How to solve the problem that USB drives are not recognized by Rufus?

There are various reasons why Rufus may not recognize a USB drive properly, this tutorial will explain what causes this problem and how to fix it, with the main content as follows:

• Overview of Rufus
• Why is my USB drive not recognized by Rufus?
• Method 1: Change the Rufus settings to recognize the USB drive.
• Method 2: Create bootable USB drive with Hasleo WinToUSB.
• Conclusion

Overview of Rufus

Rufus is a popular and open-source tool primarily used to create bootable USB drives, which can be used to create bootable USB drives for various operating systems such as Windows, Linux, DOS etc. You can quickly write ISO files of different operating systems to a USB drive using Rufus on the Windows operating system, and it perfectly supports UEFI/traditional BIOS dual-boot mode, making it an essential tool for system installation and maintenance. For Windows users, you can use it not only to create a Windows installation USB drive, but also to create Windows To Go usb drive.

Why is my USB drive not recognized by Rufus?

There are various reasons why Rufus may not recognize a USB drive properly, which may be caused by hardware or software reasons, such as the USB drive has been physically damaged, the USB cable is unstable, or Rufus is not set up properly or there are bugs present. So when you find that your USB drive is not recognized by Rufus, you should check to see if the Windows operating system recognizes it correctly to make sure that it is not caused by a hardware issue. If you are sure that the problem is caused by a hardware issue then try to replace the USB cable or update the USB drive with a new one.

After you have resolved the hardware issue, that is, you are sure that Windows has been able to successfully recognize the USB drive, if Rufus is still unable to list it then try method 1 below to see if there is a setup issue that is causing the USB drive not to be listed. If method 1 still doesn't work, then there may be a bug in Rufus, in this case we recommend you to contact the Rufus developer to solve the problem, however this will take some time and affect your work, in this case we recommend you to try method 2.

 

Method 1: Change the Rufus settings to recognize the USB drive.

Step 1. Connect the USB drive to the computer, run Rufus. If your USB drive is not listed by Rufus, click "Show advanced drive properties".

Step 2. Check the "List USB Hard Drives" checkbox, and if everything is normal, your USB drive will be listed.

Step 3. Select the ISO file and then create a bootable USB drive.

 

Method 2: Create bootable USB drive with Hasleo WinToUSB.

Step 1. Connect the USB drive to the computer, download, install and run Hasleo WinToUSB and then click the "Windows To Go USB".

Step 2. Click "Select installation source", then click "Browse image file" and select the Windows 8 installation ISO file from the open dialog box as installation source, or choose a CD/DVD drive with a Windows 8 installation DVD inserted as the installation source.

Step 3. Hasleo WinToUSB scans for and lists installable operating systems, select the edition of Windows you want to install.

Step 4. Click "Select destination drive" and select the destination drive from the pop-up drive list. If the drive is not correctly recognized by Hasleo WinToUSB, you can click the button for the program to recognize the drive.

Step 5. Choose the partition scheme and installation mode you want to use, and you can specify additional drivers or enable BitLocker to encrypt the Windows To Go USB drive according to your needs, then click "Proceed".

* Tips:

1. For more detailed information about "Partition scheme", "Installation mode" and "Enable BitLocker", please refer to: How to create portable Windows 11/10/8/7 from an ISO, WIM, ESD, SWM or VHD(X) file?
2. If you choose "Keep the existing partition scheme", you need to manually prepare the partitions on the USB drive before this step, and here is the user guide on how to manually prepare partitions for Windows To Go.

Step 6. After clicking "Proceed", a pop-up will appear asking you if you want to format it to continue, click "Yes" if you are sure.

Step 7. After clicking "Yes", WinToUSB begins installing Windows to the destination drive.

Step 8. It takes some time to install. After installation restart the computer and change BIOS to boot from your USB drive.

Step 9. Windows normal installation starts up and you have to complete all the installation steps. After that, you can install programs, copy files, etc.

Summary

For Windows users, as the best free alternative to Rufus, you can use Hasleo WinToUSB to create bootable USB drives in case Rufus doesn't recognize your USB drive correctly. Like Rufus, you can use Hasleo WinToUSB to easily create Windows installation USB and Windows To Go, and it offers more features than Rufus, such as creating BitLocker encrypted Windows To Go, cloning currently running Windows to a USB drive as a Windows To Go, and more.