Have you ever been faced with the need to on a crashed PC but realize that you don't have the installation disc? For most people, such a case is always discouraging and disheartening because they know that the only way to install a new OS is to use an installation disc. Actually, all you need is a USB with a good capacity and a utility like Rufus. Rufus is a free, portable open-source utility that you can use to.

Install and run Etcher. To write the ISO file to the USB stick, we’re going to use a free and open source application called Etcher. After downloading this and clicking to mount the package, Etcher can either be run in-place or dragged into your Applications folder. Jul 21, 2019  It shows how to make a bootable Ubuntu USB drive using an open-source, cross-platform image writer called Etcher. Create a USB Installer On Any OS Using Etcher. Etcher is a free, open-source image writing tool created by Resin.io. It is available for all major desktop operating systems: Windows, macOS and Linux.

Rufus is small in size, but it surprisingly has everything you need as far as the above are concerned. Does Rufus Have a Mac Version?Rufus is primarily a Windows application and currently, it supports 64 or 32 bit Windows XP/7/8/10 only. This means that you can not use Rufus on the normal Mac computers. If you need to run Rufus on a Mac, then it will be imperative for the computer to. However, this is not an easy task at all.To those in the dark, this simply means that you will need to have a Windows Operating system installed in your Mac computer. However, if you didn't want to have two operating systems running on the same machine so that you can access Rufus, there are quite a number of alternatives you can use to achieve the same functionalities of Rufus on Mac.Rufus for Mac Alternative 1: UUByte ISO Editoris by far one of the best ISO toolkits for those who want a seamless process in creating, burning, extracting and editing ISO images. Unlike Rufus, it has both Windows and Mac versions so you don't have to worry about not having Rufus for Mac or the need to install two operating systems in your Mac.This ISO editor can effortlessly, CD or USB which you can then go ahead and use as a bootable disc for new installation.

The tool is also versatile enough to create an ISO archive from folders or external sources, in addition to extracting or mounting ISO files to Mac or Windows computers. With over 220,000 users worldwide, it is a clear winner among the ISO toolkits available in the market today. How to burn ISO to USB on Mac using UUByte ISO Editor: Please download UUByte ISO Editor for Mac and install the app. Then drag and drop the app icon to Application folder so you can open the app from Launchpad.

After that, insert a USB stick and click 'Burn' button at the first screen. Now import Windows ISO to the program and by clicking 'Burn' button at the bottom of the Window. Finally, wait for 10 minutes to get the job done.Rufus for Mac Alternative 2: UNetbootinUniversal Netboot Installer Unetbootin, is another cross-platform utility toolkit that makes a great alternative to Rufus on Mac. It has the ability to load and install various Linux distros on Mac. It is easy to use and supports a myriad of platforms. All you have to do is select an ISO file or the specific distribution you want to download and then simply choose the target drive. It also comes with a nice GUI, which further adds to the user experience during use.Pros:.

Support Windows, Mac and Linux. Able to download Linux ISO within the program. Easily create ISO image from files or folders.Cons:. Non-native user interface.

Lower success rate on new USB drives. Lack support for CD or DVD.Rufus for Mac Alternative 3: EtcherEtcher is another great Rufus alternative for Mac. It has been designed to allow you to easily and comfortably burn ISO images to USB drives and SD cards.

The utility comes with an advanced interface which may be intimidating on first glance, but after going through the simple user guide, getting around to use the utility becomes a breeze.Simply download this tool, launch it, and then choose the IMG file you are interested in burning. You will then select the location of the target USB drive or SD card and then wait for it to do its magic. It is lightweight and relatively fast, so you won't have to wait for a whole day for the burning process to end.Pros:. Polish user interface. Support USB drives as well as SD cards. Easy to use.Cons:. Being loaded slowly on startup.

Get stuck at burning process easily. Poor support for Windows 10 ISO.Verdict:Rufus is a great application for burning ISO to USB. Unfortunately, there is no Mac version yet. So for burning ISO to USB on Mac, you have to use third-party alternatives like UUByte ISO Editor to get it done. The suggestions in this post almost do the same thing as Rufus on Windows so don't worry about the functionality.

Go ahead and pick up the best one according to your experience.

ISO files, or image files can be extremely useful. They essentially contain a snapshot of all the required files and content for a particular OS, software, DVD or other media. It is important to know how to create bootable media from an ISO file because the process is not as simple as just copying the ISO file to another location. It requires a special utility for the purpose. In this article, we will showcase some of the best and most powerful tools to create a bootable USB drive from a source ISO file.

Please note that some of these methods require a significant knowledge of ISO files and how they are burned to create bootable media. If you are not very comfortable with the technical aspects of this process, then your choice will be narrowed down to a single option - the second one. Now, let's go ahead and see what these tools are capable of.

UUByte ISO Editor: Create Bootable USB from ISO on Windows 10/7/8

One of the biggest challenges when creating bootable media is that ISO files tend to get corrupted unless you are using the correct software. Even when you use appropriate software for the purpose, it's easy to end up redoing the burning process over and over again until you get it right. If you want to avoid all of that, then ISO Editor from UUByte should be your first choice.

This versatile application does not negatively impact your data in any way. It supports multiple file systems such as NTFS, FAT and FAT32. It also supports UEFI as well as legacy BIOS boots. In addition, the software offers full support across a wide range of Windows operating system ranging from Windows 10 all the way back to Vista and XP. Here is how you can easily use this reliable utility to create bootable USB drive from an ISO file that you have downloaded or extracted:

Key Features of ISO Editor

• One-click to create bootable USB or CD/DVD.
• Support 1500+ USB flash drives including the latest USB 3.0.
• Directly extract files from ISO Image.
• Copy entire ISO fime on DVD to local folder.

Step 1: Download and Installation UUByte ISO Editor on Windows PC

Download UUByte ISO Editor application from above location. Please note that this is a direct download link, which means the .exe file will be automatically downloaded when you click this link. Double-click the .exe file to install the software on your PC, and launch the application.

Step 2: Import ISO File

Click 'Burn' button on the main interface to initial the setup process. All you need to do is follow the onscreen instructions. After this, you will be taken to a page where you can select the ISO file from which you will be creating the bootable USB drive. Select the file and then insert the USB drive before moving to the next step.

Step 3: Start Making Bootable USB Drive from Selected ISO Image

You can now select USB as the burn option, and click on the button that says 'Burn'. In a few moments, your bootable USB drive will be ready and you can remove it and use it for your purpose.

As you can see, there are no complicated steps to follow and no additional software required to create bootable media. The application is completely error free, so you can confidently use even a DVD or CD to create the required bootable media from your ISO file.

XBOOT: Create Bootable USB from Windows 10/8/7 ISO

XBOOT is another very versatile utility, and it is designed to create multiboot USB drives. This simply means that you can have multiple ISO files on a single USB drive, and you can use these for various purposes as required.

One nice feature about this particular utility is that you will be notified in case a particular ISO file is not supported for burning as bootable media onto a USB drive. It's convenient because it saves you time in case the ISO is not suitable for creating bootable media.

Step 1: First of all, download and extract the utility on your Windows PC. When you launch the application, you will see a window containing three tabs. The first step is where you will be adding your ISO file.

Step 2: You can simply drag and drop multiple ISO files into this particular window. As we already mentioned, any ISO file that is not supported will prompt a notification.

Step 3: Once you have done this, at the bottom of the window on the right hand side you will see an option to either create a DVD or USB. Click on the USB option.

Step 4 : Now select the appropriate USB in case you have more than one. You can leave the bootloader section on the default choice. Now click 'Ok' to make your bootable USB drive. At the end of the process, you will have your bootable USB drive with whatever ISO files you selected in Step 2.

Etcher: Make Bootable USB from ISO on Mac & Linux (Ubuntu)

This particular utility is available for multiple distributions including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Etcher is popular because of its smooth interface and ease of use. The simple three-step process does require some amount of preparation, however, since you will have to get the correct ISO image file to use the right bootable media.

It was originally created to help flash OS images to SD cards, but it is also very effective in flashing such images to USB drives, which is the focus of this article. Here is how Etcher works:

Step 1 : You can download the appropriate installer from the official Etcher website linked here. Go ahead and install the application and launch to program on your PC or Mac.

Step 2: On the software interface, the first option will be to select the source image, which is the ISO file from which you want to make the bootable USB drive. Choose the appropriate ISO file for this by clicking on 'Select image', and then browsing for and choosing the appropriate ISO file.

Step 3: The next step is to select your target drive. In this case, it will be the USB drive. Make sure you have inserted a USB drive prior to choosing the target location. Now choose USB as your 'Target drive'.

Step 4: The final step is to click on the 'Flash' button, and in a few minutes your bootable USB drive will be ready for use.

In case you are not comfortable with choosing the different distributions for this particular installer, you can use another extremely popular application that will help you create a bootable USB drive from an ISO file even if you don't have any technical expertise whatsoever.

Conclusion:

All of these utilities are extremely versatile, but at times you may face certain errors. For example, if your ISO file has not been extracted properly or is corrupted in anyway, no ISO utility will be able to create bootable media for you. As such, you will need to make sure that the ISO file is properly extracted or downloaded without errors. Once you have done that, you may use any of the above software applications to create your bootable media on USB.