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Rufus: Reliable USB Formatting Utility

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Re: Rufus: Reliable USB Formatting Utility

#151

Post by x86ARMsRace »

throwaway8581 wrote: post #149

Do not use Rufus to make Windows 10 install media. Rufus sucks for this purpose. It uses a weird partition scheme and custom bootloader that doesn't work with secure boot. You don't need any of this shit. Partition the drive as NTFS, mark the partition as active through Disk Management, and simply copy and paste the contents of the iso into the drive. For maximum compatibility, just use FAT32 instead of NTFS. The off…

> Rufus sucks for this purpose. It uses a weird partition scheme and custom bootloader that doesn't work with secure boot.

Rufus also tends to format the drive strangely for *nix ISO files also. Last time I used it the write operation failed and I was stuck spending more time than necessary repairing the drive's partitions just to make it visible to my machine again. What compounds this is the documentation which can only be described as condescending and hostile.

If memory serves, there's a section in the documentation's FAQ where the author spends a paragraph first telling you that it's good your having problems with your USB drive since it will teach you a lesson. I can never understand why some documentation writers feel the need to take digs at their users. Very odd.

Re: Rufus: Reliable USB Formatting Utility

#152

Post by Geezus_42 »

dspillett wrote: post #97
mrjin wrote: post #66

Well have to say Rufus is good. But there is a far better tool: Ventoy. You will only need to format your thumb drive once and for all. After that, you will simply only need to copy the image file such as .iso, .vhd etc on to the drive and you are all set. Check details from the following sites. https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy

Another vote for ventoy. Means I can use my large fast USB drive (actually an mSATA SSD pulled from a broken laptop, in an adapter) as a collection of boot media while keeping the rest of the space for other use. I don't need to boot from a distro CD often these day, but when I do it is nice that it is much faster than my other USB sticks, more convenient than carrying a few (Debian, Ubuntu, psSense, Kali, ...) aroun…

I use a 128GB m.2 SSD in a stick enclosure with USB A on one end and USB C on the other. Whole package was $30 from Amazon.

Re: Rufus: Reliable USB Formatting Utility

#153

Post by pingec »

Geezus_42 wrote: post #152
dspillett wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another vote for ventoy. Means I can use my large fast USB drive (actually an mSATA SSD pulled from a broken laptop, in an adapter) as a collection of boot media while keeping the rest of the space for other use. I don't need to boot from a distro CD often these day, but when I do it is nice that it is much faster than my other USB sticks, more convenient than carrying a few (Debian, Ubuntu, psSense, Kali, ...) aroun…

I use a 128GB m.2 SSD in a stick enclosure with USB A on one end and USB C on the other. Whole package was $30 from Amazon.

Interesting, do you have a link?

Re: Rufus: Reliable USB Formatting Utility

#154

Post by dspillett »

Geezus_42 wrote: post #152
dspillett wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another vote for ventoy. Means I can use my large fast USB drive (actually an mSATA SSD pulled from a broken laptop, in an adapter) as a collection of boot media while keeping the rest of the space for other use. I don't need to boot from a distro CD often these day, but when I do it is nice that it is much faster than my other USB sticks, more convenient than carrying a few (Debian, Ubuntu, psSense, Kali, ...) aroun…

I use a 128GB m.2 SSD in a stick enclosure with USB A on one end and USB C on the other. Whole package was $30 from Amazon.

Yeah, the adapter was cheap. I already had a working drive to go into it.

Re: Rufus: Reliable USB Formatting Utility

#156

Post by kube-system »

mrjin wrote: post #66

Well have to say Rufus is good. But there is a far better tool: Ventoy. You will only need to format your thumb drive once and for all. After that, you will simply only need to copy the image file such as .iso, .vhd etc on to the drive and you are all set. Check details from the following sites. https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy

That is a really cool project -- but, Rufus also works for boot media for machines that don't support UEFI/BIOS.

Re: Rufus: Reliable USB Formatting Utility

#157

Post by jk7tarYZAQNpTQa »

elmo2you wrote: post #100
mrjin wrote: post #66

Well have to say Rufus is good. But there is a far better tool: Ventoy. You will only need to format your thumb drive once and for all. After that, you will simply only need to copy the image file such as .iso, .vhd etc on to the drive and you are all set. Check details from the following sites. https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy

Ventoy is indeed one of the best (if not THE best) tool for this. Even if it does not support absolutely everything (last time I checked), it is by far the most hassle free and sure-fire solution. For context, I have professionally deployed Linux on USB, ever since around 2004. I honestly don't care to remember all the odd issues/failures I've encountered during those 17 years. The situation certainly got better/easi…

> For context, I have professionally deployed Linux on USB, ever since around 2004.

Could you point to some good sources that explain in detail the whole "bootable USB" world? It seems it's always a hassle to get right, especially when preparing a Windows bootable USB.

Re: Rufus: Reliable USB Formatting Utility

#158

Post by _dax6 »

mrjin wrote: post #66

Well have to say Rufus is good. But there is a far better tool: Ventoy. You will only need to format your thumb drive once and for all. After that, you will simply only need to copy the image file such as .iso, .vhd etc on to the drive and you are all set. Check details from the following sites. https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy

I use Ventoy on a 500 GB portable SSD. I have Windows 10, FreeBSD, and multiple versions of each distro on it just in case. It even works with TempleOS.

All it needs now is some way to keep persistent files and I'll never need another thumb drive to install an OS.

Re: Rufus: Reliable USB Formatting Utility

#159

Post by _dax6 »

tlamponi wrote: post #132
breakfastduck wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't look like it does the same thing at all. I'm not sure why a piece of software being built by one person is sketchy but ok.

It is similar though, but yes it misses the "more ISOs" part, which I actually find weird because at that point that would be almost cheap to do - that's why I did not reverified that bit, sorry.

Unetbootin either dumps the raw ISO directly to the block device or, in the case of Windows, extracts it to an exFAT partition. Ventoy doesn't require you to extract or dump the ISOs at all, which is where the real beauty of it lies.

Re: Rufus: Reliable USB Formatting Utility

#160

Post by moistbar »

foxrider wrote: post #83
chrisandchris wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you‘re under Windows and want any stick, use Rufus. If you‘re under Linux (or Mac) and have an Iso, use dd. At least that‘s how I do it.

WoeUSB is what you have to use on Linux to create a bootable Windows thumbdrive, dd only works for isohybrid images, and Windows isn't one.

IIRC you used to be able to make a bootable Windows stick on Linux simply by extracting the contents of the ISO onto a USB stick and marking it bootable. Is that still possible now that EFI is everywhere?
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