Installing a bootable USB flash drive for Windows 7 Rufus. Bootable USB flash drive Rufus, how to create a bootable USB flash drive for Windows

It's no secret that USB drives are the most convenient when creating boot devices . And, even despite the fact that DVD/CD discs maintain a favorable distance for themselves in terms of operating speed, flash drives, in turn, have a number of significant advantages that are hard to argue with.

What advantages are we talking about?

• Installing a Flash drive on a PC without a built-in DVD drive.
• Large amount of memory.
• Opportunity quick change content.
• In terms of dimensions, flash drives are much more compact than DVDs.

In this article we will look at the creation process bootable flash drive using such a wonderful tool as Rufus. Using it and the settings preinstalled in it, you can easily install the operating system on a new PC without errors.

How to create a bootable USB flash drive using Rufus?

Requirements for effective work

• Installed Rufus software.
• ISO file you need operating system.
• A USB device with a capacity of at least 4 GB for Linux and 8 GB for Windows.

Download RUFUS from the official website

Rufus is free software for creating bootable media. You can download it from the official website by clicking on the link below:

Useful articles

Scroll down the page and download the version that suits you: installation or portable.

Create bootable media

Rufus does not require pre-installation, so you can limit yourself simple start executable file.

Before you start working directly, connect a Flash drive to your computer and run the program as administrator.

If the media is installed and working correctly, Rufus will automatically detect the drive and display it. If you have installed multiple devices, select the one you want from the drop-down menu “ Device”.

Now you need to select a download method. Rufus suggests choosing one of the following types:

• Disc or ISO image.
• FreeDOS.
• Not boot image.

Click Start and wait for the installation process to complete.

Typically, the preset settings always work correctly and help you configure any bootable usb drive. However, for those of you who would like to understand the nuances, we will look at the issue in more detail.

There are two low-level operating system startup programs − UEFI And BIOS.

Since the second one is already becoming obsolete, new devices come with support for more new version UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). It is much more efficient than its predecessor BIOS, so it is likely that the world computer technology will soon completely abandon outdated standards.

Creating a bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive with UEFI

• Section layout: GPT.
• Target system: UEFI (non-CSM).
• File system: FAT32.

• Quick formatting.

Creating a bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive with an outdated BIOS

• Section layout: MBR.
• Target system: BIOS or UEFI-CSM.
• File system: NTFS.
• Cluster size: 8192 (default).

IN advanced formatting options check the first two parameters:

• Quick formatting.
• Create an extended label and device icon.

The main difference between creating a bootable Windows flash drive and Linux is that when using Linux, Rufus first will check for an update to the Syslinux/GRUB files.

Consequently, a pop-up window will appear asking you to confirm the update or refuse it. If you refuse, the application will simply use its own resources.

Possible Rufus errors

Unfortunately, there are no programs that could work throughout the entire history of their existence without errors. Below we will look at the most basic ones and tell you how to fix them.

Error: The device is not ready.

In most cases, when this error occurs, it indicates a hardware issue that is preventing the USB drive from connecting properly. It appears if the device was automatically turned off or the formatting process failed.

If you happen to encounter this error, use the following instructions:

1. Open command line on behalf of the administrator.

2. Enter the command mountvol /e and press Enter.

An error occurs 0x00000015 perhaps in another, more rare reason, - bad USB connection. Therefore, using an external USB 3.0 Hi-Speed ​​cable or connector is strongly discouraged.

Device eliminated because it appears to contain no media.

If you encounter this error, try using a different USB device. It informs you that the drive you selected can no longer overwrite data (has failed).

Error Access is denied.

This error appears in the event of a conflict between Rufus and another third-party software. Make sure your antivirus is not blocking the installation process.

Moreover, if you are the owner of the Windows 10 operating system, it is likely that the culprit for the error is 0x00000005 may be a function Controlled Folder Access .

The essence of its work is that it prohibits programs from writing data to disks on which it is not installed.

To disable the option Controlled Folder Access, use the following instructions:

1. Open Start menu > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Security.

2. Open Windows Defender Security Center.

3. Go to section Protection against viruses and threats.

4. Open Antivirus and other threat protection settings.

5. Go to parameter Managing controlled access to files.

6. Disable the feature.

Now you are guaranteed to create a bootable USB flash drive, avoiding any possible errors!
We hope you found the article useful and helped you create a bootable USB drive correctly.

Almost everyone modern user When working with a computer, I dealt with disk images. They have undeniable advantage before ordinary material blanks - they are much faster to work with, they can be connected practically unlimited amount at the same time, their size can be tens of times larger than an ordinary disk.

One of the most popular tasks when working with images is writing them to removable media to create a bootable disk. Established funds operating systems do not have the necessary functionality, and specialized software comes to the rescue.

Rufus is a program that can write an operating system image onto a flash drive for subsequent installation on a computer. It differs from competitors in portability, lightness and reliability.

The main task of this program is to create bootable disks, so this article will discuss this functionality.

1. First, find a flash drive on which the operating system image will be written. The main nuances of choice are a container suitable for the size of the image and the absence important files on it (in the process the flash drive will be formatted, all data on it will be irretrievably lost).

2. The following setting is required to correct creation boot element. This setting depends on how new the computer is. For most computers, the default setting is suitable; for the most modern ones, you need to select the UEFI interface.

3. In most cases, to capture a regular operating system image, it is recommended next setting leave as default except individual features some operating systems that are quite rare.

4. We also leave the cluster size at default or select it if another is specified.

5. In order not to forget what is written on this flash drive, you can also name the media after the operating system. However, the user can specify absolutely any name.

6. Rufus can check before burning the image removable media for damaged blocks. To increase the level of detection, you can select more than one pass. To enable this function, simply check the appropriate box.

be careful, this operation Depending on the size of the media, it can take quite a long time and heats up the flash drive itself.

7. If the user has not previously cleared the flash drive of files, this function will delete them before recording. If the flash drive is completely empty, this option can be disabled.

8. Depending on the operating system that will be recorded, you can set its boot method. In the vast majority of cases, this setting can be left to more experienced users; for normal recording, the default setting is sufficient.

9. To label a flash drive with an international symbol and assign a picture, the program will create a file autorun.inf, where this information will be recorded. If you don't need it, you can simply turn it off.

10. By using separate button the image that will be recorded is selected. The user simply needs to point to the file using standard Explorer.

11. System additional settings will help configure the detection of external USB drives and improve bootloader detection in old ones BIOS versions. These settings will be needed if very old computer with outdated BIOS.

12. Once the program is fully configured, you can start recording. To do this, you just need to press one button and wait for Rufus to do its job.

13. The program records all completed actions in a log, which can be viewed during its operation.

The program allows you to easily create a boot disk for both new and outdated computers. It has minimal settings, but rich functionality.

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 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 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 of the regular version of the program will be written to 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 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 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.

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 have supplemented the article with a review of the new version of the application.

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 installation Windows". 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 USB flash drive in the “New volume label” field. Choice 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. 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, 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 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.

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 operating system Windows Enterprise- 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.

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. I installed a boot image of 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.

Bootable Windows flash drive in Rufus (video)

We will tell you about the most quick way make a bootable USB flash drive with almost any operating system.

Spent time: 37min. Flash drive with USB interface 2.0 doesn't show very well high speed. with USB 3.0 it would be at least twice as fast. Image Windows 10 x86-x64.iso weight 6.62GB downloaded in advance.

Rufus weighs 945 KB, but despite its weight it is very useful program intended for:

• creating a bootable USB disk from a bootable ISO image (Windows, Linux, UEFI, LiveCD, etc.)
• firmware from under DOS, For example BIOS,
• launch low-level utilities, such as MemtestVictoria and so on.

For correct operation Rufus, requires Windows XP or later Windows version. The program also does not require installation; after launching the application is ready to work.

An incomplete list of ISO images that Rufus can work with.

Arch Linux	Knoppix	Trinity Rescue Kit
Archbang	KolibriOS	Ubuntu
BartPE/pebuilder	Kubuntu	Ultimate Boot CD
CentOS	Linux Mint	Windows XP (SP2+)
Damn Small Linux	NT Password Registry Editor	Windows Vista
Debian	Parted Magic	Windows Server 2008
Fedora	Partition Wizard	Windows 7
FreeDOS	Raspbian	Windows 8
FreeNAS	ReactOS	Windows 8.1
Gentoo	Red Hat	Windows Server 2012
GParted	rEFInd	Windows 10
gNewSense	Slackware	Windows Server 2016
Hiren's Boot CD	Super Grub2 Disk
LiveXP	Tails

Where can I download?

For now current version - 2.18 .

Or from the official website -> http://rufus.akeo.ie/ (Fig. 1)

Fig.1 - Rufus official website. Download Rufus.

We downloaded regular version according to the first link, not Portable. I used both versions and I can say that the only difference is the appearance of the configuration file - rufus.ini V Portable versions, and the possibility of inclusion automatic check updates, NO!

Creating a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 10 x86-x64.

Launch the downloaded executable file rufus-2.18.exe.

We are asked to select our USB drive from which we want to make a bootable USB flash drive. The number of detected devices is written at the bottom of the window. (Fig.2)

Fig.2 - Rufus overview. Connected USB storage devices.

Click on the disk icon (Fig. 3) and select the boot image, in our case it is - Windows 10 x86-x64.iso.

Fig.3 - Rufus overview. Selecting an iso image.

Rufus will automatically set the recommended parameters, I personally only changed volume label With "ESD ISO" on "Windows 10 x86-x64", h so as not to forget what is stored on this flash drive. (Fig. 4)

And so the flash drive and iso image are selected, click " Start " .

Fig.4 - Rufus overview. Selecting an iso image. Automatic selection parameters.

Rufus warns us about the destruction of all data from our flash drive. Click "OK ".(Fig.5)

Fig. 5 - Warning about the destruction of all data from our flash drive.

The process of creating a bootable flash drive has begun. Green line - image loading progress. The procedure currently being performed is described below. In the lower right corner you can see the time spent. (Fig.6)

Fig.6 - Rufus. The process of creating a bootable USB flash drive.

The creation of a bootable USB flash drive is complete. We take out the flash drive, you can use it. (Fig. 7)

Fig. 7 - Rufus. The process of creating a bootable USB flash drive is complete.

You can also open the log, here you can see what actions are taking place in the process. For example, if creating a flash drive fails with an error, then you can track the problem and maybe, if you are more advanced user, solve it. (Fig. 8)

Fig. 8 - Rufus magazine.

Meticulous overview of parameters.

Sometimes, before downloading a program, we want to be sure that it has the functions we need. Let's quickly go through the key parameters that can be changed manually.

"Device" - Selecting connected USB devices.

"Partition scheme and system interface type"- We are asked to choose one of three points. (Fig. 9)

• MBR for computers with BIOS or UEFI (Option for most computers with BIOS or UEFI interface)
• MBR for computers with UEFI (Option for computers with UEFI interface. At Windows installation XP with USB access)
• GTP for computers with UEFI (Option for computers with UEFI interface. When installing Windows XP without access to USB)

Fig.9 - Rufus overview. Connected USB drives and Partition layouts and system interface types

"File system"- Select the required file system. You are asked to choose one of four points. (Fig. 10)

• Fat32 (default)
• NTFS
• exFAT

"Cluster size" - Choice minimum size cluster, which occupies each data block. (Fig. 10)

• 2048 bytes
• 4096 bytes (default)
• 8192 bytes
• 16 KB
• 32 KB
• 64 KB

Fig. 10 - Rufus overview. Selecting a file system and Selecting a cluster size.

"New volume label" - Give the flash drive a name.

Available checkboxes and lists in the "Format Options" section.(Fig.11)

"Check for bad blocks" + "Select the number of passes from 1 to 4- Checking the device for bad (damaged) blocks using a byte table.

"Quick format" - Quick/Full Format.

"Create boot disk" + "Boot method" selection list- Apparently you can uncheck the checkbox and remove the function " Boot disk"... Why? Some kind of nonsense...

• Load Method List
• ISO image
• DD image
• Syslinux 4.07
• Syslinux 6.03
• ReactOS
• Grub 2.02
• Grub4DOS 0.4.6a
• UEFI:NTFS

"Create an extended label and device icon" - Allow display of labels with international characters and set the device icon.(Created autorun.inf)

Available checkboxes and lists in the "Additional options" section.

Extra options can be opened by clicking on the down arrow to the right of Formatting options.

"Show external USB drives"- I don’t understand why this is a function, I don’t see where they are shown.

"Add fixes for older BIOSes" - Add additional hidden section and align the partition boundaries. This will help improve bootloader detection in older BIOS versions.

"Use MBR with BIOS ID" + "List of IDs" - Use an MBR that allows bootloader selection and can disguise itself as a device identifier in the BIOS. Try disguising the first bootable USB drive (usually 0x80) as another drive. This is required to install Windows XP only. - I personally have never encountered this.

Fig. 11 - Available checkboxes and lists.

The review is over! I can say that in 99.9% of cases you are unlikely to need what is described in Meticulous review, Rufus for all popular systems will automatically select the required options.