Virtually everyone owns at least one usb flash drive these days. There are so many different kinds, shapes, colors, you name it.From plain sticks, to elegant structural designs, or even super weird ones, I’m sure you can find one that’s right for you. I mean, who cares about specs when you have bacon usb, duh!
Nevertheless, all of them do the same job. Sure, some are more efficient than others when it comes to capacity and speed, but at the end of the day, they all store data.
Well, that’s not always the case. You see, you can make a usb drive executable, or in other words, “bootable”
That’s cool and all, but who needs a bootable usb?
The answer is, everyone!
That’s right. How do you think you can install an os in a notebook? They don’t have any cd drives. Even, if you do have cd drivers in your device, it’s always a good idea to have a dedicated usb stick with your os, cause it’s very common for cds to get corrupted over time. Nobody wants to buy again something they already have because it broke.
In the past, creating a bootable usb, it was complicated and time consuming. Today, there are plenty different tools to make one in no time. In this guide we’ll go with Rufus. It’s a lightweight utility and supports a number of different o.s. such as Windows, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Arch Linux, CentOS, Fedora, Slackware.
All you need to do, is get Rufus and the ISO image of the software you want. Oh, and a usb flash drive, of course.
Quick explanation about ISO image. If you already know what that is, then you can skip this.
As the name suggests, it’s the exact image of all the data and structural information that a CD-ROM or a DVD contains. That way you can store all the data in one folder in your pc, and not keep a pile of CD-ROMs in your desk. If you’re running on Windows 8 and above, you don’t need another utility to create an ISO image. Otherwise, you can use WinCDEmu.
Now, lets create a bootable usb!
- Run Rufus (no install is needed)
- Insert your usb stick
- Wait for it to fill in the blank fields (if it doesn’t, do it manually)
- Select your ISO file you want to burn
- Press start
Voilà! Now you have your own bootable usb stick!
Below there’s a really cool tool you can have either you’re just a beginner or a professional pc technician.
You can benefit from the advantages of Hirens Bootable CD by having it in your USB.
Hirens bootable CD contains a huge collection of useful programs and utilities for your pc. From antivirus tools, back up ,clean up to editors, optimizers and many more categories to choose from, you can trust to always have the right software for the job. You can check out the list here.
Regularly, you would download all the software and keep it in a bootable CD. However, you can use Rufus to transfet it to your usb stick so you can have it always on you. I mean, who keeps a CD Rom with them all the time?
Follow the above instructions and be always prepared for any computer emergency. Download Bootable CD here.