Lastly, and perhaps the most confusing part to most people is choosing the Partition Scheme and Target System (BIOS type). Then your next step is to select the proper ISO image to burn. Rufus will auto-detect your USB stick, but if you have multiple USB sticks plugged into your system you’ll have to select the correct one from a drop down menu. The best tool to burn ISO images to a USB stick in Windows is completely free and relatively small (just 1.1 megabyte). You can download nearly every Linux distro image from Distro Watch.

Microsoft’s Windows distribution site is called the Software Download site (check the next subsection if you’re already on Windows and Microsoft isn’t letting you download a Windows image). Either with Windows, Linux or Raspbian you can get these ISO images by going to the respective operating system’s website. Burning an ISO in Windowsĭownload the ISO image of your operating system of choice. CDs and DVDs are becoming something obsolete in the present, but the term just stuck with people and is still popularly used even if “burning an ISO” to a USB stick just means copying the files. Back then a laser burned the surface of the CD or DVD in order to record the information on the tracks contained on the optical media’s surface. The term “burning an ISO” is an old legacy of the time when information was “burned” (literally) on CDs or DVDs. Since these ISO images emulate perfectly an optical disk, most operating systems out there are offered through their developer’s website in ISO files, it’s your job then to “burn” these ISO files to a USB stick or memory card and install the operating system from there. In short, ISO images allow you to turn any optimal media into a digital file (something extremely helpful in today’s world where optical media drives are almost nowhere to be found). The format is named after the standard which specifies it, the ISO 9660 standard. An ISO image (also called an ISO file) is a file format standard which allows you to store all the information found in an optical disk, like a CD or a DVD, in a digital file. Nowadays if you want to install an operating system, be it Linux or Windows, most of the time you’ll go to the manufacturer’s website in order to get an ISO image.

Linux burn windows iso to usb