter whether the user launched a portable or desktop version, the first step is to perform the initial setup.

The application interface is configured to use English by default. Therefore, first you need to click on the icon globe, located at the top right, and select Russian from the menu that appears.

Please note that the program interface (for Rufus the instructions directly indicate this, and the user can see it with his own eyes) contains only one window in which all actions will be performed. This completely eliminates the possibility of pressing the wrong button or selecting the wrong option.

Selecting a partition scheme

So, the program is running (until the flash drive is inserted, the main fields will be empty). As soon as the user inserts the device, the application detects the drive and fills in all fields automatically!

If several devices are connected, you can select the one you need from the list. For the uninitiated person, this is just a godsend, because in most cases the parameters set in the main fields do not need to be changed. The only exception is the recording method, but more on that later. But if you still need to make changes, we will consider each parameter separately.

At the initial stage, you need to select the partition type. There are three options here:

MBR ( boot record) for BIOS or UEFI;
MBR for UEFI only;
GPT for UEFI.

What to choose from all this? The first option is universal. The second is intended for computers exclusively with UEFI systems. The third option should be chosen only if computer system used HDD with a capacity of more than 2 GB.

File system definition

For Rufus instructions at next step implies the choice of file system. Usually NTFS is offered by default.

But in principle, if boot distribution(image) of the installed system is less than 4 GB in size, FAT32 can also be installed. The default cluster size set by the program itself can be left unchanged.

Volume label and formatting options

Next, you will need to specify the volume label (but this is not required) and go to the formatting options. To save time, you can leave quick formatting, however, if there is doubt that the media may have been damaged, you can use the full one. In this case, you must leave a checkmark in the field for creating bootable media.

Now the most important thing. In most cases, you should select from the drop-down menu to create a disk from an ISO image, after which, using the browse button, you will need to specify the path to the source in the form of a pre-loaded or saved image of the future system.

Activate recording

Finally everything preliminary actions completed. Let's check just in case set parameters Once again, just press the start button and agree with the notification that all data on the device will be destroyed during the formatting process.

Then all you have to do is wait for the recording process to complete. According to the developers themselves, the process, for example, for a Windows 7 image, can take approximately 5-10 minutes, no more. It is believed that this indicator is the minimum among all programs with which you can create Bootable USB-carriers.

Rufus: instructions (Windows 10). Using Windows To Go

The version of the program 2.0 and higher, used in Windows 8 and 10, looks more interesting. When using it, you can see a special Windows string To Go, which needs to be used instead of the standard system installation.

What it is? It turns out that this method of creating bootable media is intended to be written to in such a way that when booted from it you can run a full-fledged OS Windows Enterprise and work with it as with a regular OS!

However, during the recording process you need to observe some important conditions. First of all, as stated, it is required to use exclusively USB drives recommended by Microsoft (if Windows is needed as the working OS). The second condition is that the drive must have a capacity of at least 32 GB. Otherwise, the entire process is completely identical to the steps described above. The only thing you should pay attention to is setting the NTFS standard as the file system (in no case FAT).

Conclusion

As a kind of afterword, it remains to say that the program really looks very convenient and fast. This is confirmed not only by many users, but also by professional experts. In addition, understanding the application will not be difficult even for a person who has never created bootable media in his life and is about to do it for the first time. There is only one window ( work area) and practically full automation speak only in favor of this application. It's no surprise that it has earned so many rave reviews.

By the way, the recording speed is especially noted. Even portable version it works so quickly that many similar heavy-duty packages have never dreamed of doing this. And if you consider that you can use USB standard 3.0, the recording speed increases incredibly. In addition, the creation of media with full working system In general, it evokes genuine admiration.

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. Rufus supports all versions of Windows starting from 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 is faster than its other analogues, and 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 following cases, When

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 right top corner and select Russian language.

In order to start setting up the program, you need to connect USB flash ku. 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 settings ISO recording 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”, since it will be suitable in most cases for almost all computers.

The next item that can be configured in the program is “File system type”, 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 do not have the latest Windows 10 image, 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 of writing the ISO image to the media will begin. 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,

The free Rufus program is designed to create bootable USB drives(bootable flash drives). An operating system image recorded using the Rufus program can be used to install an 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 faster than many other well-known utilities that are used for this purpose.

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

According to the app's creator, Rufus utility It will be useful to use in the 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 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 portable use version of the program, 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”.

You can download the Rufus program from the official website of the developer.

Rufus download

The Rufus program does not require installation on your computer; it can be launched from any drive on your computer. To start the program, you need to click on the executable “exe” file.

Starting with version Rufus 3, the program’s interface and settings have changed, so I’ve added a review to the article new version applications.

Main differences between Rufus 3 and Rufus 2:

The program interface has been changed.
Disabled Windows support XP and Windows Vista.
Added support for UEFI:NTFS mode for ARM64.
Changes have been made to various parameters programs.

The article first contains a review of Rufus 3, and then a review previous version Rufus 2, which can also be used on a computer.

Bootable USB flash drive in Rufus 3

Launch the Rufus program on your computer. The Rufus 3 program window has two sections: “Disk Properties” and “Format Options”.

In the “Disk Properties” section, you can configure the parameters for creating a bootable USB flash drive.

In the “Device” option, the USB drive connected to the PC is automatically detected.

Click on the “Select” button, select the Windows image to create a bootable USB flash drive.

In the “Image Options” setting, leave “Standard” Windows installation" There is also a “WindowsToGo” item for creating a special flash drive from which you can run Windows.

In the “Partition scheme” parameter, select “GPT” or “MBR”, depending on the layout of the disk on the computer.

From this parameter depends on the “Target scheme”:

For GPT disks, the “UEFI (non-CMS)” scheme is used - the system will boot only in UEFI mode, without Legasy Mode support (BIOS emulation).
For MBR disks, the “BIOS (or UEFI-CMS)” scheme is used - in addition to MBR mode, the system can boot in Legasy mode (UEFI emulation) from under UEFI.

In order for the flash drive to boot on your computer, determine the type of disk hard computer. Follow the link to use the disk on your PC.

Click "Show advanced disk properties" to enable other options. For circuit MBR partitions You can enable the “Use patches for old BIOS"if the flash drive will be used on old computers.

In the “Format Options” section you can configure the formatting order of the flash drive.

You can set your own name for the bootable flash drive in the “New volume label” field. The choice of file system depends on the disk layout (GPT or MBR) of the computer. Computers with GPT must use the FAT32 file system.

Click on the "Show advanced formatting options" option. Check the box next to “Check for bad blocks” to make sure that the flash drive was written without errors.

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

In the warning window that all information on the flash drive will be deleted, click on the “OK” button.

After this, the process of creating a bootable USB flash drive will begin. After checking the flash drive (if enabled this option) and complete recording, click on the “Close” button.

Rufus 2 program settings

After launching the utility, the Rufus program window will open. In the upper right corner there is an icon with which you can change the language of the program interface. Since, in this moment, there are no USB flash drives connected to the computer, 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 graphical UEFI interface, MBR and GRT partition options.

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);
NTFS;
exFAT.

You will need to take into account that if the image of the operating system being written is larger than 4 GB, then you will need to select the NTFS file 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.

Under Formatting Options, you can look at " Extra options", by clicking on the arrow button.

Recording to a USB flash drive Windows To Go

If your computer has the Windows 8 or higher operating system installed, then when you write a Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 8.1 Enterprise, or Windows 10 Enterprise system image to a flash drive, 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 a USB drive special version 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.

Portable creation process Windows versions is not simple and does not always complete successfully. 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.

Burning a System Image in Rufus 2

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 storage, to install the operating system on this computer. Boot image I installed the Windows operating system, created using the Rufus program, on VHD ( Virtual hard disk) on your computer as a second operating system.

Conclusions of the article

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

Boot Windows flash drive in the Rufus program (video)

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.

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

According to the creator of the application, the Rufus utility will be useful in the following cases:

creating a bootable USB drive from a 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 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 of the regular version of the program will be written to the system registry, and after closing the portable version of the utility, a settings file will be saved next to it.

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

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

You can download the Rufus program from the official website of the developer.

The Rufus program does not require installation on your computer; it can be launched 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. In the upper right corner there is an icon with which you can change the language of the program interface. Since there are currently no USB flash drives connected to the computer, nothing is displayed in the “Devices” field.

In this case, it is an 8 GB Transcend USB drive. 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

These are the different options that Rufus supports: regular BIOS or GUI UEFI, MBR and GRT partition options.

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 written is more than 4 GB in size, then you will need to select the NTFS file 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.

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 this item is activated, using the Rufus program, you can write to a 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. A 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, to create 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 image of a DVD-ROM (optical drive), select the disk image on your computer.

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

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

Immediately after this, a window will open warning that all data on the USB drive 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.

After this, you can boot from an external USB drive to install the operating system on this computer. I installed a bootable image of the Windows operating system created using the Rufus program on a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) on my computer as a second operating system.

Conclusion

Using the free Rufus program, you 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

A customizable parameter that determines how files are stored on a USB drive. The parameter determines the size of files that can be written to a bootable USB flash drive.

In the program you can select one of four file system types - FAT32, exFAT, NTFS and UDF. All four types of file systems can be used on Windows and Linux OS. Apple's operating system will see NTFS, but will not be able to work with it or write files to the media.

File system FAT32

FAT32 is one of the oldest formats, so it is supported by any operating system. It should be used by those who work with different computers and operating systems. Plus, this file system excellent speed that others don't have. But FAT32 has one significant problem - file size limitation. You cannot write files larger than 4 gigabytes to a flash drive. This is due to the fact that at the time the file system was created, there were no large files.

If files larger than 4 gigabytes are not stored on the flash drive, then formatting in FAT32 is the best choice from those presented in the Rufus program.

Good speed;
Small requirements for random access memory and its volume;
Efficiency when working with small files, which is suitable when formatting a flash drive in Rufus for personal use.

Low efficiency when working with large files;
Limit on files by their size;
Low operating speed during fragmentation.

File system NTFS

NTFS is superior to FAT32 in almost all respects, and the existing limitations are most often insignificant. This file system perfectly implements many technologies, including:

Access control;
Possibility of data encryption;
Archiving files;
Quotas;
Maintaining reports in the form of a journal.

High speed when searching and accessing data and files;
Storage security;
File fragmentation does not shrink or destroy the file system;
High speed even with large files.

Compared to FAT32, NTFS is more demanding on RAM;
The operating speed is lower;
Limitations on the length of the data path are no more than 32767 characters in Unicode.

UDF file system

The essence of the UDF format available in Rufus lies in the problems with Microsoft's FAT patents. File system was created as an excellent cross-platform alternative that will be read on devices and any operating system.

In addition, UDF has better fundamental performance indicators than FAT. The most important of them is the removal of file size restrictions.

How UDF works with operating systems:

WindowsXP will see the flash drive in UDF format, but will not be able to write anything to it. Most often, this is enough if you need to transfer distributions;
In later Microsoft products There is full support, which is an advantage of formatting a flash drive in UDF using the Rufus program;
On Linux and MacOS the format works even without installing additional software.

exFAT file system

exFAT is intended primarily for flash drives, so Rufus users should pay attention to it.

An important point: exFAT support is available in Windows XP SP2-SP3, but only if they have the KB955704 update.

Pros of exFAT:

There are no restrictions on the number of folders or files in one folder;
Access rights support;
Introduction of free space bitmap, which reduces disk fragmentation and distributes free space.

The Rufus utility in this aspect is practically no different from other programs for creating bootable flash drives.