rufus
Create bootable USB drives the easy way
Rufus is a small 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, EFI, 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
Oh, and Rufus is fast. For instance it's about twice as fast as UNetbootin, Universal USB Installer or Windows 7 USB download tool, on the creation of a Windows 7 USB installation drive from an ISO (with honorable mention to WiNToBootic for managing to keep up). It is also marginally faster on the creation of Linux bootable USB from ISOs (1).
A non exhaustive list of Rufus supported ISOs is also provided at the bottom of this page (2).
Finally, please remember that once formatted, your drive is still usable as before to transfer data: it doesn't have to be dedicated for DOS or ISO installation only.
Download
- Rufus v1.3.2 (442 KB)
- Other versions
If you create a DOS bootable drive and use a non-US keyboard, Rufus will attempt to select a keyboard layout according to the locale of your system. In that case, FreeDOS, which is the default selection, is recommended over MS-DOS as it supports more keyboard layouts.
Once downloaded, the application is ready to use — no installation or other files are necessary.
System Requirements
Windows XP or later, 32 or 64 bit doesn't matter.If elevation is required, you will be prompted for it.
Usage
Download the executable and run it - no installation is necessary.The executable is digitally signed and is produced in a 100% transparent manner, from its public source, using a MinGW32 environment.
The signature should state "Akeo Consulting" (1.3.0 or later) or "Pete Batard - Open Source Developer" (1.2.0 or earlier).
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
A Rufus FAQ is available here.There's no usage guide for now, as I prefer concentrating on adding features...
ISO Support
The current version of Rufus allows the creation of a bootable USB from an ISO image (.iso). In a future version, we may add the ability to read files directly from a CD/DVD drive or from a folder...Creating an ISO image from a physical disc or from a set of files is very easy to do however, through the use of a CD burning application, such as the freely available CDBurnerXP.
License
GNU General Public License (GPL) version 3 or later.You are free to distribute, modify or even sell the software, insofar as you respect the GPLv3 license.
Feedback, Bugs or Enhancement Requests
Please use the github issue tracker. Or you can send an e-mail.Versions
- Version 1.3.2 (2013.01.27):
- Fix support for newer ArchLinux ISOs, that was removed in 1.3.1
- Add support for UEFI boot, as well as GPT.
What this means is that Rufus can now produce UEFI bootable UFDs from EFI compatible ISOs, such as Windows 7 x64, Windows 8, ArchLinux, etc. - The first partition is now always aligned to 1MB (unless advanced options are used)
- Internal refactoring and fixes
- Fix support for newer ArchLinux ISOs, that was removed in 1.3.1
- Version 1.3.1 (2013.01.09):
- Fix Windows XP ISO support, that was broken in 1.3.0
- Temporarily drop support for ArchLinux
- Indicate which of FAT32 or Large FAT32 will be used, as well as the Partition Scheme
- Various internal fixes
- Fix Windows XP ISO support, that was broken in 1.3.0
- Version 1.3.0 (2012.12.16):
- FAT32 format support for >32GB drives
Based on fat32format, from Ridgecrop Consultants Ltd - Automated update check
- Relax ISO9660 compliance for Arch Linux images
- Add support for VMWare ESXi 5.1 ISO images
- Update Syslinux to v4.0.6 and libcdio to v0.90
- Miscellaneous UI improvements and fixes
- FAT32 format support for >32GB drives
- Version 1.2.0 (2012.06.04):
- Single version of Rufus, with FreeDOS embedded
- Add a toggleable advanced options panel
- Add taskbar progress (Windows 7 or later)
- Integrate logging output in the application
- Add bare Syslinux installation for (FAT partitions only)
- Fixes unavailable boot option with empty card readers (reported by TheHive)
- Works around the use of non-ISO compliant LiveXP images (reported by TheHive)
- Various other bugfixes and improvements
- Version 1.1.7 (2012.04.06):
- Fixes wrong bootable disk ID introduced in 1.1.6 (reported by Jeff Byers)
- Fixes support for minint WinPE 1.x images
- Version 1.1.6 (2012.03.27):
- Add ISO support for Windows XP (SP2 or later), Windows 2003 and BartPE
- Version 1.1.5 (2012.03.12):
- Fixes detection of devices without friendly name (reported by rschiang)
- Fixes support of WinPE/AIK ISO images (reported by Dmitry Sokolov)
- Fixes no disk at launch with empty card readers (reported by ChrisR
- Add download of vesamenu.c32 for ISOs that need it
- Version 1.1.4 (2012.03.03):
- Fixes ISO support for directories with extended characters (reported by ChrisR)
- Fixes bad blocks test issues (reported by steve6375)
- Read extended labels from autorun.inf when present
- Update FreeDOS files to latest versions
- Version 1.1.3 (2012.02.24):
- Fixes an issue on XP when using Windows ISOs (reported by wimb)
- Disable listing of fixed drives (eg. HDDs)
- Add 'fake' USB drive detection during bad blocks check
- Version 1.1.2 (2012.02.22):
- Fixes ISO support for Fedora, openSUSE and Hiren's Boot CD
- Add icon and extended/international label support
- Version 1.1.1 (2012.02.16):
- ISO image support (syslinux) - targeted at Linux installation ISOs
- ISO fixes and UI improvements
- Version 1.1.0 Beta (2012.02.08):
- ISO image support (NTFS, bootmgr only - targeted at Windows installation ISOs)
- Version 1.0.7 (2012.02.02):
- Fixes a detection issue on platforms with multiple optical drives (with thanks to ElGaton)
- Add number of passes for bad blocks check
- Improved locale selection for FreeDOS
- Version 1.0.6 (2012.01.03):
- Log report when bad blocks are found
- Version 1.0.5 (2011.12.25):
- Keyboard layout detection & support
- Version 1.0.4 (2011.12.16):
- FreeDOS support
- Version 1.0.3 (2011.12.12):
- First public release
- Progress status improvements
- Filtering of invalid cluster sizes
- Disable Autoplay on Vista and later while the application is running
- Version 1.0.2 (2011.12.06):
- Beta release
- Support for bad blocks check
- Version 1.0.1 (2011.12.04):
- Alpha release
Sourcecode
- Rufus v1.3.2 source (0.97 MB)
- Alternatively, you can clone the git repository using:
$ git clone git://github.com/pbatard/rufus
- For more information, see the github project.
Donations
Since I'm getting asked about it on regular basis, there is no donation button on this page.The main reason is I feel that the donation system doesn't help software development and worse, is guilt-inducing for users. Instead I believe that "mécénat", or developer patronage, from companies who benefit the most from a healthy FLOSS ecosystem, is what we should all aim for. Unless they are backed by a company, software developers who want to provide quality Open Source software cannot realistically sustain full time development, no matter how generous their software users.
Also, unless you are blocking them (hint, hint), you'll notice that there are ads on this page, which I consider sufficient enough.
Finally the fact that I have the freedom to develop Free Software in my spare time should indicate that I'm well-off enough, and therefore that you should direct your generosity towards people who need it a lot more than I do. Or, you can always make a donation to the Free Software Foundation, as they are the main reason software like Rufus is possible.
At any rate, I'll take this opportunity to say thank you for your continuing support and enthusiasm about this little program: it is much appreciated!
But please feel free to use Rufus without feeling guilty about not contributing for it financially; you shouldn't have to!
(1) Speed comparison between Rufus and other applications
The following tests carried out on a Windows 7 x64 Core 2 duo/4 GB RAM platform, with an USB 3.0 controller and a 16 GB USB 3.0 ADATA S102 flash drive.• Windows 7 x64: en_windows_7_ultimate_with_sp1_x64_dvd_618240.iso
| Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool v1.0.30 | 8 mins 10s |
| Universal USB Installer v1.8.7.5 | 7 mins 10s |
| UNetbootin v1.1.1.1 | 6 mins 20s |
| RMPrepUSB v2.1.638 | 4 mins 10s |
| WiNToBootic v1.2 | 3 mins 35s |
| Rufus v1.1.1 | 3 mins 25s |
| UNetbootin v1.1.1.1 | 1 min 45s |
| RMPrepUSB v2.1.638 | 1 min 35s |
| Universal USB Installer v1.8.7.5 | 1 min 20s |
| Rufus v1.1.1 | 1 min 15s |
| UNetbootin v1.1.1.1 | >60 mins |
| Universal USB Installer v1.8.7.5 | 24 mins 35s |
| RMPrepUSB v2.1.638 | 22 mins 45s |
| Rufus v1.1.1 | 20 mins 15s |
