The Rufus 4.4 version was recently updated and launched, fixing many bugs found in the previous version, further enhancing compatibility, and bringing several improvements.
Rufus is a USB bootable drive creation tool that is very popular with users, capable of creating bootable media for systems such as Windows and Linux.
Rufus 4.4 notably adds support for GRUB 2.12 (a boot loader for Unix operating systems) and offers workarounds for certain UEFI bootloaders containing corrupt symbolic links in Linux distributions.
Additionally, this update fixes crash issues when handling.FFU images (i.e., when saving images) and no longer lists Microsoft Dev Drives (a special Windows 11 partition optimized for developer-related tasks and workflows). Moreover, it improves support for SDCX card readers.
DiskMFR includes the following complete update log content for Rufus 4.4:
- Added workaround for distributions using corrupt symbolic links as UEFI bootloaders (such as Linux Mint 21.3).
- Added support for GRUB 2.12.
- Fixed crash issues when saving .ffu images.
- Fixed the problem of some Linux ISOs being unable to add UEFI: NTFS partitions in MBR mode.
- Prevented listing of Microsoft Dev Drives.
- Improved support for SDXC card readers.
- Enhanced large FAT32 formatting by aligning the start of the data area to 1 MB.
Users can obtain the Windows version of Rufus from the official website or GitHub.
- Rufus Github: https://github.com/pbatard/rufus
How to Use Rufus 4.4 to Create a USB Boot Drive
Requirements:
- A USB flash drive (at least 8 GB recommended).
- Rufus 4.4 software is installed on your Windows PC.
- An ISO image of the operating system you want to install.
Steps:
- Insert the USB Drive:
- Plug your USB flash drive into your computer.
- Download and Open Rufus:
- If you haven’t already, download Rufus 4.4 from the official website.
- Open Rufus. It doesn’t need installation; it runs directly.
- Rufus Settings:
- In Rufus, under the
Devicesection, select your USB drive from the drop-down list. - Under
Boot selection, click theSELECTbutton to browse and select your ISO file. - Once the ISO is selected, Rufus will automatically set the best parameters for your bootable drive. However, you can customize settings like
Partition schemeandFile systemas needed.
- In Rufus, under the
- Advanced Options (Optional):
- If you need specific configurations (like UEFI-only, BIOS compatibility, or specific file systems), adjust these in the appropriate sections.
- For most users, the default settings chosen by Rufus are suitable.
- Start the Process:
- Click the
STARTbutton in Rufus. A warning will pop up about all data on the USB drive being destroyed. Ensure you have backed up any important data from your USB drive. - Click
OKto proceed.
- Click the
- Wait for Completion:
- Rufus will now start creating the bootable USB drive. This process may take several minutes, depending on the size of the ISO file and the speed of your USB drive.
- Safely Eject the USB Drive:
- Once Rufus indicates that the process is complete, close Rufus.
- Eject the USB drive safely from your computer.
- Using Your Bootable USB Drive:
- To use the bootable USB drive, insert it into the target computer.
- Boot the computer and enter its BIOS/UEFI settings.
- Change the boot order to boot from the USB drive.
- Save the settings and restart the computer. It should now boot from the USB drive, initiating the OS installation or other utilities provided by the bootable drive.
Notes:
- Make sure that the ISO file you use is a bootable image. Rufus can’t make a non-bootable image into a bootable one.
- The process will erase all data on the USB drive, so ensure you’ve backed up any important files from it.
Troubleshooting:
- If the USB drive doesn’t boot, recheck the BIOS/UEFI settings, or try recreating the bootable drive with different Rufus settings.
- Some older systems may require different settings (like MBR partition scheme for BIOS systems).
By following these steps, you should be able to create a bootable USB drive using Rufus 4.4 successfully.
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