How to Create a Bootable USB Drive
Here’s a quick primer that shows how to make a USB drive bootable and check the bootable status of such drives.
1. Using BalenaEtcher
For Windows systems, the fastest and most reliable way is to download and install BalenaEtcher. This software readily etches any ISO file on the USB drive.
2. With Rufus
Rufus is a commonly-used bootable disc/USB drive creator. As an open source application, it’s lightweight, and you have a choice not to install anything. Check this guide to learn how to use Rufus properly. Here’s a quick summary of how to create a bootable drive with Rufus.
Check USB Drive Bootable Status From Disk Management
Check USB Drive Bootable Status From Command Prompt
Another way to check the external drive’s bootability is to run a few lines on the Command Line prompt.
Check USB Drive Bootable Status From Windows PowerShell
Even Windows’ PowerShell can give a quick overview of the drive’s bootability.
Check Whether USB Is Bootable Using MobaLiveCD
The easiest third-party software to check a drive’s bootable state is MobaLiveCD, a wrapped-for-the-Qemu-system emulation software. It will actually run a virtual machine (an ad-hoc one) and attempt to boot from your USB, so it’s a fairly robust way to check the drive’s bootable state. If you get a message that the USB drive is not bootable, it doesn’t always mean that’s the case, as counterintuitive as it may sound. There is one last method you can try below.
Using Magic ISO Maker to Test Disk Images
You can also use the (admittedly very old) freeware Magic ISO Maker to see whether a disk image is bootable. This actually works best on images, but it’s a good way to ensure an image is bootable before you burn it to a USB. Image credit: Kaboompics via Pexels All screenshots by Sayak Boral
