Starting your PC from a USB, “pin” or flash drive has many uses. If you are on another computer, you can use your own operating system and carry your own files and applications with you. In case of technical problems, a bootable USB is used to clean a pc of malware and viruses, do Backups or repair it if Windows or Linux won’t start properly.
Although today Windows has tools for Solve your main problems from the start or from a backup partition, it never hurts to have a plan B on hand just in case windows help it doesn’t work or to better control what we want to do on our PC. And a bootable USB is easy to prepare. In addition, these devices are very cheap and you can take them with you or keep them in a drawer.
A quick and convenient way to create your own bootable USB is using the tool Rufus. It is free and used to start your PC from USB with several operating systems, whether different Windows or Linux versions or variants thereof specialized in cleaning, repair or security tasks.
Your own bootable USB in minutes
Thanks to Rufus you can prepare in a few minutes a bootable USB that allows you to boot an operating system from the pendrive itself, install Linux or Windows on your PC from scratch, do cleaning, backups, etc. Come on, start your PC from a USB to do what you can’t do from the operating system installed on it.
In the past, we’ve talked about Rufus for tasks like installing an alternative version of Chrome OS running Android on any computer, even if it wasn’t compatible with Chrome OS. And also to install Windows 11 from scratch on a PC that did not initially comply with the strict installation requirements.
To use Rufus you will need, apart from the program itself, a pendrive or USB memory. Today you can get one 8GB or one 16GB at affordable prices. It’s more. You may have some at home unused. Reuse one of them to turn it into a bootable USB for emergencies. Yes indeed. The files it contains will disappear, so keep them separate. you will also need the ISO image of the operating system that you want to use on your bootable USB. That will be the operating system you will use when booting your PC from the USB.
A few small optional adjustments
when you open Rufus You will see that it is very easy to use. Simply fill in the fields in the main window and you’re done. Of course, you have to know which option to choose in each situation. In the first field, device either Device, choose the drive where your USB is represented. Field boot selection either boot choice we leave it as is. But in the field on the right, you will have to choose between Select either Discharge. If you already have the download ISO image, choose the option Select.
With Discharge, clicking on it will bring up a new drop-down window with a list of ISO images ready for download. Specifically, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 and Windows 11. You can choose the version of Windows, its issue, its edition, language and architecture.
In partition system either Partition scheme You will have to choose between MBR and GPT. There are two ways to boot PC from USB or other drive. If you’re going to use your bootable USB on older computers, go for MBR. But if you are going to use it on relatively current computers, better GPT. The other field can be left as is. And the advanced options too.
An interesting field that you will see if you are going to install Linux on your bootable USB is the Persistent partition size. It is used to save changes in the operating system that you use from your bootable USB. And to store files and documents. Depending on what you want to save, choose the size you think suitable in GB.
Format and ready to boot your PC from USB
In Format options we do not need to do anything, although you can choose, for example, the name that your bootable USB will have or the file system. Default is FAT32, but you can change it to NTFS if you are going to store large files of 4 GB or more. Today, both Windows and most Linux distributions allow you to read and work with both FAT32 and NTFS.
The last step is to click on Start. For as many minutes as necessary, Rufus will format the pendrive or USB that you have selected and will install the chosen ISO image. When you finish, you will have your own bootable USB at your disposal. You can try it on any computer by inserting the USB into its corresponding slot and turning on the PC. If it’s not too old, it will detect the USB and boot from it.
Depending on the PC and its BIOS boot menu, you may have to press the F8, F9, F10, F11, or F12 buttons to see the Boot Menu or boot menu. You will see which button it is when an informative phrase such as “Press X to enter SETUP, Y to Enter Boot Menu” or similar appears on the screen. Once in the Boot Menu, choose the bootable USB and the PC will boot from there. You can now start any PC from your USB and do whatever you want. And if you need to answer any questions about Rufusyou can do it checking your page Frequently asked questions in English.