Format Pen-Drive, Check For Bad-Sector & Create Bootable Windows/Linux USB With FreeDOS Support Via Rufus

If you need to format USB pen-drive or other sorts of removable drives, Windows’ default tool should be well enough for you unless the pen-drive has been write-protected or gone non-format able using the default utility. But if you want to use the same USB stick as a bootable disk for DOS, you need to go a little further and that is where Rufus (Reliable USB Formatting Utility Software) can help you. This application enables the option of creating a flash drive to boot DOS or for whatever you want to use (e.g. Bootable Windows XP, Windows 7, Linux-based OS’s like Ubuntu/Fedora or Mac or others with ISO file). Rufus is a small portable and yet smart powerful utility that will allow you to format your Pen-Drive, check for bad sectors and make Bootable USB drive. At first glance Rufus may seem a cloned copy of Windows’ formatting utility as the interface looks almost like the same. And really, for those who just want to format the pen-drive usually there is not much difference even in addition to checking locks. More to read.

The great advantage of this program is the option to create a bootable USB disk with the stick, which can be very useful if you are trying to install a new OS. It also lets you check of bad sectors in the USB stick. The formatting option is almost the same like Windows.

To format and create a bootable USB using Rufus, first select your Pen-drive from Drive and then click on the optical drive icon by the side of Create a bootable disc using:. Then browse for the ISO file of the operating system. Then change File System or Cluster Size if needed. Once done, click on Start.

The simple formatting process is completely similar to Windows’. But the Bootable USB creation process is way more faster then our previously shared Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. Another deference is that one needs to be installed in the system before using and was only able to create Bootable disc of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 while Rufus is a portable tool that can be run without installing and you can make bootable USB drive of any Windows OS, Linux-Based OS and Mac OS as well.

Rufus is a freeware portable tool alternative to Windows Formatting Utility. It let’s you format your pen-drive, check for bad sector and create Bootable drive as well. The application has 2 versions, one with FreeDOS and the other is without FreeDOS support. It works on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 while we also tested it successfully on Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

Download Rufus