Creating a bootable USB flash drive - TOP 10
The modern world of development is actively moving forward. Technologies that were relevant just yesterday are slowly but surely losing their popularity. An example of this are previously widely used CDs and DVDs, which today are extremely rarely used for storing, transferring and working with data. High speed of information reading, compactness and reusability — just a small list of all the advantages of USB drives, but simply - familiar to everyone flash drives. Any modern PC or laptop supports the ability to boot from a flash drive. But, often, they do not have a DVD drive, which was previously used for installing all kinds of software, including the operating systems themselves.
No problem! Nowadays, countless special software for creating bootable flash drives exist and are actively used. We will try to briefly analyze the best of these programs below.
Rufus
Rufus is one of the most popular utilities that allows you to burn a bootable USB flash drive with Windows or Linux. In addition, the product’s functionality makes it possible to check disks for integrity and add useful testing tools to the boot image.
The main advantages:
- high-speed performance;
- simple and intuitive interface;
- supports almost types of USB storage devices;
- distributed free of charge;
- does not require installation;
- Russian language.
Download Rufus https://rufus.ie/ru/
UltraISO
UltraISO is a multifunctional software with a Russian-language interface. The main purpose of this tool is to work with ISO images (an image of any optical disk that can be used instead of the CD itself), as well as burning a bootable USB flash drive.
The main advantages:
- writing ISO images to a flash drive;
- creating bootable USB drives;
- Russian-language interface;
- support for all versions of Windows OS.
There are two versions of the program: paid and free. Despite the fact that the free version of UltraISO has limited functionality, it is not at all difficult to write ready-made images to a flash drive and then successfully launch them from your PC or laptop.
Download UltraISO https://www.ultraiso.com/download.html
WinSetupFromUSB
WinSetupFromUSB is a free software product designed for recording a bootable USB flash drive, as well as installing both operating systems of the Windows family (XP/Vista/7) and other operating systems from them.
The main advantages:
- high-speed performance;
- ability to record various operating systems;
- simple and intuitive interface with a large number of different settings;
- the presence of a large number of tools for working with disks: Grub4DOS, SysLinux, etc.;
- ability to create bootable flash drives.
This software product is indispensable even in the most difficult situations, for example, when working with ISO images that other software simply refuses to work with.
Download WinSetupFromUSB http://www.winsetupfromusb.com/downloads/
WinToBootic
WiNToBootic is a completely free and perfectly working software product designed for creating a bootable USB flash drive with Windows OS.
The main advantages:
- support for ISO images with Windows;
- does not require installation on a PC or laptop;
- high speed;
- simple interface with a minimum number of options and settings;
- the ability to work with Juliet and UDF disk images, and with DVDs directly.
Download WinToBootic https://www.filecroco.com/download-wintobootic/
windy
Ventoy is a tool for creating a bootable device with different ISO images, with a simple interface. To burn a bootable USB flash drive, the user only needs to copy ISO files to it.
Main advantages:
- high-speed performance;
- ease of use;
- Legacy + UEFI (Secure Boot) support;
- interaction with many operating systems of the Windows and Linux family.
Download Ventoy https://www.ventoy.net/en/download.html
Sardu
SARDU is a simple utility with rich functionality and a Russian-language interface, designed for creating a bootable flash drive.
This program allows you to create an installation USB flash drive with both Windows and Linux operating systems. There are two versions of the utility:
- Free – there is no ability to add your own tools and applications; the user is limited to the list of programs provided by the developer.
- Paid - the user has the opportunity to add his own tools to the bootable USB flash drive and work with them in the future.
Download SARDU https://www.sarducd.it/downloads
Any Burn
AnyBurn is a convenient, free and easy-to-use software product that allows you not only to burn a bootable USB drive, but also to work with images.
The main advantages:
- High speed
- Simple interface;
- Interaction with operating systems of the Windows family;
- Russian-language interface.
Download AnyBurn https://anyburn.com/
AIO Boot
AIO Boot Creator is a powerful software product with a Russian interface designed for creating bootable flash drives and recording external hard drives with OS, LiveCD and programs suitable for running in UEFI and BIOS (Legacy).
The main advantages:
- creating boot drives;
- Russian-language interface;
- Interacts with all versions of Windows, etc.
Download AIO Boot https://www.aioboot.com/en/download/
Winusb
WinUSB is a relatively simple utility that allows you to quickly burn a bootable USB flash drive with an operating system and programs. It is possible to create a multiboot flash drive without preliminary formatting.
The main advantages:
- writing ISO images to a flash drive;
- Russian-language interface;
- UEFI and Legacy boot support for NTFS and FAT32 file systems
- Interacts with all versions of Windows, Linux.
Download WinUSB https://www.winusb.net/
WintoFlash
WintoFlash is a software product that allows you to burn installation media with different versions of the Windows operating system.
The main advantages:
- interaction with various formats;
- flash drive formatting function;
- the utility is designed as a step-by-step wizard, etc.
This is not the entire list of software products designed to create a bootable flash drive. However, for most users the functionality of the software discussed will be quite sufficient.
It should also be noted that to create the simplest USB drive and then install Windows operating systems from it, the command line is sufficient.
We hope that this was informative and that this information will allow someone to avoid possible problems.
