If you’ve been trying to install a new operating system on a computer you may have read that a bootable USB can be useful. And it’s also possible that the concept doesn’t mean anything to you, or you may have even considered the possibility that it’s a new USB standard you’ve never heard of. But the reality is that this is not exactly the case. Virtually all types of USB can be bootable, a word that simply tells you that it will be used to install a new operating system on a computer where we don’t have one at the moment.
What is a bootable USB
Booteable is a word that comes from the English word boot, which means bootable. Therefore, what we mean when we talk about a bootable USB is that it is a USB device that we can use as a boot disk.
What we therefore mean by a bootable USB is a USB stick that is able to run without the need for an operating system to do so. It is, therefore, an alternative to the CDs with the operating system that we used years ago when we wanted to install a new operating system. Considering that many computers nowadays do not even have a CD reader, in many occasions a USB memory stick is the only way we have to be able to bring an operating system to a computer in which we do not have one at the moment.
If you have bought a computer recently, most probably it comes with the operating system already installed, so it will not be essential that you use a Booteable USB to put it in operation. But in case you have bought a second hand computer or you have made some important changes to your computer, there is a possibility that you may need it.
In general, the use of a Booteable USB is not something that is usually needed by the general public, but it is oriented rather to computer professionals or people who like to “tinker” with their computers and make changes to customize them as much as possible. In the event that you want to install a new operating system and you have a computer that does not have a CD reader or that the system has been passed to you by someone who does not have it originally in disk format, it is possible that it is essential to have this type of USB memory to do your work.
How to create a bootable USB
In order to create a bootable USB we will need three things. First, we need an ISO image of the operating system we want to use. By ISO image we mean the files that are used to create an exact copy of a file system on an optical drive. In other words, what we need is an image, as if it were a mirror reflection, of the CD or DVD containing the operating system or application we want to install using this USB.
The second point we need is the USB stick itself that we want to get bootable. The first point we have to take into account is that we have enough space to save the ISO image. With the capacities that are usually handled, it is normal not to have problems, but if we are going to use an old memory we must take this into account. And we should also avoid very old USB types. Although there are some differences between USB 2.0 and 3.0, it is normal that both can be bootable without problems, but it is not recommended to use a memory of an older model.
And finally we will need an application that is able to create a bootable disk on a USB stick by installing the ISO files. It will not be enough to make a copy and paste of the files, but in order to really convert a memory stick that we have at home into a bootable USB we will have to resort to the help of an external device. There are a lot of programs of this type for both Windows and Linux, and in general they are not too complicated to use, although it should be noted that this is a procedure used mainly by people with computer skills.
Programs to create a bootable USB
One of the most interesting programs to create a bootable USB is Rufus. It is an application with which you can create bootable drives for practically any GNU/Linux distribution or even any other operating system. It even allows us to create bootable disks in which the changes are saved for next sessions. It is intended to be used on Windows computers, and you can download it at the following link.