How to Burn ISO to USB? 2024 Complete Guide 🔥

Can I burn an ISO to a USB flash drive? Yes, sure. In the following, you'll learn what the ISO file is, the benefits of burning ISO image file to USB, and how to burn ISO to your target USB with success.

🔢Complex Level:	Simple, Beginners
⏱️Duration:	5-10 minutes
🎯Applies to:	Burn ISO to USB Windows 10/11 and Windows 7.
🧰Tools:	USB, Windows PC, File Explorer, Windows ISO file, ISO Burning Software

Key Takeaways of Burning ISO Image to USB:

First, set the USB as FAT32. You can follow Stage 1 to try. If your USB drive is FAT32, skip to Stage 2.
Burning ISO image is a complex procedure that requires you to turn to a professional ISO to USB burning tool or software for help. Qiling Disk Master allows users to write ISO to USB with simple clicks. Install this tool and follow the tutorial to execute the task.

Free Download
Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7, 100% Secure

Benefits- Write ISO to USB

Here is a list of benefits of burning a desired ISO file to a USB drive so that you can take a deep view:

USB is portable and versatile for use in many aspects.
You can create a bootable USB flash drive for Windows.
You can repair a PC with the Windows ISO image burned on USB.
You can make Windows ISO image bootable on USB for Windows transfer, system installation, or reinstallation.

So, how do I make an ISO image file burnt to a USB flash drive? And what should I prepare? In the next part, you'll learn the complete procedure with detailed guide steps. Now, click the link to learn the top five ISO Burners for Windows 10/11 in 2023.

How to Burn ISO to USB on Windows

Here in this part, we'll take Windows ISO image burning as an example to show you the complete guide on how to burn ISO image files to a USB drive on Windows computers.

And we'll break the procedure into three parts, as shown below:

#Stage 1. Make the USB Drive Ready for ISO Image Burning

Before we go to make a bootable USB, note that burning Windows ISO image files to a USB drive has a specific file system format request, which is that you need to set the USB flash drive as FAT32 at first. Here is how to prepare a USB drive ready:

Step 1. Connect a USB stick drive with 32GB or larger storage capacity to your PC.

Step 2. Open the USB flash drive and back up all valuable files to another location.

Step 3. Press the Windows + I keys to open File Explorer, and right-click on the USB flash drive.

Step 4. Select the USB file system format as FAT32, and click "Format."

Step 5. Click "OK".

Format USB to FAT32

Go straight to write ISO to USB now.

#Stage 2. Download ISO Burning Tool for Help

Some experienced users may suggest to burn ISO image to USB using Windows Media creation tool. However, for Windows beginners, this way is too complex to follow.

Here, we'll share with you a reliable ISO burning software - Qiling Disk Master with its Burn ISO feature to write ISO to USB in simple clicks.

Free Download
Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7, 100% Secure

Alongside burning ISO to USB, users can also use this software to set up USB sticks for multiple different purposes, for example, to:

Format 128GB USB to FAT32
Fix USB won't format to FAT32 error
Format USB for PS4, PS5.
Check for file system errors on USB devices, etc.
Burn ISO to DVD

So, how do I create a bootable USB from an ISO file? Go to the next guide to start burning the ISO image file to your USB drive and making a bootable USB now.

#Stage3. Burn ISO to USB

To start burning the ISO to USB, you'll need to download the Windows ISO image file on your PC first. Here is an official link where you can download Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft. Or, you can search the Windows ISO image file online and get secure access to download this image file.

After downloading the Windows ISO image on your PC, you are now good to start writing ISO to USB with the steps here:

Step 1. Launch Qiling Disk Master and go to the Tools and utilities section. Click "Create Bootable Media".

Step 2. Click "Next" and select the target USB as destination.

Step 3. Click "Burn" to execute the operation.

Bonus Tip: If you are interested in how to install the Windows operating system with the burnt ISO image file on your USB drive, you can refer to this guide provided by Microsoft for help: Install Windows from USB.

Extended Reading: Fix Can't Burn ISO File to USB

What Is ISO File

Before we get started, let's have a brief understanding of what is ISO image file is here:

"An ISO Image, also known as an optical disc image, is a disk image that contains everything that would be written to an optical disk, disk sector by sector, including the optical disc file system. ISO ifiles are expected to contain the binary image of an optical media file system, including the data in its files in binary format, copied exactly as they were stored on the disc. The data inside the ISO image file will be structured according to the file system that was used in the optical disc from which it was created." - by Wikipedia

In a word, an ISO file is a file containing all parts of an OS or a program that needs to be built. But the file itself is useless until it is opened, assembled, and used. Typically, you can use ISO to USB tools, such as Qiling Disk Master, Rufus(Rufus for Mac, Rufus for Linux, or Rufus for Ubuntu), or BalenaEtcher, or burn ISO to USB.

So, what can ISO images be used for? Here is a list of the wide usages of ISO image files:

Data transfer
Data backup
OS migration or system installation/reinstallation
Program duplication, backup, migration, etc.

Moreover, the most widely way to make an ISO image work is to burn the ISO image to a USB device. So why burn ISO images to a USB drive? Follow the next part, and you'll learn why.

🚩Explore More: How to Burn ISO to External Hard Drive Windows 10

Burning ISO to USB Is Easy, and You Can Do This with Correct Method

On this page, we simplified the procedure of writing ISO images to USB into 3 phrases:

#1. Set up USB to FAT32
#2. Download ISO burning software
#3. Download ISO and burn ISO file to USB in simple clicks and make a bootable USB

For experienced users, you can directly junk stage 2 and start burning ISO files with stage 3 in the Microsoft Official method. However, as for Windows beginners, we suggest that you follow the above guidelines one by one. The entire procedure is easy and simple with the help of reliable ISO image writing tool software - Qiling Disk Master.

Free Download
Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7, 100% Secure

Write ISO to USB FAQS

Here in this part, we also collected some bonus questions that are related to ISO image burning to USB, and if you are interested, follow and find the answer here:

1. Can I use Rufus to burn ISO to USB?

Download and open the Rufus tool. Insert the USB drive and choose a device. Select Disk or ISO image. Locate and choose the ISO image to burn.
Under the Image option, choose Standard Windows installation. Choose Start and leave other options alone.
Wait for Rufus to say "Ready," then close Rufus and remove the USB drive.

2. Can I burn the ISO image to USB?

Yes, sure. You can directly burn a pre-downloaded ISO image to a USB drive with the tips here:

Connect the USB to your PC.
Format the USB to FAT32.
Run an ISO image-burning tool like Qiling Disk Master.
Burn the ISO image to USB.

3. How do you burn ISO to USB on Linux?

Connect a USB to a Linux computer.
Run the UNetbootin app on a Linux computer.
Select 'Diskimage' and select 'ISO file' and click 'Download.'
Click 'Open', click 'USB Drive,' and click 'OK'.

4. How do I burn ISO file to USB on Mac?

Connect a USB drive to a Mac computer.
Go to Application and open Terminal utility.
Type the next two command lines in Terminal and hit Enter each time:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\
*.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --**volume /Volumes/MyVolume

(Replace * with the name of your macOS - Catalina, Mojave, etc. Such as Big\Sur.app. Replace 'volume' 'my volume' with the name of your USB drive.)

Press 'Y' key and hit the Return key.
Click 'OK'.