Win32 Disk Imager is a software that allows you to create bootable ISO images easily. It is an open-source software and it was developed by gruemaster and tuxinator2009. You can use this utility to write your ISO files into CDs, DVDs, and SD/CF cards. Win32 Disk Imager can be downloaded from Source Forge or our mirror.
In order to understand what the Win32 Disk Imager is, we would first need to talk about disk images. These date back to the 1960s, when they were first used to backup information or create a perfect carbon copy of any optical media. This technology is what made CDs and DVDs obsolete. Now, instead of having to use a physical CD to put into your reader and access the information, you would just as easily be able to open a disk image and have access to all of the files. So, what’s take a look at what you would need, in order to install and use the win32 disk imager. This website is not managed by gruemaster and tuxinator200. The content of this website should be used only as a guide.
System Requirements Needed To Run Win32 Disk Imager
The Win32 Disk Imager is considered to be a lightweight piece of software, sitting at only 44 MB in size. The beauty of it is that it has a very simplistic design and it does exactly what it is supposed to do. Nothing more and certainly nothing less. 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.
The developers never disclosed the full system requirements needed to run this software, but you can rest assured it won’t be too demanding when you run it on your average, decent machine. As far as the operating system goes, you can use it on Windows 7. 8.1 and 10. If you are running any one of these operating systems, you will have no problem setting up and using this program. It has been reported that it could also work on Windows Server 2008, 2012 and 2016, but this was never fully tested or officially confirmed by the developers. Even if you are using Windows XP or Windows Vista, there is an earlier version in the archives (v0.9), which supports these fairly obsolete operating systems.
Downloading Your Copy Of Win32 Disk Imager
Before you can use the Win32 Disk Imager, you will need to obtain your copy and install it on your machine. Since this is a freeware piece of software, there are no charges involved, so you won’t be required to pay anything to install or use it. The installation file is only 12 MB large, so downloading it should be relatively fast, depending on your internet speed.
To obtain the Win32 Disk Imager download files, a quick internet search should reveal a lot of pages that will allow you to download it instantly. Choose whichever one you are the most comfortable with and begin the download process. Depending on your own preferences, your file should download into the directory of your choosing. It is an executable file, which will begin the installation of the win32 disk imager on your computer.
Installing The Win32 Disk Imager On Your Computer
After you have concluded the Win32 Disk Imager download, you are then free to begin the installation. Don’t worry, even if you aren’t tech-savvy, the installation wizard will guide you through the few simple steps and begin the installation on your machine. It all comes down to accepting the license agreement, choosing the installation directory and proceeding to the actual installation. Since the software is actually not that big in size, the installation should take no longer than a minute or two. This will also be influenced largely by your computer’s performance.
After the installation has finished successfully, you will be prompted with another choice. You can choose to run the Win32 Disk Imager immediately after installation and you can also choose to view the readme file. The readme file contains your usual legal disclaimers, the list of features, known issues and patch notes, listing all of the bug fixes that have been implemented over the course of development. Now that all of the preparation has been done, you can finally proceed and learn how to use win32 disk imager on your computer. Unfortunately it only works for Windows operating systems. If you have a Mac, you may have to switch to an alternative like Etcher.
Creating Your First Bootable USB Drive
- In order to be able to create a bootable drive, you’re first going to need to download the ISO image of the file you want to transfer to the USB stick. You can get the image file very easily where on the internet. Depending on which operating system you would like to download, you can perform another quick search on the internet and find the file you’re interested in.
- By default, the Win32 Disk Imager USB file search will only display IMG files. If the file you have downloaded is an ISO file, you will need to adjust the view filter to display all files, in order to find the ISO file you have downloaded.
- 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.