We all need to start from scratch sometimes and if you're building a new PC, chances are you'll need to learn how to make a bootable USB drive. This will enable you to boot your PC directly from a USB ...

For a long time, Microsoft didn’t sell Windows install media in the form of bootable USB flash drives. Instead, it prefered to stick to old-school DVD media, despite the fact that many notebooks today ...

Margaret T. wants to boot from a flash drive and work on documents from there. You’ll need to get an operating system onto the flash drive. You’ve got a number of ...

A bootable Mac OS X thumb drive comes in handy when you need to troubleshoot OS issues for yourself, your family, or your friends. It’s also extremely useful for keeping your basic setup consistent ...

Rufus is a free, portable utility that creates bootable USB flash drives from ISO files. As of 2026, the latest version is Rufus 4.13 — and it’s faster and more capable than ever, with built-in ...

When installing a fresh copy of Windows 10, you typically use a USB flash drive to launch the "Windows Setup" wizard to continue with the installation process. However, on a device that has a Unified ...

As someone who extensively writes about all things Windows, I find myself installing the Windows operating system quite often. Most of the time, these installations are geared toward setting up ...

Update: Before you try all of this, you may want to try using WinToFlash, a utility designed to create a bootable Windows flash drive for Windows XP/Vista/7/Server. If this works for you, you can skip ...

Now that Apple has released OS X 10.9 Mavericks, you might want to consider creating a USB install drive for clean installs and future use. Ed Rhee Ed Rhee, a freelance writer based in the San ...

Making a bootable macOS Big Sur USB drive is a quick and clean way to install a fresh copy of macOS on your Mac. This hands-on tutorial is valid for both the public and developer beta versions of ...

For a long time, Microsoft didn’t sell Windows install media in the form of bootable USB flash drives. Instead, it prefered to stick to old-school DVD media, despite the fact that many notebooks today ...

Jesus Vigo goes over the steps to create a bootable USB to install OS X 10.9 (aka Mavericks). In April, I wrote an article on TechRepublic about how to create a bootable USB to install OS X. The ...