Today, I wanted to share a foundational element for many topics that I write about. Often, a situation may arise, where we need to boot into an alternate operating system or utility. Windows install disks can be created directly from their own utility as described here. Other bootable applications and operating systems will need to be created with a 3rd party utility. Personally, I prefer to use Rufus because it is light and very easy to use.
In this demonstration we will be burning a tool called Parted Magic. I find myself using this tool a lot because of its versatility and multiple use case scenarios. Here are the steps to create a bootable disk.
Download Rufus and ISO
First things first. Download the utility ISO file that you want to use. As mentioned, we will be using Parted Magic. Next, navigate to rufus.ie to download the media creation tool.
Select Device
Choose the device that you will be using as the tool. WARNING: THE DEVICE WILL BE COMPLETELY WIPED SO BE SURE TO USE AN EMPTY DEVICE.
Select ISO file
Click on “Select” and choose the ISO file that you would like to burn.
Choose File System
There are two options for the target partition Scheme. You can either choose GPT or MBR. For newer computers you can choose GPT. This will only be compatible with UEFI BIOS systems. For greater compatibility choose MBR which will allow it to boot in both UEFI and CSM (Legacy) BIOS systems.
Finalize Tool
Click start and wait for the tool to finish copying the file. You can tell that it is ready when the green bar is full, and the status says ready. The tool is now ready for use.
