What is meant by the term “Pendrive bootable”? How to make Pendrive bootable?
- If you are from that corner of guy who doesn’t know anything about this or from that who knows something. We have made this post for both of you. You are going to get all your questions answered and doubts cleared.
- There are lots of confusion while you see different words when you search for Pendrive bootable that’s why we have included every basic topic which is needed to understand the whole concept for beginners and make you doubt free.
- As we all know that there are three operating systems are there, on which most of the world’s PCs, laptops work. So we will cover about softwares which will help you to make your pendrive bootable, for all operating systems.
- And also we have provided a Table of Contents below for those people who know the basics and want to jump to their interest so that they can access what they are looking for.
- But if you are a beginner then I will suggest you read the whole topic.
Table of Contents
What is Pendrive?
- Pen drive– also known as flash drive, USB flash drive, a USB drive is portable and plug and play device which uses flash memory. A long time ago we were used CD/DVD for storing files or even booting. But, as technology improvement nowadays we use USB flash drive to do all our chores.
- Pen Drives are also called “flash drive” because it uses flash memory. Flash memory is Non-volatile memory so there is no power required to retain data. Or we can also say data will not be lost even when there is no power which provides faster read and write capability.
- USB flash drive is sleek, lightweight can be carried anywhere with lots of your data.
- As USB flash drive is plug and play so you don’t have to download any software to set up this device.
- When you plug USB flash drive then your PC operating system (OS) recognizes it as a removable drive. And assign it a drive letter and then you can use it.
- You can store lots of photos, videos, software, data backups and you can also boot your computer. After formatting your USB flash drive and burn your operating system for boot.
What is meant by the term “Pendrive bootable”?
- Now, to understand the term just look at this word “bootable” this word clearly signifies or shows about booting your computers. But here we are talking about “Pendrive bootable” it just means making you PC boot using pen drive.
- Your pen drive is the external device that contains the operating system. And then using that Pendrive you can boot your PC and use the OS which is in the pen drive.
- Let’s understand this by considering a small example of your own life,
You all have PC, laptops and you have the operating system loaded in it ex-Linux, Windows or MAC OS. But have you ever thought how these operating systems loaded in your PCs, Laptops then the answer is using a Pendrive bootable or CD/DVD, reader. Now, what will you do if your operating system got affected by viruses or having some other issues? Then, you have to use your bootable pen-drive and format your PC and run the new OS.
What are the uses of Pendrive bootable? Or How and where can we use Pendrive bootable?
- Pendrive bootable has many uses but it totally depends upon the users need. But here I am going to list some task which mainly requires bootable pen drive.
- A bootable pen drive can be used to load a new operating system into your PC.
- In order to make dual boot in your laptop or PC. (using two different or same operating system in the same PC, laptop ex-Linux and Windows or Windows 7 and Windows 10).
- If you want to run a Linux operating system without installing Linux then you can use it. Just boot you Pc with your pendrive and run live Linux and do you work and then plug out your USB flash drive.
- You can also use a flash drive to repair and recover your operating system.
Also, see this:- How does WiFi and Cell Phone Works?
How to make Pendrive bootable for Windows 7 and Windows 10?
Now first, we will show you how to make Pendrive bootable or (USB flash drive) in Windows because the majority of the world’s population uses the Windows operating system.
portable Pendrive In windows operating system we have dozens of ways of how to make bootable USB. Here we will also discuss some useful methods of how to make Pendrive bootable which will reduce your effort:-
Step 1.Using Command-line (cmd) in windows to format your Pendrive.
Step 1– Insert your Pendrive into your computer gently. Flash drive fit in a USB port in only one way so don’t force it, if your flash drive doesn’t fit then try it from another side.

Note:- Your Pendrive must have at least 8 gigabytes(Gb) space in order to accommodate all required installation files for windows installation, but if you want to make your flash drive bootable for Linux operating system then 4 gigabytes(Gb) space is enough.
Step 2: Run your command prompt (cmd) as an Administrator.
If you don’t know how to run cmd as Administrator then follow my steps:-
Step 1-Click on the search box beside Windows logo:-

Step 2– Type cmd or Command prompt in the search box:-

Step 3- Right-click on command prompt and click on Run as Administrator:-

Step 4:- Click on Yes to this prompt. And this will open a command prompt.

Now, we have shown you how to open cmd as Administrator now back to our steps:-
Step 3:- Now type command diskpart and hit enter.

Step 4:-Now type “list disk” and hit Enter on your keyboard. This command will list the available disk on the computer. Notice your flash drive letter or number.
Step 5:– Choose your flash drive. Usually, the flash drive shown at the bottom in this menu.

Step 6:- Now type “select disk 1”, and hit enter. Note:-Your disk number can be different than 1, so use that instead of 1.
Step 7:-Now type “clean”. This will erase your all data of Flash drive.
Step 8:-
- To create a new partition in USB flash drive type “Create partition primary” and hit Enter.
- Type command “select partition 1” and hit Enter to select the partition you have created.
- Now Type command “active” to active your drive.
Step 9:- To format the partition you have just created type “format fs=fat32 quick” then click Enter.

Step 10:- Last step-type “exit” and hit Enter.
Now you have successfully formatted your pendrive. Now we are going to discuss third-party software in which we would learn how to make bootable USB and burn the operating system.
Using Third-party software for making Pendrive bootable.
1. Rufus

We have chosen to introduce Rufus first because this is the best software in order to make pendrive bootable for any OS in your Windows operating system. Its size is very small only of 1.1mb (Rufus 3.6) but it provides almost all features that you need such as- Automatic ISO detection, partition scheme, target system type and many more which will let you explore.
Rufus is a very useful software or utility to format and create bootable flash drives. It also helps to make bootable your sd card bootable.
And Rufus is open source software so it is totally free to use distribute.
Now coming to query how to make bootable USB, follow given steps:-
Step 1:- Insert your USB flash drive and open Rufus, It will automatically detect your removable device.
Step 2:- Boot Selection
Select the operating system image which you want to burn.
Step 3:- Tap on start
If you are a beginner then just leave everything default and click on start, it will start the process and in just a few minutes you will get your Pendrive bootable.
Note:- Rufus supports only the Windows platform. It doesn’t support Linux and Mac. So if you are thinking about how to make Pendrive bootable for windows 7 or windows 10 then you can use this software.
Pros |
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This software is totally free and easy to use. |
Cons |
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This software is only available for Windows. Rufus doesn’t support Linux and Macintosh. |
2.Power ISO
This software also has an advantage because this is available for all operating systems such as- Windows, MAC OS, Linux.
This software is very lightweight and easy to use and provides many features and to use extra and premium features you have to purchase this software or you must have a license key.
Now to make pendrive bootable using this software follow my steps:-
Step 1:- Insert your pendrive into your USB port, please don’t force is your flash drive doesn’t fit try in another way.

Step 2:- Open your Power ISO software, looks something like this (Mine is unregistered)

Step 3:- Click on the menu” Tools > Create bootable USB drive”

Step 4:- When you will click on “Create bootable USB drive” a prompt will come asking to run this software as an administrator. You have to click on Yes and hit Enter.

Step 5:- Now on “Image file” choose your ISO location. Further choose your USB drive, if your USB drive isn’t detected or showing then try to reconnect or tap on the refresh button(Green colored).
Step 6:- Choose the proper “Write method”. There are four write methods available in this software, USB-HDD is the recommended method so choose that.

Step 7:- Leave the file system on “Automatic” and click on “Start”. As you click on Start, a prompt will appear, click on “OK” to continue.

If all processes completed successfully you must get this prompt.

3. Win32 disk manager
This is a very simple software with simple UI intended for only one purpose and that is to make your flash drive bootable with your desired ISO.
There are very simple steps to make your flash drive bootable with this utility just follow my steps:-
Step 1:- Open Win32 disk manager. (Double click on the icon of Win32 disk manager and a prompt will appear asking you to run this software as an Administrator)
- Click on “Yes” and proceed.

Step 3:- Choose your ISO location in the “Image file” box and your USB drive in “Device” given besides that.
Step 4:- And hit “Write”, you will also get a prompt of saying that all data will be wiped then click “Yes” to that prompt.
This is the simplest method because Win32 Disk manager has a very simple UI which makes it very easy to use.
4.UNetBootin
This software is very helpful for Linux users because this software allows you to create live Linux USB drives of many Linux distribution. And if you have not ISO don’t worry about that because this software comes with an auto-download feature for Linux distributions.
Apart from this, you can use this software for making your pendrive bootable with your desired ISO.
And this software is available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS. So, this is platform-dependent.
Now in order to make pendrive bootable using this software follow my steps:-
Step 1:- Insert your pendrive into your USB port, please don’t force is your flash drive doesn’t fit try in another way.
Step 2:- Open UNetBootin software in your PC

Step 3:- Select “Disk Image ” and select ISO from the box beside the Disk image.
Step 4:- Moving to the bottom you will find an option of “Type” select USB drive if you are using that. Besides that, you will find “Drive” to choose your USB drive letter and hit “Ok”.
That’s all you have successfully made your USB drive bootable with OS.
We have also provided a video for further reference.
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