Most of the client and server now don’t have anymore the DVD/CD reader and in order to install an OS (or an hypervisor) you may need a bootable USB device.

Note: for some server models you can use the out of band management interface (iDRAC for Dell, ILO for HPE, EMM for Lenovo, …).

But how is possible build a bootable USB device starting from the ISO file?

On Linux creating a bootable USB is very easy and you can use, for example, the dd command.

But on Windows? For Windows there are some 3rd party tools, like Rufus.

Rufus is a utility that helps format and create bootable USB flash drives, such as USB keys/pendrives, memory sticks, etc.

It can be especially useful for cases where:

• you need to create USB installation media from bootable ISOs (Windows, Linux, UEFI, etc.)
• you need to work on a system that doesn’t have an OS installed
• you need to flash a BIOS or other firmware from DOS
• you want to run a low-level utility

Despite its small size, Rufus provides everything you need!

System Requirements:

Windows 8 or later. Once downloaded, the application is ready to use and usually it will set all the right option when you select an ISO file.

A non exhaustive list of Rufus supported ISOs is the following

• Linux: AlmaLinux, Arch Linux, Archboot, CentOS, Damn Small Linux, Debian, Elementary OS, Fedora, Garuda Linux, Gentoo, Kali Linux, Knoppix, Linux Mint, Manjaro Linux, OpenSUSE, Red Hat, Rocky Linux, Slackware, Ubuntu
• Windows: Windows XP (SP2+), Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server 2019, Windows 11, …

Latest releases: