How to Burn an ISO to USB With the Rufus Tool
So you have an ISO file that you want on a flash drive or some other USB storage device. You also need to be able to boot from it. Sounds straightforward, right? Copy the file over and you’re done! Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.
Boot From the USB Drive
Now that the ISO file is properly “burned,” you can boot from the USB device and then continue with whatever it is you’re using this drive for. Rufus is a portable program (doesn’t install), works on Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7, and will “burn” an ISO image file to any type of USB storage device you happen to have. As we mentioned earlier, Rufus is a portable program, meaning that it just runs as is. This is a big reason why we prefer this ISO-to-USB program over some of the other options out there. Rufus tells you the size of the USB device, as well as the drive letter and current free space on the drive. Use this information to double-check that you’re choosing the correct device, assuming you have more than one plugged in. Don’t worry about the free space that’s indicated, since you’ll be erasing the entire drive as part of this process. For example, if you’re putting a Windows installation ISO image onto the flash drive, and you get this option, you’d want to enable it for sure. For example, maybe a bootable tool you downloaded in ISO format advised on its website to make sure the file system is FAT32 instead of NTFS if you’re burning to USB. In that case, make that change before continuing. For example, select OK to the WARNING: ALL DATA ON DEVICE ‘XYZ’ WILL BE DESTROYED message that appears next. You might also see a Download required message if Rufus needs some additional files to complete the burn process. Selecting Yes will start that download. The total time to do this depends very much on how large the ISO file is that you’re working with. Some small diagnostic tools take under one minute, while larger images (like a 5 GB Windows 11 ISO) could take closer to 20 minutes. Your computer and USB hardware speeds are a big factor here as well. For example, if you’ve put a memory testing program on a flash drive, you can now boot from that flash drive and test your RAM with it. The same goes for bootable hard drive testing programs, data wipe programs, antivirus tools, etc.
Use the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool
You’re more than welcome to use the procedure we’ve outlined above with Rufus for Windows ISO images, like those you might have downloaded for Windows 11, Windows 10, etc. However, there is a more “official” procedure that uses free software from Microsoft. We’ve written complete tutorials on these procedures, which also includes guidance on other aspects of installing Windows from a USB stick. See How to Install Windows 8 From USB or How to Install Windows 7 From USB, depending on the version of Windows you’re installing.
Extract ISO Images With a File Compression Program
Rufus, and related ISO-to-USB tools, are great when you need to get some sort of bootable program, or even an entire operating system, onto a USB drive. However, what if you have an ISO image that you want to “burn” to a USB drive that isn’t intended to be booted from? An ISO of Microsoft Office comes to mind as a common example. In these cases, think of the ISO image you’re working with as just any other compressed format, like a ZIP file. Use your favorite file compression program—we often recommend the free 7-Zip tool, but there are many others—to extract the contents of the ISO image directly onto the previously-formatted flash drive. That’s it!
