USB Bootable Software: Download Software to Make Pendrive Bootable
When your Windows machine is not performing the way it was meant to be, the ideal reason is that some core internal files have become corrupted or mistakenly deleted. In this situation, the only solution is to reinstall the Windows OS.
However, if you do have the installation CD or DVD, then the only answer to install the Windows OS is to make a bootable USB drive. Here, you get such USB Bootable Software to make pendrive bootable.
Need for the Bootable USB Drive
Since the CD/DVD’s are becoming obsolete from the computers, therefore it has become quite necessary for you to create a flash drive that is bootable. So, the installation process of the Windows Operating System has become very easy.
There are two reasons why the bootable USB drive has become a popular format to update the Windows OS, one is that you can carry around the device easily and the other case is that it can be altered to a normal storage device whenever there is a need.
Creation of bootable flash Drive
To create a bootable USB drive for the Windows what you can do is get the ISO file of the OS from the Internet and then write it on the flash drive. In order to write that ISO file, you will have to utilize the bootable US software, about which there will be information on the next section. When the creation of the bootable USB drive is complete, next, start the computer once again and then alter the boot order to boot from flash disk. If you need to install the Windows OS, then insert the bootable USB drive and follow the instructions accordingly, it is that simple.
Best Free USB Bootable Software [Windows & Linux]
You will get information about various USB Bootable Softwares that can allow you to safely create a bootable USB drive.
Windows USB/DVD Download Tool
To make a bootable flash drive for the Windows OS, the best way is to use the ‘Windows USB/DVD Download Tool’. This is an official tool from Microsoft to make not only a bootable USB but a DVD drive as well. This tool, due to its easy interface has gained popularity among the users, who want to create a USB bootable drive in a short time.
However, there are some limitations to this tool, which are that the file system of the USB drive cannot be altered. There is no way for you to inspect the bad blocks of the flash drive, etc.
Procedure to Install the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool
You will get steps here to download and then install the ‘Windows USB/DVD Download Tool’ application.
-
- First, visit the official website of Microsoft then, go to the search area and type the ‘windows USB/DVD download tool’. After that, hit the ‘Enter’ button.
- Next, from the search page that appears, click on the second option. As soon as you select that option, then a new page will appear with the heading ‘Windows USB/DVD Download Tool’.
- On that page, choose the language first from the drop-down menu and then click on the ‘Download’ button. This action will start the download process for the ‘Windows USB/DVD Download Tool’.
- Once the download procedure is over, next, go to the location of the setup file and double-click on it. This will open the installer window, in it, follow the instructions that appear on the screen and accordingly click on the ‘Install’ button.
Use the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool to create bootable USB Drive
In order to make a bootable US drive, you need to have the ISO file of the Windows OS beforehand. To get the ISO file for the specific Windows OS version, go to the official Microsoft website and then download the same. After the download process of the Windows ISO file is complete, then follow the steps below.
- First, right-click on the ‘Windows logo’ to launch the ‘Options’ menu.
- Next, from that menu, locate the ‘Search’ option and click on it. This will open a new default search area.
- Within that area, type the text “Windows USB/DVD Download Tool”. Then from the list that appears, choose the first option having the same name as the text within the previous line.
- As soon as you click on that option, then a new window will appear with the name ‘Windows USB/DVD Download Tool’. Inside that window, you will get a ‘Source File’ field, in it, provide the address where the Windows ISO file is present and press ‘Next’.
- Now, from the new page, select your ‘USB Device’ and then click on the ‘Begin Copying’ button.
To install the Windows OS into the computer, go to the root directory of the bootable USB drive and then locate the ‘Setup.exe’ file and double-click on it to execute the same.
Rufus
The Rufus is the second-best utility that allows you to make the bootable flash drive a breeze, so it is right after the official one. This tool is free so anybody can download it and use the same. Unlike the ‘Windows USB/DVD Download Tool’, this utility allows you to change the file system of the USB drive.
You can create bootable USB drives for many types of Operating Systems including Windows. With Rufus, you can even check the USB drive for some bad blocks. One of the biggest advantages of this utility is that you do not need to install the same on the computer just download the executable file and run it.
The current version of Rufus is 3.8 and the size of the executable file is just 1.1 MB. You can also get the link of previous versions of this utility from the official webpage.
Universal USB Installer
The ‘Universal USB Installer’ utility is the one that can be used to create bootable flash drives for all types of Operating Systems like Windows, Linux and etc. Also, as the name suggests, using this utility, you can make bootable USB drives for any kind of application.
To create the bootable USB drive for a specific OS, what you can do is choose the correct the system software from the drop-down menu and then accordingly press the ‘Create’ button. The advantage that Universal USB Installer has over any other bootable flash drive creation application is the persistence storage.
This feature lets you store, use and backup all kinds of persistence information. Some of that persistence information is as follows like ‘backups of software’, ‘system configurations’ and etc. All the persistence data can be stored in the bootable USB drive. The persistence feature is available only with the Linux version of this utility.
Etcher
The Etcher is the newest software that creates bootable USB drives for any type of Operating System, inclusive of Windows. This software is available for you to install in Linux, macOS, and Windows.
The Etcher utility allows you to make bootable drives for both SD cards and USB drives. This tool has one of the best user interfaces, thus you can make bootable drives very easily with few clicks.
Etcher Pro is a hardware device, which lets you create multiple bootable USB flash drives and SD cards at the same time at great speeds. This device is available for the organizations, where there is a need to flash the bulk USB drives or SD cards. This software is made with an open-source platform, therefore you can contribute some ideas to its developers.
RMPrepUSB
RMPrepUSB is a bootable flash drive creator which contains various features and customization options than the rest of all the softwares here. With this application, you can make bootable USB drives for any type of application and OS like the ‘Universal USB Installer’ software.
However, the capability to create multi-boot drives, options for the file system, multiple image formats support and etc, makes the RMPrepUSB applications very special and unique than the others.
There is a QEMU Emulator that came along with this application, which lets you boot from the bootable USB drive within the Windows system without having to reboot the computer. You can use this functionality to inspect if the bootable USB drive is performing as it should.
You will get many more features with this tool other than the ones that are discussed here, so install on your machine and explore. Even though, this application offers so many features, but, because of the difficult user interface the experience is not at all good.
Only, if you have some technical knowledge in regards to the filesystems, bootloader and etc, then this application is good, otherwise, it is not.
YUMI
YUMI or Your Universal Multiboot Installer is an application that helps to create multiboot USB drives. This application is made by the creators of the Universal USB Installer, which is used to create normal bootable USB drives.
With the help of YUMI, you can create a bootable flash drive for the antivirus applications, multiple Operating Systems, firmware and etc. Just like the ‘Universal USB Installer’, this application lets you create Persistent storage, in order to keep backups, system settings and etc.
WinSetUpFromUSB
The WinSetUpFromUSB is also an application that provides you an opportunity to make bootable flash drives for the Windows OS. Even though this software creates bootable USB drives for Windows, but you can do that for other OS also.
This application can create bootable media also for the following utilities like WinPE. WinBuilder and etc. The user interface of the WinSetUpFromUSB application is simple when you first execute it. But, in order to access the advanced options, what you can do is put a checkmark on the ‘Advanced options’.
You can inspect the bootable USB drive that you have created with this application, with the help of a QEMU emulator. In order to start the process put a tick mark on the ‘Test in QEMU’ option.
Power ISO
The Power ISO is yet another software to make a bootable USB, but it can mount images of the OS on to the optical and the flash drives. With this tool, you can extract, burn, make, convert, edit, compress and encrypt the ISO files.
In order to make a bootable flash drive, you need to first choose the ‘Create Bootable USB’ from the drop-down menu. After that, select the path where the ISO file is present, along with the USB drive.
One of the biggest disadvantages of this software is that it can create bootable USB drives for only the Windows OS and not any other system files.
WinToBootic
WinToBootic is a free application that you can use to make a bootable USB drive for the Windows Operatic System only. You do not need to install this software to create a bootable flash drive but simply execute the same.
The WinToBootic application is possibly the easiest application among all the applications presented here in terms of user interface with minimal options. This utility supports the NTFS file system.
XBoot
The XBoot is a free tool for creating the flash drives that are bootable and also the ISO image files. With this tool, you can merge more than one ISO file for softwares like Windows OS, Linux, antivirus rescue and etc.
At the time of the booting process, the bootable USB drive opens the user interface of the XBoot application. Next, from that interface locate and select the image file of the software or OS which you want to boot.
WinToFlash
WinToFlash is the eleventh tool here, that can make USB drive bootable. With this tool, you can make a multiboot bootable flash drive of various applications like live Linux, data recovery, offline antivirus and etc from any Windows system.
This software comes with a ‘Windows To Go’ feature that lets you execute and install fully functional Windows OS from the bootable USB flash drive.