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When it comes to installing an operating system on your computer, the days of buying a CD or DVD with an OS are pretty much over. If you have bought a preconfigured computer, then it will come with an operating system such as Windows 11 already installed. But let’s say you built your own computer or want to reinstall your OS, then you will need to get a copy of the operating system to do so. These days, you typically download an ISO (International Organization for Standardization) file from the developer’s website and then burn it to a bootable flash drive.
There are many ways to create a bootable USB flash drive to install your OS. If you are a Windows user, you can even use the Microsoft Media Creation Tool. Plus, there are other options such Rufus which will let you bypass the Windows 11 requirements, and Ventoy which will allow you to create a bootable flash drive with multiple OS images preconfigured. In this article, we will be showing you how to create a bootable USB flash drive for Windows, Linux & macOS with UNetbootin.
UNetbootin is a free tool that you can download to create these bootable flash drives and can be found on their website here. There is nothing to install so all you need to do is extract the zip file and run the executable file (for Windows).
You can create a Linux bootable ISO from the UNetbootin tool within Windows if you do not have a Linux computer ready to go with Linux already installed. When you open the app, you will see a Distribution section at the top. This is for various versions of Linux and once you choose one, you can then choose a version of that distribution over on the right. UNetbootin will then download that version of Linux to create your bootable USB flash drive.
If you want to create a Windows bootable flash drive or already have an ISO image for Linux or macOS, then you can browse to it from the Diskimage section to load it into the app. Then you can choose your flash drive from the Drive dropdown list.
Once you click the OK button, the process to create the bootable USB flash drive will begin.
Once the process is complete you will see a screen similar to the one pictured below.
Since we created a Windows 11 flash drive, we can open the flash drive in File Explorer to view its contents is needed.
To boot the computer with this flash drive, you will most likely need to go into the BIOS\UEFI settings and change the boot order, so it reads from the flash drive first. Many computers have an F key such as F12 that you can press during bootup to bring up the boot menu. Then you can choose the flash drive from there to start the OS installation process.
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