Installing xp from a rufus flash drive. Create a bootable flash drive with Rufus

Rufus is a small portable utility designed to creation bootable USB devices - flash drives, USB-HDD, memory cards. Supports Russian language, distributed is free. Meaningful benefits compared to many analogues, Rufus has four:

The process of creating bootable media is quite fast;
Devices formatted both as a separate stage and in a single process directly when writing a distribution kit to them;
Supported anyISO-images- installation processes for Windows, other operating systems, LiveDisk, as well as DD images;
not provided to work with the UEFI BIOS, distributions (which are Windows 7, separate Linux and LiveDisk assemblies) are adapted by means of the utility to the firmware of new generation computers.

Program settings

Rufus is so minimalistic that of the general settings it provides only language change interface.

The settings offered directly in the utility window are creation options bootable media, optimally set by default, but changed if necessary. Consider these options using the example of creating a bootable USB flash drive for installing Windows.

Choosing a flash drive and BIOS type

First of all, in the column Device" necessary specify the flash drive itself, if several external devices are currently connected.

The most significant column for creating a bootable UEFI flash drive is the second one. This parameter, which adapts the media to its definition in the UEFI BIOS. If the computer is based on one and the hard disk has a partition style GPT, from the drop-down list of the second column, select " GPT for computers with UEFI».

For computers based on a regular BIOS (Legacy) and in cases where the UEFI interface is disabled intentionally, in this column you must select " MBR for computers with BIOS or UEFI».

File system

The third column is responsible for file system carrier. In most cases choice will stand between two types - FAT32 and NTFS.

For BIOS UEFI, the choice of FAT32 is fundamental. A flash drive with this file system will boot successfully and will also work on a computer with a regular BIOS. but FAT32 will not see files with weight more than 4 GB. Operating system distribution vendors are well aware of this nuance. And therefore, the official ISO images of the Windows installation processes always weigh less than 4 GB. Usually this size is exceeded by builders of unofficial Windows builds and geeks who create LiveDisks for all occasions. For such distributions, you need to specify NTFS. If there is a question in using the advantages of UEFI for Windows, then we are looking for a suitable ISO file for installing the system.

Check for bad sectors

In the column " Formatting Options» Rufus offers a non-preset option - checking for bad blocks. This is an additional operation that will increase the total recording time, but you can resort to it if the flash drive periodically signals about the presence of bad sectors.

Formatting, path to ISO and start of operation

Even if the flash drive is already formatted, do not uncheck the box below " Quick Format". In this case, the media will be subject to full formatting - a very time-consuming procedure and not in the best way affecting the life of flash drives.

Below is the path to the ISO image to be burned. Then we press " Start" at the bottom.

We confirm start and wait for the completion of the operation.

We will tell you about the fastest way to make a bootable USB flash drive with almost any operating system.

Spent time: 37 min. A USB 2.0 flash drive does not show very high speed. USB 3.0 would be at least twice as fast. Image Windows 10 x86-x64.iso weighing 6.62GB downloaded in advance.

Rufus weighs 945 Kb, but despite its weight it is a very useful program designed for:

creating a bootable USB disk from a bootable ISO image (Windows, Linux, UEFI, LiveCD, etc.)
firmware from under DOS, for example BIOS,
running low-level utilities such as memtest,Victoria etc.

Rufus requires Windows XP or a later version of Windows to run properly. Also, the program does not require installation, after launching the application is ready to work.

An incomplete list of ISO images that Rufus can work with.

Arch Linux	Knoppix	Trinity Rescue Kit
Archbang	KolibriOS	ubuntu
BartPE/pebuilder	Kubuntu	Ultimate Boot CD
CentOS	Linux Mint	Windows XP (SP2+)
Damn Small Linux	NT Password Registry Editor	Windows Vista
Debian	Parted Magic	Windows Server 2008
Fedora	Partition Wizard	Windows 7
FreeDOS	Raspbian	Windows 8
FreeNAS	React OS	Windows 8.1
Gentoo	red hat	Windows Server 2012
GParted	rEFInd	Windows 10
gNewSense	Slackware	Windows Server 2016
Hiren's Boot CD	Super Grub2 Disk
LiveXP	Tails

Where can I download?

The current version is 2.18 .

Or from the official site -> http://rufus.akeo.ie/ (Fig.1)

Fig.1 - Rufus official site. Download Rufus.

We downloaded the regular version from the first link, not Portable. I used both versions and I can say that the differences, except for the appearance of the configuration file - rufus.ini in the Portable version, and the ability to enable automatic check for updates, NO!

Creating a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 10 x86-x64.

Run the downloaded executable rufus-2.18.exe.

We are prompted to select our USB drive from which we want to make a bootable USB flash drive. At the bottom of the window is the number of detected devices. (Fig.2)

Fig.2 - Overview of Rufus. Connected USB drives.

Click on the disk icon (Fig. 3) and select the boot image, in our case it is Windows 10 x86-x64.iso.

Fig.3 - Overview of Rufus. Selecting an iso image.

Rufus will automatically set the recommended parameters, I personally changed only volume label from "ESD-ISO" on the "Windows 10 x86-x64", h so as not to forget what is stored on this flash drive. (Fig. 4)

And so the flash drive and iso image are selected, click " Start " .

Fig.4 - Overview of Rufus. Selecting an iso image. Automatic selection of parameters.

Rufus warns us about the destruction of all data from our flash drive. We press "OK ".(Fig.5)

Fig. 5 - Warning about the destruction of all data from our flash drive.

The process of creating a bootable USB flash drive has begun. Green line - image loading progress. Below it, the procedure currently being performed is described. In the lower right corner you can see the time spent. (Fig.6)

Fig.6 - Rufus. The process of creating a bootable flash drive.

The creation of a bootable flash drive is completed. We take out the flash drive, you can use it. (Fig. 7)

Fig.7 - Rufus. The process of creating a bootable flash drive is completed.

You can also open the log, here you can see what actions take place in the process. For example, if the creation of a flash drive ends with an error, then you can track the problem and maybe, if you are a more experienced user, solve it. (Fig. 8)

Fig.8 - Rufus magazine.

A meticulous overview of the parameters.

Sometimes, before downloading a program, you want to be sure that it has the functions that we need. Let's quickly go through the key parameters that can be changed manually.

"Device" - Select connected USB devices.

"Partition scheme and system interface type"- We are invited to choose one of the three items. (Fig. 9)

MBR for BIOS or UEFI computers (Optional for most BIOS or UEFI computers)
MBR for computers with UEFI (Option for computers with UEFI interface. When installing Windows XP with USB access)
GTP for UEFI Computers (Option for UEFI computers. When installing Windows XP without USB access)

Fig.9 - Overview of Rufus. Connected USB Drives and Partition Schemes and System Interface Types

"File system"- Select the required file system. It is proposed to choose one of the four items. (Fig. 10)

Fat32 (default)
NTFS
exFAT

"Cluster size" - Selecting the minimum cluster size that each data block occupies. (Fig. 10)

2048 bytes
4096 bytes (default)
8192 bytes
16 KB
32 KB
64 KB

Fig.10 - Overview of Rufus. File system selection and Cluster size selection.

"New volume label" - Give the flash drive a name.

Available checkboxes and lists in the Format Options section.(Fig.11)

"Check for bad blocks" + "Select the number of passes from 1 to 4- Checking the device for bad (damaged) blocks using the byte table.

"Quick Format" - Quick/Full Format.

"Create Boot Disk" + Choicelist "Boot Method"- Apparently, you can uncheck the checkbox and remove the "Boot Disk" function ... Why? this is some nonsense...

Load Method List
ISO image
DD image
Syslinux 4.07
Syslinux 6.03
React OS
Grub 2.02
Grub4DOS 0.4.6a
UEFI:NTFS

"Create advanced device label and icon" - Allow labels with international characters to be displayed and set the device icon.(Created by autorun.inf)

Available checkboxes and lists in the "Additional options" section.

Extra options can be opened by clicking on the down arrow to the right of Formatting Options.

"Show external USB drives"- I don’t understand why this is a function, I don’t see where they are shown.

"Add fixes for old BIOS" - Add an extra hidden section and align the section boundaries. This will help improve bootloader detection in older BIOS versions.

"Use MBR with BIOS ID" + "List of IDs" - Use MBR which allows bootloader selection and can masquerade as device ID in BIOS. Try disguising the first bootable USB drive (usually 0x80) as a different drive. This is required to install only Windows XP. - Personally, I have never encountered this.

Fig.11 - Available checkboxes and lists.

Review is over! I can say that in 99.9% of cases, what is described in A meticulous review, Rufus for all popular systems will automatically select the desired parameters.

Self-reinstallation of Windows has long been available to everyone. Now almost every student can do it. But installing Windows is becoming less and less common due to the fact that it is much more convenient to use a USB flash drive for these purposes. In this article, you will learn how to create a bootable USB flash drive with any version of Windows using the Rufus program.

How to use Rufus to create a bootable flash drive?

This program is one of the most popular among its kind. With its help, you can create a bootable USB flash drive from any bootable .iso disk image in just a few clicks. You can also create bootable USB flash drives with UEFI support.

To create a bootable USB flash drive from an iso image in Rufus, after launching it, you need to set the following parameters:

In the first section, device, select the USB flash drive that you inserted into the usb port of your computer to write the Windows image to it;
Partition scheme and type of system interface, select "MBR for computers with BIOS or UEFI";
Install the file system NTFS or, if you need UEFI support, FAT32;
Specify the cluster size by default and write off any volume label;

You should also check the boxes - Quick Format" And " Create boot disk". And opposite to creating a boot disk, you need to select " ISO image” and click on the disk icon to specify the image to be written to the USB flash drive.

The correct settings are marked in the figure below:

Rufus settings for creating a bootable flash drive

After that, you just have to click on the button " Start” and thereby start the process of copying the image to a USB flash drive, which will become bootable at the end of this process.

Now you know how to use the Rufus program and create bootable USB flash drives with it.

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Almost every modern user, when working with a computer, has dealt with disk images. They have an undeniable advantage over ordinary material discs - they are much faster to work with, you can connect an almost unlimited number of them at the same time, their size can be ten times larger than an ordinary disk.

One of the most requested tasks when working with images is writing them to removable media to create a boot disk. The standard operating system tools do not have the necessary functionality, and specialized software comes to the rescue.

Rufus is a program that can write an image of the operating system to a USB flash drive for later installation on a computer. Portability, ease and reliability differs from competitors.

The main task of this program is to create boot disks, so this functionality will be analyzed in this article.

1. First, find the flash drive on which the image of the operating system will be written. The main nuances of the choice are a capacity suitable for the size of the image and the absence of important files on it (during the process, the flash drive will be formatted, all data on it will be irretrievably lost).

2. The following setup is required to correctly create the boot item. This setting depends on the newness of the computer. For most computers, the default setting is suitable, for the most modern, you must select the UEFI interface.

3. In most cases, for recording an ordinary operating system image, it is recommended to leave the following setting by default, with the exception of certain features of some operating systems, which are quite rare.

4. We also leave the cluster size by default or select it if another one is specified.

5. In order not to forget what is recorded on this flash drive, you can also name the media with the name of the operating system. However, the user can specify absolutely any name.

6. Rufus can check the removable media for bad blocks before burning the image. More than one pass can be selected to increase the detection level. To enable this feature, simply check the corresponding box.

be careful, this operation, depending on the size of the media, can take quite a long time and heats up the flash drive itself.

7. If the user has not previously cleared the flash drive from files, this function will delete them before writing. If the flash drive is completely empty, this option can be disabled.

8. Depending on the operating system to be recorded, you can set the boot method. In the vast majority of cases, this setting can be left to more advanced users; for normal recording, the default setting is sufficient.

9. To label the flash drive with an international symbol and assign a picture, the program will create an autorun.inf file where this information will be recorded. If you don't need it, you can just turn it off.

10. Using a separate button, the image that will be recorded is selected. The user simply needs to point to the file using the standard Explorer.

11. The system of additional settings will help you configure the detection of external USB drives and improve bootloader detection in older BIOS versions. These settings will be needed if a very old computer with an outdated BIOS will be used to install the operating system.

12. After the program is fully configured, you can start recording. To do this, just press one button - and wait for Rufus to do its job.

13. The program records all the actions taken in the log, which can be viewed in the process of its work.

The program allows you to easily create a boot disk for both new and older computers. It has a minimum of settings, but rich functionality.

Probably many users involved in creating bootable media have heard of a program such as Rufus. The instructions for using it are quite simple. Nevertheless, there are several key points and nuances that should be mentioned separately. For the Rufus 2.7 program, the instructions for use will be considered (although today this particular modification is not relevant).

What is the Rufus program for?

The application is a universal tool for quickly creating bootable media, which are USB devices. For the Rufus application, the instructions for use directly indicate that ordinary flash drives, external USB hard drives, and even removable memory cards (their file system is supported) can act as media.

Immediately, we note that this program is focused exclusively on USB devices, so creating bootable media in the form of an optical disc or other hard drive will not work.

Main features of the application

For Rufus, the instruction manual points out one interesting point related to some non-standard features of the application.

The program itself is designed to work in the environment of operating systems Windows, Linux, etc. (for Windows, modifications from XP to 10 are supported). But the most amazing thing is that the application is able to create firmware for BIOS and UEFI or write system images to run on computers that do not have any kind of OS.

You can't refuse BIOS support either. For the Rufus application, the instruction indicates that both legacy versions and the newest ones in the form of UEFI are supported.

The scope of the program is quite wide. You can create bootable media for more than just cases where you need to install an operating system from scratch (or reinstall). It is actively used to recover the OS and passwords. In addition, when writing to media, the application can find bad or problem sectors, format or restore USB drives.

Released versions

To date, there are two main modifications of the program: stationary and portable. Both versions take up little space, and the difference is that all settings for the stationary modification are written in the system registry keys, and for the portable one, a specially created settings file is used.

Rufus program: instructions. Beginning of work

It doesn’t matter if the user launched a portable or stationary version, the initial setup should be done at the first stage.

The app's interface is set to English by default. Therefore, first you need to click on the globe icon located at the top right, and select Russian from the menu that appears.

Note that the program interface (for Rufus, the instruction directly indicates this, and the user can see it with his own eyes) contains only one window in which all actions will be performed. This completely eliminates the possibility of pressing the wrong button or selecting the wrong option.

Choosing a Partition Scheme

So, the program is running (until the flash drive is inserted, the main fields will be empty). As soon as the user inserts the device, the application detects the drive and fills in all fields automatically!

If multiple devices are connected, you can select the one you need from the list. For an uninitiated person, this is just a godsend, because in most cases the parameters set in the main fields do not need to be changed. The only exception is the recording method, but more on that later. But if you still need to make changes, consider each parameter separately.

At the initial stage, you need to choose the type of partition. There are three options here:

MBR (boot record) for BIOS or UEFI;
MBR is for UEFI only;
GPT for UEFI.

What to choose from all this? The first option is universal. The second is for computers exclusively with UEFI systems. The third option should only be selected if the computer system uses a hard drive larger than 2 GB.

File system definition

For Rufus, the instructions in the next step involve choosing a file system. Usually NTFS is suggested by default.

But in principle, if the boot distribution (image) of the system being installed is less than 4 GB in size, FAT32 can also be installed. The cluster size set by the program itself by default can be left unchanged.

Volume label and formatting options

Next, you will need to specify the volume label (but this is not required) and go to the formatting options. To save time, you can leave the quick format, but if there is any doubt that the media could be damaged, you can use the full one. In this case, it is imperative to leave a mark in the field for creating bootable media.

Now the most important thing. From the drop-down menu, in most cases, you should choose to create a disk from an ISO image, after which, using the browse button, you will need to specify the path to the source in the form of a pre-loaded or saved image of the future system.

Record activation

Finally, all preliminary steps are completed. Just in case, we check the set parameters again, just press the start button and agree with the notification that all data on the device will be destroyed during the formatting process.

Then it remains only to wait for the end of the recording process. According to the developers themselves, the process, for example, for a Windows 7 image, can take about 5-10 minutes, no more. It is believed that this indicator is the minimum among all programs with which you can create bootable USB media.

Rufus: instructions (Windows 10). Using Windows To Go

More interesting is the version of the program 2.0 and higher used in Windows 8 and 10 systems. When using it, in the main window you can see a special Windows To Go line that you want to use instead of the standard system installation.

What it is? It turns out that this method of creating bootable media is designed to be written to in such a way that when booted from it, you can run a full-fledged Windows Enterprise OS and work with it like a regular OS!

However, during the recording process, some important conditions must be observed. First of all, as stated, it is required to use only USB-drives recommended by Microsoft (if Windows is needed as a working OS). The second condition is that the drive must have a capacity of at least 32 GB. Otherwise, the whole process is completely identical to the above steps. The only thing you should pay attention to is the installation of the NTFS standard as the file system (by no means FAT).

Conclusion

As a kind of afterword, it remains to say that the program really looks very convenient and fast. This is confirmed not only by many users, but also by professional experts. In addition, it will not be difficult to deal with the application even for a person who has never created bootable media in his life and is going to do it for the first time. The presence of only one window (workspace) and almost complete automation speak only in favor of this application. No wonder it has received so many rave reviews.

By the way, the recording speed is especially noted. Even the portable version is so fast that many similar heavyweight packages would never dream of it. And if you consider that you can use the USB 3.0 standard, the recording speed increases incredibly. In addition, the creation of a carrier with a full-fledged working system in general causes genuine admiration.