Software

Tools to prepare USB sticks for installation or boot live CD (ISO to USB)

In the past, the installation of operating systems on computers was done through CD or DVD discs. With the advancement of technologies, optical discs have become obsolete and in their place has been their digital representation in a format called ISO. It is very common to have ISO files that contain installations of various operating systems (Microsoft Windows, GNU Linux, etc.) or tools that are LiveCD. That is, that allow them to be executed without installing it (ERD Comanders, WinPEs, Hirens Boot, etc.). To install them, it is necessary to prepare USB flash drives.

The computer startup process has also evolved, so there are many that use the traditional mode (Legacy), others the UEFI mode and some both modes, although the trend is to move to UEFI.

In this article, we will introduce you to some of the most popular software tools for preparing USB storage devices for use as bootable installation media or LiveCD. There are many applications for this purpose, but we bring a selection of the most popular. In subsequent articles, each of them will be explored in depth.

Programs to prepare USB drives

Sardu

With this tool you can create MultiBoot USB flash drives with multiple Windows installers, virus removal, unlimited Linux distributions, utilities and more Legacy BIOS mode and UEFI boot, on PC and Mac x86.

Official site

Rufus

Rufus is a utility that helps you format and create bootable USB media such as pen drives, memory cards, etc.

It is especially useful for:

  • Create USB installation media from bootable ISOs (Windows, Linux, UEFI, etc.)
  • Work on a computer that does not have an operating system installed
  • Update the firmware or BIOS of a computer from DOS
  • Run a low-level utility

Official site

Yumi

YUMI (Your Universal Multiboot Installer) is a USB boot tool that can be used to create a multiboot USB drive. With it you can quickly create a multiboot USB flash drive containing multiple ISO files. Use it to boot your favorite Live Linux operating systems, Linux and Windows installers, antivirus utilities, disk cloning, backups, penetration tests, diagnostic tools, and much more.

Official site

Balena etcher

Also known as Etcher, it is a free and open source utility that is used to transfer image files (.iso, .img) for bootable systems to USB flash drives for use as installation media or live CDs for operating systems. . It is developed by Balena and uses the Apache License 2.0.

The tool is very simple and easy to use.

https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/releases/

In the following link, you can see a small tutorial on how to use Balena Etcher step by step

Of these tools to prepare USB flash drives with multiboot, we recommend Ventoy. It is capable of directly reading the ISO files inside the device, making it very easy to add or remove ISO files, in addition to the facilities provided by the use of the tool.

Yirenia HQ

Entradas recientes

United Airlines’ First Automated Reservation System: An Example of High Availability

Evelyn Berezin was a pioneer in the world of computing. She is considered the creator…

6 months hace

Evelyn Berezin, the creator of the first word processor

When I started researching this woman, I never thought I would find her anecdotes so…

7 months hace

Installation and configuration of WordPress from scratch on an Ubuntu VPS with Let’s Encrypt certificates

Among the most popular and used content management systems (CMS) on the entire internet is…

7 months hace

What is Delphi and why do you have to learn to use it?

Delphi is a RAD (Rapid Application Development) type visual development environment. It is a development…

9 months hace

Web browsers, their history and features

A web browser, also called an Internet browser or simply a "browser", is a computer…

11 months hace

Installation of GNU Linux Debian 12 (Bookworm) + KDE in graphical mode for workstations from scratch and step by step

In this article we will see step by step how to install GNU Linux Debian…

1 year hace