32 bit or 64 bit? Windows 10 or the older ones? Whichever you have, Rufus gets the work done!.It is fast and furious! It can run about twice as fast as other tools available out there!.So, that’s another thing for you not to worry about. It is totally free! You don’t have to spend a single penny to use this.Here is the list of the things that you would definitely love about this magical software:
Gone are the days of the floppy disk drives or CD-ROMS or DVD drives and now it just comes in very handy with a USB flash drive. Rufus is a free tool that allows us to create bootable USB flash drives that makes it easier for everyone when installing an operating system to a computer or laptop. Rufus, which is a free software, has made everything easy for us.
Since the installer gets loaded into memory you can also install ESXi right onto the same flash drive, which is exactly what I did when I setup my three Intel NUC‘s in my home lab.It has become very common for people nowadays to use handy USB flash drives rather than the traditional CD-ROM or DVD drives to install an operating system to your computer or laptop. That’s it! Rufus will write the ISO image to the USB thumb drive and you’ll be able to boot your Intel NUC or server from the flash drive and install ESXi. Next you’ll be prompted to replace menu.c32, answer Yes.Click the icon that looks like a CD to select the ESXi ISO image you’ve downloaded.Open Rufus and in the Device drop down select your USB flash drive.Connect your flash drive to your computer.Download VMware ESXi ISO image from VMware.The process is very easy with just one tool needed, Rufus – if you don’t already have it go ahead and download it now!
I’ve mentioned how to create a bootable VMware ESXi installer USB flash drive in an older post, but wanted to detail the steps I use to create an ESXi bootable install drive.Ĭreating a bootable flash drive is very useful for machines without a CD-Rom or remote access like an iDRAC where you can virtually mount an ISO image – such as the Intel NUC.