Write Image to USB Drive
Win32 Disk Imager is a program which write a raw disk image to a removable device or backup a removable device to a raw image file. It is very useful for embedded development, namely Arm development projects (Android, Ubuntu on Arm, etc). Anyone is free to branch and modify this program.
CREATE A BOOTABLE USB DRIVE USING WIN32 DISK IMAGER
DOWNLOAD FILES
To create a bootable drive all you need is ISO file (Which you wants to write) and Win32 Disk Imager (Which you can download from here)
FORMAT THE REMOVABLE DRIVE
Before you perform writing it is always a good practice to plug and format the removable drive / USB Stick. (You can skip this step as the tool will automatically perform this step)
SELECT THE ISO IMAGE
Now Open the Win32 Disk Imager and select the ISO file which you want to write also select the Drive (USB Stick) from the option.
WRITING THE ISO IMAGE
After selecting file path, click on the ‘Write’ button. A pop-up will appears simply click on ‘Yes’. After completing file transfer a Success pop up will appear and you will able to remove the USB Stick, Done!
STEP – 1: Getting your ISO File.
This is a very first and important step. In order to write an ISO Image you need to download it first. basically we require to write any OS like windows XP or Windows 10 so all you need is an ISO image of that OS. You must be take care that it should not be corrupted.
Getting a copy of windows in ISO file is very is as its available on internet. However if you don’t know where you can get Windows 10 ISO image to make it bootable i will help you here!
Follow these steps to create installation media (USB flash drive or DVD) you can use to install a new copy of Windows 10, perform a clean installation, or reinstall Windows 10.
Before you download the tool make sure you have:
- An internet connection (internet service provider fees may apply).
- Sufficient data storage available on a computer, USB or external drive for the download.
- A blank USB flash drive with at least 8GB of space or blank DVD (and DVD burner) if you want to create media. We recommend using a blank USB or blank DVD, because any content on it will be deleted.
- When burning a DVD from an ISO file, if you are told the disc image file is too large you will need to use Dual Layer (DL) DVD Media.
Check a few things on the PC where you want to install Windows 10:
- 64-bit or 32-bit processor (CPU). You’ll create either a 64-bit or 32-bit version of Windows 10. To check this on your PC, go to PC info in PC settings or System in Control Panel, and look for System type.
- System requirements. Make sure the PC meets the system requirements for Windows 10. We also recommend going to the PC manufacturer’s website for additional info about updated drivers and hardware compatibility.
- Language in Windows. You’ll need to choose the same language when you install Windows 10. To see what language you’re currently using, go to Time and language in PC settings or Region in Control Panel.
- Edition of Windows. You should also choose the same edition of Windows. To check what edition you’re currently running, go to PC info in PC settings or System in Control Panel, and look for Windows edition.
Step -2 Format your Flash Drive
In this step you need to make your pendrive/ flash drive writable you need to format it first. To perform a quick format Insert your Flash drive in USB Port then go to my computer and right click on Flash drive and click on format
Now click on start and it will be formatted!
Step-3: Writing the ISO image on flash drive
Now the most important step! First of all Open the Win32 Disk Imager. Now click on folder icon you and locate the folder where you have the ISO image; by default it will check for download folder and only ISO file type will be seen. So you will able to select it easily.
You will need to have your USB drive plugged in before starting the transfer. Generally, a good practice is to ensure only the drive you will be using for this purpose is plugged into your machine. Having multiple USB drives plugged into the machine at the time can easily make you lose track of which drive is which.
This can ultimately end with you formatting the wrong drive and losing valuable data you may have had on it.
At this time, you may be prompted to format your USB drive before proceeding. However, you can feel free to ignore this prompt. Cloning your image file to the USB stick will overwrite any data on it regardless, so formatting isn’t really necessary. You can still format your drive before you begin, but just know that it isn’t mandatory at all.
The interface of Win32 Disk Imager is very intuitive and very little work goes into setting up the file transfer. All you need to do is select the directory which contains the image file you would like to clone and the directory of the USB flash drive you would like to clone it to. Double-check to make sure you have selected the correct file paths and then click on the ‘Write’ button.
Another pop-up will display, asking you if you are sure you would like to continue. After selecting ‘Yes’, the window will introduce the progress bar, along with the transfer speed, so that you can monitor the progress until completion. After the transfer is complete, a pop-up message will display to inform you that the write has been successful. All you have left to do after this would be to safely remove your USB drive and use it as you please from there on out.
System Requirements
Since it is a light weight software it does not consume more than 44 MB of your disk space on your computer However we need to check whether it does work on your system well? It allows you to write boot images onto an SD flash device or a USB drive.
This makes it so that you can easily create a bootable drive if you need to. Most of the time it will work in each and every machine until and unless your PC is a special case. The developers of this software crafted this software so compact that and very simple UI + Easy to use interface that you want feel any hustle while using this software and you will able to easily write an ISO image no any flash drive!
| System | Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 |
| Minimum RAM | 512 MB |
| Minimum Space Required | 100 MB |
Download Win32 Disk Imager
Simply click on Download button You will find .exe file after extracting ZIP. Open it and perform the Writing process as the above steps!
| File Name | win32DiskImager-1.0.0-install.exe |
| Size | 12.6 MB |
| last Update | 21-09-2020 |
| Author | Tobin Davis |
Best Alternatives
Following are the best alternative to Win32 Disk Imager !
Rufus
Rufus is a utility that helps format and create bootable USB flash drives, such as USB keys/pendrives, memory sticks, etc.
balenaEtcher
balenaEtcher is a free and open-source image burner with support for Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux. It makes USB and SD card image burning as simple and fast as possible.
UNetbootin
Cross-platform tool to create bootable Live USB drives with built-in downloader for Linux ISO images and rescue disks.
Clonezilla
Open-source partition and disk imaging, cloning and recovery solution with multicast support to clone 40+ computers simultaneously.
Frequently Asked Questions
Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, and Ubuntu
The Win32 Disk Imager works by utilizing the Windows operating system in the raw reading and writing (flashing) of image files to removable drives. This makes the program work quickly and easily as it takes advantage of the intuitive nature of the user interface found in Windows operating systems. Simply run it with administrator privileges to avoid most issues with this application. The latest version currently available on Sourceforge.net is written for Windows 7 and up, but it is also expected to work on other versions of Windows operating systems.
You are sometimes given a disk image that needs to be written to a USB thumbdrive or a SD card. This is typically used to create something that you can use to boot a device. The image file typically has the .img file extension, though its not necessary and does not matter. With this program you can write a Raw image in USB Drive!
To install Win32 Disk Imager on Windows OS follow these steps
If you want to write a Raw disk image file to USB Drive or such compact device then this kind of software are required !
Some USB flash drives have a write-protection switch on the side or bottom. The write-protection switch is useful for keeping the contents of your drive safe from malware when you need to view them on a public computer. If your device has this switch, move it to the “Lock” position. So to do such task you can use software application like rufus or win32 disk imager.
Any modern USB stick emulates a USB hard drive (USB-HDD). At boot time, the BIOS can be configured to check the USB stick to see if it has been marked as bootable with a valid boot sector. If so, it will boot just as a hard drive with similar settings in the boot sector would.
Yes! Using this software you can simply burn any Windows OS to your USB Drive
You’ll need a USB flash drive (at least 4GB, though a bigger one will let you use it to store other files), anywhere between 6GB to 12GB of free space on your hard drive(depending on the options you pick), and an Internet connection.
An ISO is generally less likely to contain malware, as a virus creator could just as easily infect peoples computers with much smaller files (single executables), which they would be more likely to download, but it is possible.
Yes! You can always check this file using Virus Total. Also We have provided google drive link so google drive it self scan for any virus so no need to worry about!
Yes It is ! Full Project available on https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/
If such error occurs Please ope Win32 Disk Image as “Run as administration” , This is either caused by your computer not being able to detect your device or by the program not having the privileges to access removable media connected to your computer. Check whether the Drive is working properly? Does the driver to detect the USB Drive is installed or not? Have you installed USB drive Correctly or not?
There are many programs available to do this task like Rufus, BalenaEtcher, Clonezilla, Win32 Disk Imager and many more!