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PC
Utilities
Linux
OSX
Windows
macOS
What is the best software for creating Live USB (from ISO files)?
16
Options
Considered
302
User
Recs.
Feb 6, 2024
Last
Updated
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15
Options
Considered
Best software for creating Live USB (from ISO files)
Price
License
Supported platforms
89
Rufus
Free
GNU GPLv3
chromebook os
73
Etcher
-
Apache-2.0
Windows, Linux, Mac
--
Ventoy
-
-
-
--
Linux Live USB Creator
-
-
-
--
Easy2Boot
FREE
-
-
See Full List
89
Rufus
My Rec
ommendation
for
Rufus
My Recommendation for
Rufus
All
13
Experiences
2
Pros
8
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Automatic USB detection
Rufus finds your USB drive automatically. This minimizes the risk that you will accidentally format your hard drive.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Only runs on Windows
Although it can install all flavors of imaginable distros on a key, the software itself only has one official Windows version, effectively excluding Mac and Linux users.
See More
Mohammad H. Sattarian's Experience
Fast, free and easy to use.
See More
Specs
License:
GNU GPLv3
Supported platforms:
chromebook os
Top
Pro
•••
GPT/UEFI Support with NTFS UEFI Support
See More
Top
Con
•••
Only can install 1 distro / USB
There is no way to install more than one distro on USB
See More
Ahad's Experience
the best thing of Rufus is small in size and portable.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Simple but advanced
Has many options.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Open source
https://github.com/pbatard/rufus
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Very fast
Rufus is one of the fastest utilities in the category to complete create a bootable USB. Twice as fast as UNetbootin, Universal USB Installer and Windows 7 USB download tool.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Safe
Zero ways to screw up.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Size
Rufus is small in size.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Multi-language support
See More
Hide
See All
Free
Recommend
76
2
73
Etcher
My Rec
ommendation
for
Etcher
My Recommendation for
Etcher
All
16
Experiences
7
Pros
5
Cons
3
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Cross platform
Supports Linux, Windows and Mac.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Lacking in settings
Compared to its competitors, while trying to keep the software as user-friendly and clean as possible, it also lacks the ability to perform more advanced tweaking, available in something like Rufus.
See More
DeterminedBieggagallis's Experience
It looks beautiful, first of all. It will automatically detect your usb and burn an ISO image lightning quick onto it. Available on Mac, Windows, and Linux, so this beats Rufus on platform availability.
See More
Specs
License:
Apache-2.0
Supported platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac
Supported architectures:
x86, x86-64, armv7, armv8
Top
Pro
•••
Polished GUI
The gui looks great and is easy to use.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Sends data to balena by default
It is enabled by default, hidden in the settings and you have to turn it manually off.
See More
PioneeringSuadela's Experience
done nicely supports all os and also very large files
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Open source
Free to use and modify. Apache license. Repository link.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Large file size
Much larger file size in comparison to something like Rufus.
See More
echopy's Experience
1 click away from flashing your img!
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Relatively fast
Flashes/burns images relatively fast.
See More
Holo Deck's Experience
Sends data to balena by default...
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Extremely user friendly
By far, the most user friendly and straight-forward UI I've ever seen in an application like this
See More
SuccessfulPthinoporon's Experience
No explanation in case of error.. Not even a log .. a few hundred MB.. is it a joke.. Electron bloatware for 3 choices in UI ? no way
See More
CourageousKladeos's Experience
Fast and reliable.
See More
Ajay Kumar Rawani's Experience
Awesome !
See More
Hide
See All
Get it
here
Recommend
75
12
--
Ventoy
My Rec
ommendation
for
Ventoy
My Recommendation for
Ventoy
Hide
Get it
here
Recommend
22
--
Linux Live USB Creator
My Rec
ommendation
for
Linux Live USB Creator
My Recommendation for
Linux Live USB Creator
All
6
Experiences
1
Pros
3
Cons
2
Top
Pro
•••
Simple, well Designed UI
Has a very intuitive UI for those who haven't used Live usb creators.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Only for Windows
Not cross platform.
See More
SuccessfulNuliajuk's Experience
One of the best tools I've used in windows, Pretty much universal.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Download Linux
Download Linux variations from a list if they are not currently downloaded and even has a build in DL manager that doesn't require opening a browser.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Primarily centered upon Linux
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Universally supported OS ISOs
Although it only runs on Windows the program supports several operating systems for building a live drive.
See More
Hide
See All
Get it
here
Recommend
17
--
Easy2Boot
My Rec
ommendation
for
Easy2Boot
My Recommendation for
Easy2Boot
All
12
Experiences
4
Pros
7
Cons
1
Top
Pro
•••
Includes Ventoy
See More
Top
Con
•••
Not Open Source
Author amalgamates his content with the content of others. It's not Open Source and may well have closed source and copyright restricted content.
See More
IntelligentPannychis's Experience
Version 2 includes Ventoy and supports Secure Boot. Legacy ISOs can be booted using E2B menu, agFM grub2 menu or Ventoy menu system. UEFI ISOs (VHDs,WIMs, etc.) can be booted using agFM or Ventoy menu systems. Secure Boot is bypassed (unless the UEFI BIOS contains a blacklist entry in the DBx NVRAM which can be easily removed in the BIOS options). Using agFM or Ventoy, the ISOs do not need to be contiguous.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Direct UEFI-booting from ISOs, WIM files, Win Install ISOs, VHDs, .imgPTN files
Secure Boot works for most payloads.
See More
PerceptiveFukurokuju's Experience
Latest version includes Secure UEFI64 booting, Ventoy, switching-in images (including hfs MacOS partitions using .imgPTNREP3 files), grub2 agFM.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Supports multiple Secure Boot UEFI by 'switching-in' different image files
See More
HonestSabazios's Experience
Latest version supports UEFI booting
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Easy2Boot is a multiboot USB drive
Rufus and Etcher are single-boot.
See More
LoyalMictlanpachecatl's Experience
Easy to use, highly configurable, supports Secure UEFI boot of multiple OS's.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Can Secure UEFI64-boot and run non-secure ISOs/payloads
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Over 1 million downloads
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Highly customizable boot menus
See More
Hide
See All
FREE
Recommend
32
4
--
YUMI – Multiboot USB Creator
My Rec
ommendation
for
YUMI – Multiboot USB Creator
My Recommendation for
YUMI – Multiboot USB Creator
All
10
Experiences
1
Pros
7
Cons
2
Top
Pro
•••
Free
See More
Top
Con
•••
UEFI version
The UEFI version is still a work in progress.
See More
ReveredGaxiSonnim's Experience
AWESOME BUT NO SUPPORT
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Multi Distro supported
See More
Top
Con
•••
No support
See More
Top
Pro
•••
uninstaller supported
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Multiple ways to boot
ISO GRUB, ISO SYSLINUX, ISO GRUB Partition 4, ISO GRUB from RAM.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
ISO Windows
See More
Top
Pro
•••
ISO images with download links
See More
Top
Pro
•••
GPT/UEFI Support with FAT32 UEFI
See More
Hide
See All
Free
Recommend
11
1
--
dd
My Rec
ommendation
for
dd
My Recommendation for
dd
All
9
Experiences
2
Pros
2
Cons
4
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Many features
It can do anything.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Highly Volitile
User-error can lead to multiple bad outcomes, from overwriting the wrong drive to bricking a disk. It's not nicknamed the "Data Destroyer" without reason.
See More
LikableIdunn's Experience
It's the basic and powerful tools.
See More
Specs
License:
GNU GPLv3+
Supported platforms:
macOS, Linux, *BSD, Unix
Top
Pro
•••
Available to the whole Unix family tree.
dd was written for Bell Lab's Version 5 Unix distribution, and is a POSIX standardized tool. As such, point to a Unix-based platform, and there will be dd (or an interchangeable replacement; ex.: GNU dd, dc3dd) on it.
See More
Top
Con
•••
No official graphical user interface
dd is a command-line tool dating back to 1974. While graphical wrappers do exist (many are based on top of dd), there is no official GUI.
See More
FlagCourier's Experience
dd has saved my bacon numerous times before, but it can also be as bad as running rm -Rf /. With the wrong keystroke, you can end up nuking the wrong drive. That NVMe SSD with your /home partition? Congrats, that's now an Ubuntu installation disk. Though, this can be useful when intentionally bricking your storage drives. In all seriousness, the tool is simple and powerful - but it has no guard rails. Use at your own risk.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Doesn't support (most) optical media formats
dd is intended to work on tape and disk storage systems. Due to the ways CDs and DVDs work, with the probable exception of DVD-RAM discs, dd will not work as intended (and may not warn you about it...) If you wish to use a CLI tool to burn an iso to a disc, see growisofs instead.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Easy to completely nuke an unrelated hard disk by accident
It is a cli app and there are no safety features to prevent a complete data loss if the user adds a wrong syntax.
See More
Hide
See All
Get it
here
Recommend
7
1
--
ROSA Image Writer
My Rec
ommendation
for
ROSA Image Writer
My Recommendation for
ROSA Image Writer
All
4
Pros
4
Top
Pro
•••
Simple
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Easy-to-use interface
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Faster processing
See More
Top
Pro
•••
multiplatform
It's written in qt and available for many systems.
See More
Hide
See All
Get it
here
Recommend
6
1
--
WoeUSB
My Rec
ommendation
for
WoeUSB
My Recommendation for
WoeUSB
Hide
Get it
here
Recommend
1
--
GNOME Disks
My Rec
ommendation
for
GNOME Disks
My Recommendation for
GNOME Disks
All
6
Experiences
1
Pros
2
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Free and Open Source
Licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later.
See More
Top
Con
•••
No Windows or Mac binary
While the source is freely available, no public binary has been made or endorsed for use on Windows or Mac devices.
See More
FlagCourier's Experience
If you're already on a Linux system with the GNOME Desktop, you can't go wrong with GNOME Disks. It's simple and intuitive, and is likely already installed.
See More
Specs
License:
GNU General Public License version 2 or later
Platforms:
Linux, *BSD
Top
Pro
•••
Included by default in many Linux distributions
If it uses the GNOME Desktop, it very likely has GNOME Disks installed by default. If not, you will see it in the distribution's package manager.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Some File System Formats require extra packages to modify
A common file system may require extra packages. For example, exfat will require exfat-utils and either a fuse-based userland driver or a kernel module. This isn't an issue when writing a disk image, but can be an issue when formatting a USB or SD card after using it.
See More
Hide
See All
FREE
Recommend
4
--
UNetbootin
My Rec
ommendation
for
UNetbootin
My Recommendation for
UNetbootin
All
7
Pros
3
Cons
4
Top
Pro
•••
Supports most common distros for download
Although you can override this setting by selecting any ISO file of your choice, UNetbootin offers a simple interface in which you can choose to automatically download almost any mainstream operating system. This can save users the hassle of browsing through web pages in search of a download.
See More
Top
Con
•••
There's a chance it will destroy your USB
Not only is the performance of the software subpar, there is a high likelihood that it will corrupt your USB in the process.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Cross-platform
The fact that UNetbootin is cross platform means it can be used on any computer one has lying around, to create a bootable USB stick from a proper ISO file. It also makes it more viable as a tool since it can be recommended to anyone without having to worry about what operating system they are running.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Uninstaller Not Supported
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Automatically detects USB flash drives
UNetbootin automatically detects all the USB drives in the computer, this helps the interface be much more fluid, and protects inexperienced users from accidentally corrupting their hard drive.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Have issues on autorun.inf when install more than one distributions
See More
Top
Con
•••
Might not work sometimes
For example UNetbootin has some troubles with the Hiren's Boot CD ISO file.
See More
Hide
See All
Free
Recommend
6
10
--
MultiBootUSB
My Rec
ommendation
for
MultiBootUSB
My Recommendation for
MultiBootUSB
All
2
Pros
1
Cons
1
Top
Pro
•••
Allows "persistance" for select ISO's
You can create a "persistance" file of up to 4GB (depending on USB stick space) for many current live CD ISO's, which means you can live boot, install a few things, save a few docs, then shutdown & move to another PC with the same files intact (tested by installing Minecraft :)).
See More
Top
Con
•••
Stuck on Windows Logo
See More
Hide
Free
Recommend
3
1
--
Flashboot
My Rec
ommendation
for
Flashboot
My Recommendation for
Flashboot
All
6
Experiences
1
Pros
2
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Lots of options
See More
Top
Con
•••
Can be slow
See More
RickZeeland's Experience
Provides options like saving a Windows installation DVD to a bootable USB drive which can be handy for computers without a DVD drive. Saving an existing Windows installation to USB drive however is only possible with the paid version.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows
Top
Pro
•••
Good support
The Knowledgebase contains useful information.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Windows only
See More
Hide
See All
Free / paid
Recommend
1
1
--
Fedora Media Writer
My Rec
ommendation
for
Fedora Media Writer
My Recommendation for
Fedora Media Writer
All
9
Pros
7
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Helps discover Fedora Spins and Fedora Labs images
Makes it easy to obtain niche software packages, such as Sugar On A Stick (SOAS), and Fedora Design Suite.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Heavily Fedora-centric
Aside from you providing and using a custom image, the only other options present are for Fedora distributions. You won't find RedHat Enterprise Linux, or CentOS, or even Fedora Silverblue. Nor will you find any outside of the RedHat family, like Arch, Debian, or Ubuntu.
See More
Specs
License:
GNU GPLv2
Supported platforms:
Windows, macOS, Linux
Packaging formats:
Flatpak, deb, rpm
Top
Pro
•••
Supports ARM v7 and AArch64 images of Fedora
Makes it easy for using Fedora Workstation or Fedora Server with Raspberry Pi or other hobby SOC boards.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Uses dd, prevents nuking system disks.
While it uses dd as a backend, it only shows SD cards and USB devices. This helps prevent accidentally nuking system disks.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Open Source
Licensed under the GNU General Public License v2
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Cross Platform
Binaries for Windows, macOS, and Flatpak are available. A traditional RPM package is also available in the Fedora repositories.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Not limited to Fedora - Any ISO can be writen to a usb.
If you have an IMG or ISO, it can be writen to a disk. You are not forced to use any of the Fedora options.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Automatic Live Disk Detection
Can automatically detect disks which already are formatted with live system images, and prompts you to see if you would like to restore it to factory default settings.
See More
Hide
See All
FREE
Recommend
--
Windows Media Creation Tool
My Rec
ommendation
for
Windows Media Creation Tool
My Recommendation for
Windows Media Creation Tool
All
3
Pros
1
Cons
2
Top
Pro
•••
By far the best for creating windows 10 installation media
Due to the large size of the windows 10 ISO, NTFS is required along with FAT 32 so some BIOS can see the usb
See More
Top
Con
•••
Runs on Windows only
See More
Top
Con
•••
Windows ISO only
See More
Hide
See All
Get it
here
Recommend
2
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in Windows there is a standard utility that allows you to do this! and quite simply
My Rec
ommendation
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in Windows there is a standard utility that allows you to do this! and quite simply
My Recommendation for
in Windows there is a standard utility that allows you to do this! and quite simply
Recommend
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