Windows: Bootable USB

With a bootable Ubuntu USB stick, you can:

• Install or upgrade Ubuntu
• Test out the Ubuntu desktop experience without touching your PC configuration
• Boot into Ubuntu on a borrowed machine or from an internet cafe
• Use tools installed by default on the USB stick to repair or fix a broken configuration

Creating a bootable Ubuntu USB stick is very simple, especially from Ubuntu itself, and we're going to cover the process in the next few steps.

Alternatively, we also have tutorials to help you create a bootable USB stick from both Ubuntu.

You will need:

• A 2GB or larger USB stick/flash drive
• Microsoft Windows XP or later
• Rufus, a free and open source USB stick writing tool
• An Ubuntu ISO file. See Get Ubuntu for download links

Perform the following to configure your USB device in Rufus:

1. Launch Rufus
2. Insert your USB stick
3. Rufus will update to set the device within the Device field
4. If the Device is incorrect, select the correct one from the device field's drop-down menu

For best compatibility with newer hardware, keep the Partition scheme and target system type set as MBR partition scheme for UEFI. However, if you need to use the USB stick with older hardware, change this to MBR Partition Scheme for BIOS or UEFI. To select the Ubuntu ISO file, click the optical drive icon alongside the enabled Create a bootable disk usingfield. This will open a file requester from which you can navigate to, and select, the ISO file.

The ISO will now be written to your USB stick, and the progress bar in Rufus will give you some indication of how long this will take. With a reasonably modern machine, this should just a few minutes.

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