How to Make a Bootable USB Drive: Ventoy vs Rufus vs Etcher

Which tool should you use?

• Install Windows 10/11: Rufus
• Many ISOs on one stick: Ventoy
• Linux, Raspberry Pi or SD cards: balenaEtcher
• Simple multiboot: YUMI
• Technician-grade toolkits: Easy2Boot

What you need

• A USB drive of 8 GB or more (16 GB+ for Windows 11). Everything on it will be erased.
• The ISO file. Get Windows from Microsoft's official download page and Linux from the distro's own site.

Rufus (best for Windows install)

• Plug in the USB and open Rufus.
• Device: pick your USB. Boot selection: click SELECT and choose the ISO.
• Partition scheme: GPT for modern PCs (UEFI), MBR only for very old machines.
• Click START. Rufus can also skip the Microsoft-account and TPM checks for Windows 11.

Ventoy (best all-rounder)

• Run Ventoy2Disk, choose the USB and click Install — once.
• Now just copy ISO files onto the drive like normal files. No re-formatting.
• Boot from the USB and pick any ISO from the menu. Add or delete ISOs anytime.

balenaEtcher (simplest)

• Flash from file → Select target → Flash. It verifies the write automatically.

Booting from the USB

Restart and tap the boot-menu key: usually F12 (Dell, Lenovo), F9 (HP), F8 (ASUS), Esc or F11 on others. Choose the USB entry.

Troubleshooting

• USB doesn't show: try another port (USB 2.0 is more reliable on old PCs) or enable USB boot in BIOS.
• "Secure Boot violation": Ventoy needs a one-time key enrolment, or temporarily disable Secure Boot.
• Drive looks smaller afterwards: reformat it in Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc).