Install Your Operating System From a Flash Drive
For the longest time it
has been the norm to install operating systems and other software from CDs and
DVDs. Now everything is online and eventually the CD\DVD drive will go the way
of the floppy disk drive... if you even remember those!
While there are several ways
to install an operating system on your computer, one way that many people like
to use is to install the OS from a bootable USB flash drive. This way they don't
need the actual installation CD or DVD and if they don't have a CD\DVD drive
then they can still install the OS.
When you download an operating system image from the Internet it will most likely come in the form of an ISO file. Think of an ISO file kind of like a zip file where you have many files contained within one file. ISO files can be converted into bootable CDs, DVDs or even flash drives that can be used to start your computer with.
But what if you want to create a bootable flash drive but only have the CD\DVD version of the operating system? Well one thing you can do is convert the contents of that CD or DVD to an ISO file which can then be used to make a bootable USB flash drive. There are many ways to do this but we will go over one program that we like to use called ImgBurn. It's a free download and very easy to use.
Once you install ImgBurn and
run it, you will see the main menu like shown in below. From there you will
insert your CD or DVD into your drive and click on Create image file from disk.
Next you will need to make a
couple of selections before creating your ISO file. One thing you need to do is
select the source of the files that will be used to create the ISO file which
will be your CD\DVD drive. The other thing you need to do is decide what you
want the ISO file to be named and where you want it created. Then when you are
ready to go simply click on the CD to file button on the bottom of the window.
ImgBurn will go through the
conversion procedure and show you a status bar letting you know how far the
process has completed.
When its complete it will
pop up a message saying Operation
Successfully Completed and you can then click
OK and close the program.
Now if you browse to where
you told ImgBurn to create the ISO file you will find it there and now you are
ready to create your bootable USB flash drive.
For the creation of the
bootable USB flash drive we will show you two methods using two free programs
that are available to download from the Internet. We will also be using Windows
10 for our ISO image for the bootable flash drive.
Rufus Bootable USB Flash Drive Utility
Rufus is a free utility that
will make a USB flash drive bootable allowing you to boot your computer off of
that flash drive like it was a bootable CD or DVD. Rufus can be used with
Windows, Linux and other operating systems that can boot off an ISO file. All
you need to do to get things going is have your USB drive in your computer and
have your ISO file on your computer where you can get to it. Then you will run
the Rufus executable file that you downloaded and then you will be able to
customize your settings depending on what type of computer you are attempting to
boot if needed.
If you take a look at the
image below you will see that we are using a flash drive that is currently the
S: drive on our computer and its 32GB in size and doesn't have a drive label. If
you have more than one flash drive connected to your computer, make sure you
select the one you actually want to use to avoid data loss on the one you don't
want to use. Or better yet, remove any other flash drives to avoid any potential
confusion.
The ISO file we have
selected to use to create the bootable flash drive is called
Windows10Pro.iso and is stored on our local hard drive. For the
volume label name to be used after the bootable flash drive is created we will
use Windows10. The rest of the options
will be selected for you depending on the type of flash drive you are using and
the ISO file you will be creating the drive from even though you can customize
them to suit your needs. There are also advanced options for the
Drive Properties and
Format Options sections that you can
change if needed.
When you have everything set
click on the Start button and you will get a warning telling you that everything
on the flash drive will be destroyed before creating the new bootable flash
drive. So if you are sure you don't need any data off of the flash drive click
the OK button.
Then Rufus will do its thing
and you will see what is happening on the status bar at the bottom of the
window.
When the process is complete
it will say READY in the status bar which can be a little confusing because it
doesn't say complete or finished but it's actually done. Simply click on CLOSE
and remove the USB drive from the computer.
Now you will have your
bootable flash drive ready to go for your operating system installation. Rufus
can be downloaded for free from their website.
Windows USB/DVD Download Tool
Another free and easy to use
tool for making a bootable USB flash drive is the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download
Tool. Since it has Windows 7 in the name there is not guarantee how long it will
be around for but as of this writing it's still available for
download on the Microsoft website.
Once you install the tool
simply run it and it will ask you to choose the ISO file you wish to use for
your flash drive. Once again we are using the
Windows10Pro.iso file. Then click the
Next button.
Next you will need to decide
if you want to make a bootable USB flash drive or DVD so in this case you will
click the USB device button.
For the next step simply
plug in your flash drive if it's not already connected and choose the right one
from the list. If it's not displayed then click on the refresh button to have
the tool search for it. Once again, make sure you pick the right one so you
don't wipe out any data you want to keep on a different flash drive. When you
have everything set click on the Begin
copying button to start the process.
You might get a warning saying there is not
enough free space on the drive if you have data on there already and that the
drive needs to be erased. As long as you are sure there is no important data on
the drive you need click the Erase USB Device button.
Now the tool will go through
the process of creating a bootable USB drive that you can use to install your
operating system with on your computer.
When the status bar reaches
100% then the process is complete and you can close the program and remove the
USB drive from your computer.
