Rufus: The Reliable USB Formatting Utility

Wynona · Apr 30, 2023

Winuser said:
Speaking for myself, I'm at that stage in my life that I'll take the easiest way to get something done when possible.

Perzackly! Why try to learn something new when we already know how to use Rufus!

Winuser · Apr 30, 2023

Wynona said:
Perzackly! Why try to learn something new when we already know how to use Rufus!

I have so much going on that I just want to get things done as easy as possible. My computer time is now how I relax. I use to do most of the repairs on all of my vehicles. Now most of my vehicle repairs are done at the shop including an occasional oil change. I still do the repairs to my lawnmowers myself though.

NavyLCDR · Apr 30, 2023

Wynona said:
Perzackly! Why try to learn something new when we already know how to use Rufus!

Which is why I don't use Rufus myself. Why download a third party app and figure out how to make it do what I already know how to do with Windows alone? There's nothing wrong with Rufus, I just don't need it.

johnlgalt · May 1, 2023

I can agree with both sides here. It is a great little tool for making certain tasks a lot easier to do as it does it for you. Is it the only tool? Of course not. Is it the best tool? Well, that is a subjective question to being with, so YMMV. But it is not the only way to get the same set of steps performed on a Windows machine.

However, I'm not really sure what the point of stating "I don't need it / I don't use it" comments are in a post that simply was about the new update to the software, though.

It's like Linux users trolling Windows users saying, for example "Windows is useless, and I don't use it because I can do the same things in Linux."

kelper · May 1, 2023

Have you tried the Universal USB Installer from Pendrivelinux.com?

Or YUMI also from Pendrivelinux.com?

I'm going to waste an evening with this to create a bootable USB of Win 11 that will run on any recent computer. It's based on PhoenixOS

Boot Windows 11 from USB on VHDx ▷ Easy as 1, 2, 3

Easily Boot Windows 11 from USB, fully contained inside a Virtual Hard Disk (VHDx) image file. Take Windows with you to boot from a USB flash drive.

www.pendrivelinux.com

to quote,

"Easily Boot Windows 11 from USB, fully contained inside a Virtual Hard Disk (VHDx) image file. The following process enables you to take a full installation of Windows with you on a removable external flash drive, and then run the Operating System portably at any computer that can boot from USB.

The resulting Windows USB install bypasses Microsoft Windows TPM, CPU, RAM, and storage requirements, so it should be bootable from most modern computers even if they don't meet those minimum requirements. The entire installation is stored within a dynamic .vhdx image file stored on an exFAT formatted USB device. This enables you to also store and boot other distributions and system tools while continuing to use your removable drive for traditional storage purposes."

hsehestedt · May 1, 2023

Winuser said:
Speaking for myself, I'm at that stage in my life that I'll take the easiest way to get something done when possible.

I guess I am the complete opposite. I prefer to know how to do things with zero third-party tools (where possible), no matter how complex

johnlgalt · May 2, 2023

Seniors, elders, and those not familiar with things like command line execution and the like, as well as people who don't have time to learn these things, or simply do not want to, and for them, these sort of tools are good. Would you attempt to teach your 85+ year old mother / grand mother / great grand mother these things that you can do?

I won't try even mentioning DISM to my 70+ yo Mom, nor my 80+ yo Dad. I can do these things just fine. But I also realize that I am in the minority, because if the vast majority of people could do these things, then

The software probably would not exist, and
I would probably not have made a career in IT in the first place.

And as much as many of us with pro and guru level status are able to do things manually without 3rd party software, the vast majority of readers here are not Pro and Guru level folks. Out of those, very few will want to / need to / take the time to explore manual methods, for the reasons above.

It's why the software exists. It's also why DMG has all these wonderful forums - for those very people.

johnlgalt · May 2, 2023

kelper said:
Have you tried the Universal USB Installer from Pendrivelinux.com?

Or YUMI also from Pendrivelinux.com?

Neither, actually. I so rarely need a USB for Windows installation anymore that I've not even used RMPrepUSB, Easy2Boot nor ventoy in a long while. Heck, I think that the last time I used Rufus itself was v 3.21 lol.

Wynona · May 2, 2023

johnlgalt said:
Seniors, elders, and those not familiar with things like command line execution and the like, as well as people who don't have time to learn these things, or simply do not want to, and for them, these sort of tools are good. Would you attempt to teach your 85+ year old mother / grand mother / great grand mother these things that you can do?

I won't try even mentioning DISM to my 70+ yo Mom, nor my 80+ yo Dad. I can do these things just fine. But I also realize that I am in the minority, because if the vast majority of people could do these things, then

The software probably would not exist, and

I would probably not have made a career in IT in the first place.

And as much as many of us with pro and guru level status are able to do things manually without 3rd party software, the vast majority of readers here are not Pro and Guru level folks. Out of those, very few will want to / need to / take the time to explore manual methods, for the reasons above.

It's why the software exists. It's also why DMG has all these wonderful forums - for those very people.

As you say, @johnlgalt . . .some got it, some don't. Choices are good! Without third party programs and apps, we'd have no choices.

I'm the 85 year old mother/grandmother/great grandmother and I get to choose what I use!

Let's take System Backups, for instance. Microsoft has pretty much, if not completely, given up on providing us with built-in system backup software.

Thank goodness for third party programs and apps. If it weren't for Macrium Reflect and Aomei Backupper, a lot of us would be in a world of hurt! Yes, there are other backup programs, but these two seem to be most popular in these forums which is why I only mention them.

As some of you know, I teach Windows 11 to folks over 60 at our local Senior Activity Center. My co-conspirator, at the age of 96 teaches Genealogy. We're the exception to the rule. So far, our get-up-and-go hasn't got-up-and-went.

Microsoft 365 (Office) is a subscription; not easily affordable for seniors, so I recommend LibreOffice, which is compatible with Microsoft 365 (Office).

I teach my students to use what they're most comfortable with. I also teach them to experiment if they find something they like.

martyfelker · May 2, 2023

And FWIW Ventoy has a Manjaro/Arch version which is easily built. Used it to make my Windows USB under Manjaro - no problems. Under Windows I will use Rufus,

hdmi · May 3, 2023

johnlgalt said:
And as much as many of us with pro and guru level status are able to do things manually without 3rd party software, the vast majority of readers here are not Pro and Guru level folks. Out of those, very few will want to / need to / take the time to explore manual methods, for the reasons above.

It's why the software exists. It's also why DMG has all these wonderful forums - for those very people.

But I'm only a power user level status and I know that rufies are bad for my power so I don't use them.

jimbo45 · May 3, 2023

Rufus does simply what it has to do and is FREE -- easily installable and just runs while things like Ventoy etc are unpredictable in their execution.

OK I can use things like DD on linux etc or use the windows command line or powershell - but anybody capable of logging on to Windows can use Rufus.

There's a lot of infinitely worse 3rd party software around these days whether Free or not. My pet hate these days - especially for home / domestic machines is the incessant peddling of 3rd party Anti-Virus software - most of which really inhibits performance - WD these days on W11 is perfectly OK for the majority of users - especially seniors etc (but not all seniors and so ignorant as the OP implies !!!). Also how many typical pensioners ever get ransomware on their machines - but judging by some of the stuff peddled by these 3rd party A/V software vendors aided and abetted by collusions with stores selling PC's etc I'm not surprised that most of them are hoodwinked into buying stuff for which they have absolutely no need.

What does seem to me to be huge mistake is that Ms doesn't offer a built in utility to backup the OS -- especially as people like Macrium etc are withdrawing their Free backup software.

Cheers
jimbo

hdmi · May 3, 2023

jimbo45 said:
Rufus does simply what it has to do and is FREE -- easily installable and just runs while things like Ventoy etc are unpredictable in their execution.

Baloney. Both Rufus and Ventoy are free open source so the only thing unpredictable is you─besides Microsoft and some hardware companies like Dell. Ventoy also does simply what it has to do. But if you want to boot straight into multiple image files each one of which not only has to be bootable, but also has to be stored (and kept) on the same USB flash drive at once. Then no, Rufus does not let you do that.

jimbo45 said:
but anybody capable of logging on to Windows can use Rufus.

The same also holds true about Ventoy. So, the only reason why I always recommend to use Ventoy, not Rufus, is because Ventoy lets you keep ALL your bootable image files on just a single USB flash drive, by merely copying them all, WITHOUT requiring to do anything else. That's right... once Ventoy has been installed on the USB flash drive, you could decide to just download the official Windows Installation ISO file from Microsoft directly onto the USB flash drive and, next, boot straight into the file, as the file will be shown on the list that will appear when you boot from the USB flash drive.

Next, if you decide to add the bootable Rescue Media file of Macrium and/or Acronis (and/or etc.) to this same USB flash drive before booting from it again, you will see it/they will be shown on the list also. And so you can boot straight into the file that you select from this list. What could be more practical than this? All you had to do to figure this out was JUST TRY IT.

Finally, what exactly was it that happened when Ventoy was "unpredictable in its execution"? Did it show an error message? Did it make your computer explode? If it was the latter type problem, did you notice anything else, like, maybe Brink parked his vimana in front of that strange hotel in Switzerland again─so he could be interviewed by Erich von Däniken? lol

jimbo45 said:
There's a lot of infinitely worse 3rd party software around these days whether Free or not. My pet hate these days - especially for home / domestic machines is the incessant peddling of 3rd party Anti-Virus software - most of which really inhibits performance - WD these days on W11 is perfectly OK for the majority of users - especially seniors etc (but not all seniors and so ignorant as the OP implies !!!). Also how many typical pensioners ever get ransomware on their machines - but judging by some of the stuff peddled by these 3rd party A/V software vendors aided and abetted by collusions with stores selling PC's etc I'm not surprised that most of them are hoodwinked into buying stuff for which they have absolutely no need.

3rd party AV doesn't just have a tendency to inhibit performance. Worse, it often also has a tendency to make the cumputer behave unpredictably in a lot of situations and/or become a nuisance with repeated false alerts. This is why I only use the built-in Windows Defender (Windows Security), but I also rely on Sandboxie-Plus, more heavily than it.

Learning to use Sandboxie-Plus with the Classic UI option for simple, basic tasks such as protecting a web browser─I use it mainly to protect my Firefox Portable browser─shouldn't have to be that hard or time consuming. You could decide to just keep Immediate Recovery disabled in its settings and use the Quick Recovery / Delete Contents (two options that appear after you right-click on the yellow pizza icon in your taskbar's notification area and choose DefaultBox). It has a bunch of other options that makes it look difficult to use on first impression, but the reality is that it factually is not.

jimbo45 said:
What does seem to me to be huge mistake is that Ms doesn't offer a built in utility to backup the OS -- especially as people like Macrium etc are withdrawing their Free backup software.

Windows does include the DISM command line utility for this purpose, but here's what works for me:

http://dl.acronis.com/s/AcronisTrueImage2021_39287.iso

I can download it, from the internet directly onto my Ventoy stick, and just boot straight into it next. For me, it works, and, I watch Bob Ross videos (also free of charge) instead of keep worrying about Macrium Reflect.

jimbo45 · May 3, 2023

hdmi said:
Baloney. Both Rufus and Ventoy are free open source so the only thing unpredictable is you─besides Microsoft and some hardware companies like Dell. Ventoy also does simply what it has to do. But if you want to boot straight into multiple image files each one of which not only has to be bootable, but also has to be stored (and kept) on the same USB flash drive at once. Then no, Rufus does not let you do that.

The same also holds true about Ventoy. So, the only reason why I always recomment to use Ventoy, not Rufus, is because Ventoy lets you keep ALL your bootable image files on just a single USB flash drive, by merely copying them all, WITHOUT requiring to do anything else. That's right... once Ventoy has been installed on the USB flash drive, you could decide to just download the official Windows Installation ISO file from Microsoft directly onto the USB flash drive and, next, boot straight into the file, as the file will be shown on the list that will appear when you boot from the USB flash drive.

Next, if you decide to add the bootable Rescue Media file of Macrium and/or Acronis (and/or etc.) to this same USB flash drive before booting from it again, you will see it/they will be shown on the list also. And so you can boot straight into the file that you select from this list. What could be more practical than this? All you had to do to figure this out was JUST TRY IT.

Finally, what exactly was it that happened when Ventoy was "unpredictable in its execution"? Did it show an error message? Did it make your computer explode? If it was the latter type problem, did you notice anything else, like, maybe Brink parked his vimana in front of that strange hotel in Switzerland again─so he could be interviewed by Erich von Däniken? lol

3rd party AV doesn't just have a tendency to inhibit performance. Worse, it often also has a tendency to make the cumputer behave unpredictably in a lot of situations and/or become a nuisance with repeated false alerts. This is why I only use the built-in Windows Defender (Windows Security), but I also rely on Sandboxie-Plus, more heavily than it.

Learning to use Sandboxie-Plus with the Classic UI option for simple, basic tasks such as protecting a web browser─I use it mainly to protect my Firefox Portable browser─shouldn't have to be that hard or time consuming. You could decide to just keep Immediate Recovery disabled in its settings and use the Quick Recovery / Delete Contents (two options that appear after you right-click on the yellow pizza icon in your taskbar's notification area and choose DefaultBox). It has a bunch of other options that makes it look difficult to use on first impression, but the reality is that it factually is not.

Windows does include the DISM command line utility for this purpose, but here's what works for me:

http://dl.acronis.com/s/AcronisTrueImage2021_39287.iso
I can download it, from the internet directly onto my Ventoy stick, and just boot straight into it next. For me, it works, and, I watch Bob Ross videos (also free of charge) instead of keep worrying about Macrium Reflect.

I think ANYBODY who currently recommends any version of Acronis has about as much credibility as those blaggers (N.B NOT BLOGGERS) on Reddit -- probably the most useless and inaccurate site I've ever seen on the web - and I've been using the web even back in the days of the Old BBS's with Sysops etc.

I've probably tried and messed around with more software etc - than most people have had "hot dinners" -- my ist reliable (well it was in those days) Windows system was Windows V 3.1 Windows for Workgroups with a Nowell network. Do you go back that far !!!

I think on this stuff the one I'd trust most in these sorts of threads is @Wynona -- always sensible comments and she has a great record of teaching seniors too. !!!

Cheers
jimbo

Wisewiz · May 3, 2023

Just a brief aside: I never had any idea where they got the name for Rufus, until John posted this thread. Now I know. Thanks, John.

Winuser · May 3, 2023

jimbo45 said:
especially for home / domestic machines is the incessant peddling of 3rd party Anti-Virus software

I don't have a problem with users using 3rd party security programs. I myself prefer to use Eset. What I do have a problem with is when OEM's preinstall security programs or any programs that is next to impossible for anyone with very little computer knowledge to remove.

johnlgalt · May 3, 2023

jimbo45 said:
I think ANYBODY who currently recommends any version of Acronis has about as much credibility as those blaggers (N.B NOT BLOGGERS) on Reddit -- probably the most useless and inaccurate site I've ever seen on the web - and I've been using the web even back in the days of the Old BBS's with Sysops etc.

Ahhh, the days of FIDOnet, Legend of the Red Dragon, and owning one of the first 14.4K modems in my general area.

jimbo45 said:
I've probably tried and messed around with more software etc - than most people have had "hot dinners" -- my ist reliable (well it was in those days) Windows system was Windows V 3.1 Windows for Workgroups with a Nowell network. Do you go back that far !!!

Windows for Workgroups was v3.11, regular Windows was v3.1.

I still have the floppies (3.5") for both.

I started out on (Tandy) DOS 2.11, if it helps. But where and when we started out has little bearing on Rufus, the software here.

As for Rufus versus Ventoy - I wholeheartedly agree with HDMI, they serve different purposes, and VenToy is as rock solid in its approach with modern computers as RMPrepUSB / Easy 2Boot is with older systems.

I've simply stopped using both Ventoy and RMPrep / Easy2 because I have 3x 1 TB NVMe SSDs in enclosures that are fully portable, and have much more capacity than any USB Flash device I have, and it is much, much more convenient to store .ISOs on them. I almost never use a USB to boot an .ISO anymore, but I have them ready along with Rufus if I ever need to make one in a flash.

Wisewiz · May 3, 2023

johnlgalt said:
I almost never use a USB to boot an .ISO anymore, but I have them ready along with Rufus if I ever need to make one in a flash.

hdmi · May 3, 2023

jimbo45 said:
I think ANYBODY who currently recommends any version of Acronis has about as much credibility as those blaggers (N.B NOT BLOGGERS) on Reddit -- probably the most useless and inaccurate site I've ever seen on the web - and I've been using the web even back in the days of the Old BBS's with Sysops etc.

It's not "Acronis". Rather, it is the bootable Rescue Media ISO file thereof, which is based on Linux so, not the same thing as Acronis True Image 2021, the latter I did NOT recommend to anyone.

jimbo45 said:
I've probably tried and messed around with more software etc - than most people have had "hot dinners" -- my ist reliable (well it was in those days) Windows system was Windows V 3.1 Windows for Workgroups with a Nowell network. Do you go back that far !!!

I go back a little bit further, 1985 to be precise. Windows didn't even exist yet back then. lol

jimbo45 said:
I think on this stuff the one I'd trust most in these sorts of threads is @Wynona -- always sensible comments and she has a great record of teaching seniors too. !!!

I have a formal degree in IT. I used to work as a systems engineer at the customer and desktop services section of a (mid sized) IT department during the Windows 2000 era (data-centric desktop app development using VB6 in Visual Studio 6.0 with ADO 2.0 mostly), and, some time after EJB 2.1 came out, trained to become an Enterprise Java software developer. I work as a Jakarta EE consultant for very large corporations, but then, I already told you about this in the past... most people on here still haven't a clue about what it is that such corporations are using Jakarta EE for or why. It's difficult enough to make people on here somewhat understand the fact that Java isn't just a programming language (the syntax of which is based on the C programming language), but rather, it refers to a very broad range of technologies. I could try to explain to you what JBoss EAP is, for example, but you would more than likely just fall asleep within the next minute.

hdmi · May 3, 2023

johnlgalt said:
Ahhh, the days of FIDOnet, Legend of the Red Dragon, and owning one of the first 14.4K modems in my general area.

Windows for Workgroups was v3.11, regular Windows was v3.1.

I still have the floppies (3.5") for both.

I started out on (Tandy) DOS 2.11, if it helps.

In 1985, I started out on an MSX computer (Sony HB-75P, which has 64KB RAM─just like the Commodore 64) with tape cassette and I later bought a Philips VY-0010 floppy drive for it to make it run MSX-DOS from a single sided single density (360KB) 3.5″ floppy. I bought my 1st PC in 1989 and took a while before Windows 3.0 came out. I still have the 3.5″ floppies for both Windows 3.0 and 3.11 for Workgroups. I lost the ones for Windows 3.1.

johnlgalt said:
But where and when we started out has little bearing on Rufus, the software here.

As for Rufus versus Ventoy - I wholeheartedly agree with HDMI, they serve different purposes, and VenToy is as rock solid in its approach with modern computers as RMPrepUSB / Easy 2Boot is with older systems.

I've simply stopped using both Ventoy and RMPrep / Easy2 because I have 3x 1 TB NVMe SSDs in enclosures that are fully portable, and have much more capacity than any USB Flash device I have, and it is much, much more convenient to store .ISOs on them. I almost never use a USB to boot an .ISO anymore, but I have them ready along with Rufus if I ever need to make one in a flash.

I don't have that many image files (ISO or other image filetype), anyway to begin with. The pair of USB3 flash drives I have is just to be able to restore my Windows system partition from an image (with the bootable Rescue Media ISO file of Acronis) in the possible event that my 2TB Samsung 980 Pro SSD dies or if I can't repair my Windows 11 by doing an in-place upgrade. But I suspect that the risk of that ever happening is really very small. The 512GB Phison M.2 SATA SSD that came out of my laptop after I had bought the 2TB Samsung 980 Pro (on Cyber Monday of 2021) has been lying around gathering dust somewhere ever since, as I'm too lazy to buy an M.2 USB3 enclosure for the Phison SSD. I plan to buy another new laptop within less than a year from now. Probably then I will consider to get an NVMe (gen 4) USB-C enclosure for whatever the SSD will be inside this next laptop.

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