8 Tools To Create Bootable USB For Windows And Linux (Easy Ways)

As flash memory devices are getting cheaper and are easy to handle, the circular old optical disks are becoming rare. Using flash memory devices like USB pen drive or portable hard disk as bootable media for your computer have duel advantage. The USB drive is more portable, easy to handle and you can easily erase them and then use it for other purpose. Also you can easily use the same memory stick to test multiple operating systems and preparing them a bootable disk takes very less time as compared to the traditional compact disks. Having a Live USB key is better than just using a Live CD because you can even save your data and install software on USB key itself. USB Pen Drive Use the options of operating systems are increasing, you can't control yourself to test various versions and platforms such as Windows 7, Windows 8, Android Live OS, various flavors of Linux like Ubuntu, Mint, Mandriv

a and many more. Most of the Linux operating systems can be easily tasted by creating a ‘Live’ disk which gives you a complete experience of the full operating system without installing anything on your hard disk. Also Windows OS is also leaping fast in versions and if you want to test all of them, creating a bootable USB drive is more convenience and wise idea. Here, we are going to introduce different software's for preparing a USB drive to boot your favorite operating system from flash memory. Rufus Rufus Rufus If you don't want to hunt for separate tool for every operating system to test and it claims to be a fastest tool available on the internet. Rufus is a simple, straight forward and simple to use tool. It is as simple as a USB format tool finds in every Windows operating system. You just run the Rufus and it willautomatically scan your available USBports for connected media and show the detected USB drives names. Select the appropriate USB drive, select file system to use on a flash drive, give appropriate name and show the path for ‘bootable’ .ISO image of your targeted operating system. The .ISO image on your hard disk must be a valid bootable image because Rufus scan the image before you load it. If you get any error, just uncheck ‘Create bootable disk’ option. Rufus can be used to create bootable USB drive for All Windows versions and all Linux distros. + fast, easy, run without installation. - Nothing Download Rufus WinToBootic WinToBootic WinToBootic Again a basic tool with minimum option. Just drag and drop your .ISO image or click on ‘drop ISO here’ icon. It will auto detect your USB media, you just have to hit the ‘Do It’ button, WinToBootic will do the everything rest. + minimal interface, run without installation. - Does not support Linux Download WinToBootic RMPrepUSB It's all in one tool but too much difficult with a clutter of options and settings. If you don't know what are you doing, don't use it. This is for advanced user and I personally do not recommend it if you just want to write a bootable USB disk and test a new operating system. But if you want tweak the boot loader, change filesystem then RMPrepUSB is for you. The special feature of RMPrepUSB is you can create a partition in USB drivejust like you do on your hard disk making it more useful for saving files plus using the same drive as a separate folder for storing files. This keeps your files separate from the operating system files. + For advanced users. - Difficult to use Support all OS. Download RMPrepUSB Universal USB Installer Univarsal USB Installer Universal USB Installer Though the name is Universal, this is a specialized tool for Linux and have a predefined list of most of the Linux distributions available. When you select the Linux distribution from the dropdown menu, it provides a link for homepage of that distribution from where you can directly download the Linux distribution. If you already have on local disk, just browse to the ISO disk and select the appropriate USB flash drive to make it bootable for your favorite Linux distribution. The extra feature of Universal USB Installer is that you can prepare a Live antivirus rescue disk using it. A special option for this is also given for reuse CD. + Specialized menu for Linux, also support Window 7 Download Universal USB Installer UNetbootin UNetbootin UNetbootin This tool is an exact clone of Universal USB installer or you can also say Universal USB installer is a clone of UNetbootin. No any difference finds in this software and this is also specialized to create a bootable USB for any Linux distribution. If you are not using Windows as your host operating system, then UNetbootin is an option to go for. UNetbootin is available for Linux, iOS and Windows. So if you are using Linux, most of the software's listed here will not run where UNetbootin will come to help. Download UNetbootin Linux Live USB Creator (LiLi) This is really a great eye candy plus an excellent user interface. Apple style website with everything at right place and well categorized. The software is also excellent. The special feature called built-in Virtualization allow users to run the installed Linux operating system without restarting the Windows which are an exclusive feature of LiLi. If you are concerned only about Linux you must go for this. Download LiLi Creator Koala The koala is also a tool that will help you to boot new operating system from USB stick. This is not a tool that will allow you to browse an ISO file stored on your hard disk and write it to the USB drive. Koala only scans CD / dvd drive to find .ISO images of Linux OS. Not recommended. Download Koala WinSetUp From USB WinSetup From USB WinSetup From USB This is also a tool for those who want to install multiple operating system on one USB device. WinSetup From USB let you install Windows 7, Windows vista, any Linux distribution using Ubuntu variant and any Linux distribution using SysLinux one single USB device. This is an exclusive function of Win Setup From USB and you must download it and give a try. When you prepare the USB drive using ‘WinSetup From USB’ you will be presented with the list of operating systems installed on the thumb drive and select the preferred operating system to boot from. Though the interface is simple, non expert users may find it difficult to use. Download WinSetUp From USB WinUSB Maker This is more that just a bootable USB creation tool, though you can use it for that also. This is a special tool that will allow you to clone hard disk partition on your portable memory device like USB thumb drive or portable hard disk. WinUSB maker copy exact partition of your local hard disk along with the boot files and file structure. You can also restore the saved partition from the USB device to your hard disk making it useful as a backup tool. This is a must have tool for everyone. We have already discussed about this earlier here. Download WinUSB Maker Verdict: If you want an all in one, plain and simple tool to boot your Windows or Linux from USB pen drive, go for 'Rufus'. If you want a Linux Specialist, 'LiLi' is a good choice. 'WinSetup From USB' is for installing multiple OS in one USB drive and'RMPrep USB' is for making partition in USB drive along with Windows. If you want to clone a complete partition with OS 'WinUSB Maker' is the best choice.