Booting-In With Rufus

Rufus stands for: Reliable USB Formatting Utility (with Source). It is a very efficient utility that can be mainly used in formatting and creating a bootable flash drive from an ISO. It can be also useful in instances where:

·         creation of a USB installation media from bootable ISOs like Windows and Linux

·         working with systems without any OS installed

·         flashing a BIOS (or any firmware) from DOS

·         the usage of a low-level utility is much appreciated

Aside from its functionality, Rufus also lots of advantages over other similar utility products.

·         Its size doesn’t even exceed 1 MB. Current versions are still around 150 kb with full ISO support.

·         It has a simple but functional UI.

·         It doesn’t require installation.

·         Checks for bad blocks and detects fake drives

·         Supports more than 30 languages

·         It’s for free.

Speed comparison between Rufus and similar utilities running in Windows 7.

            Windows 7 x64: en_windows_7_ultimate_with_sp1_x64_dvd_618240.iso

Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool v1.0.30	00:08:10
Universal USB Installer v1.8.7.5	00:07:10
UNetbootin v1.1.1.1	00:06:20
RMPrepUSB v2.1.638	00:04:10
WiNToBootic v1.2	00:03:35
Rufus v1.1.1	00:03:25

                        Source:

System Requirement:

Windows XP or higher, 32 or 64-bit

Download:

Download links can be found here: rufus.akeo.ie and reboot.pro. After downloading the executable file, run it and it will be ready for use.

Creating Windows 7 bootable USB drive using Rufus:

What’s needed:

• USB drive (at least 4 gb)
• Windows 7 .iso file

1. Double click Rufus to open.

2. Select device drive volume

3. Click drive image to access Windows 7 .iso file stored in computer

4. No other changes necessary in the since the Windows .iso file would automatically adjust necessary settings.

5. Click Start. A warning will then appear that all your USB data will be formatted. Click OK to start formatting the USB drive.

6. The process will take at most 4 minutes (depending on the USB’s speed). Click close after the process is done. Your Windows 7 boot disk is now ready for use. 

FAQ

Other information about Rufus is available here. 

How to reset Windows 7 Password

You click enter and then that dreaded error message appears in the login screen. So what would you do now? You could go and check if you wrote your password somewhere, your planner or a scratch paper maybe? But when there is no other option, there is only one way to go: reset. But isn’t it only applicable on online login where you register an email address? Well, thankfully, there’s a way to do just that with the help of great old DOS.

How’s it done?

In a nutshell: You need to boot off using the Windows installation disk. Then using the command prompt, overwrite the sticky keys command with cmd.exe, reboot and then use the sticky keys so that a command prompt will appear and then reset the password using a string of command. Ta da! Done!

Step by Step Process:

1.) Boot off using the installation disk. In the lower left corner, you can see some options. Click the “Repair your computer” option.

2.) A dialog box will then appear and select the option Command Prompt.

3.) Once in the Command Prompt, type in the command:

           copy c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe c:\

This is so that you will have a backup of the original sticky keys file in case you want to recover it later on.

4.) Next, copy the command prompt executable (cmd.exe) over the sticky keys executable command.

          copy c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe

This is so that every time the sticky keys command is executed, the command prompt would immediately pop-up.

5.) Once done with the copying, reboot your computer. The next step will be the actual resetting of the password.

6.) When you are once again in the login screen, execute the sticky keys command by hitting the shift key 5 times. An administrator mode command prompt would immediately pop up.

7.) Then type the command:

           net user

Add the new username and password of your choosing.

           net user username newpassword

Now you can login using your new username and password.