Rufus can't find drive when creating bootable usb from win11 iso

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My PC doesn’t fully support Windows 11 as the processor is out of date. I am trying to create a Windows 11 bootable usb with rufus to bypass Windows 11 system requirements but my external SSD (SanDisk 1TB Extreme Portable SSD) is not recognized by Rufus. It seems rufus can’t find drive with large size. Is this true?

By the way, is there any better tool than rufus for creating bootable usb?

Thanks

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@Bulldhair the Sandisk 1TB Extreme Portable SSD is a Fixed SCSI Disk which cannot be a bootable drive.

Have you checked our knowledge base articles?
( Get Support for Your SSDs and Flash Products | Sandisk )

Try this one.

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Rufus requires elevated permissions to access and interact with connected storage devices. Running the tool as an administrator grants it full access to disk hardware and drivers, resolving permission-based detection failures that cause rufus can’t find drive.

How to resolve the issue where Rufus cannot find the drive

  1. Locate the Rufus.exe file on your Windows computer.
  2. Right-click the Rufus.exe file to open the context menu.
    Select ‘Run as administrator’ from the menu.
  3. If a User Account Control prompt appears, click ‘Yes’ to confirm the elevation of privileges.
  4. Once Rufus has launched with full administrator privileges, open the ‘Device’ drop-down menu.
  5. Your external SSD or USB drive will now appear, thereby resolving the error where Rufus was unable to locate the drive due to restricted system access.

Cons

  • This tool only resolves issues related to permissions.
  • It cannot resolve problems caused by incorrect settings, partition corruption or drive failure.
  • Administrator privileges are required; it may not run on locked work or school computers where administrator access is restricted.
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This one-click registry script is a quick and easy way to bypass all Windows 11 system requirements when installing from a rufus bootable usb. It automatically adds the necessary registry keys to skip TPM, Secure Boot, RAM, storage, and CPU checks.

How to use:

1.Open Notepad

2.Paste the code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\LabConfig]
"BypassTPMCheck"=dword:00000001
"BypassSecureBootCheck"=dword:00000001
"BypassRAMCheck"=dword:00000001
"BypassStorageCheck"=dword:00000001
"BypassCPUCheck"=dword:00000001

3.Save as bypass.reg

4.Double-click the file and confirm

5.Run Windows 11 setup from your rufus bootable usb

This method is quick and easy—you can install Windows 11 on older, unsupported hardware with just a few clicks.

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If Rufus can’t find the drive, here are a few suggestions you can follow in order to create a Windows 11 bootable usb:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/discussions/windows11/rufus-not-detecting-usb-when-creating-a-bootable-windows-11-drive/4402914

1 Like
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If Rufus can’t find drive when trying to create a Windows 11 bootable USB, especially with a large drive, there are a few free troubleshooting steps you can try:

  1. Use Disk Management to Format the Drive:
    Backup any important data first.
    Format the SSD to FAT32 or NTFS (preferably NTFS for large drives).
    Make sure the drive is assigned a drive letter.

  2. Try a Different USB Port or Cable:
    If Rufus can’t find drive. Plug your SSD into a different USB port, preferably directly into the motherboard port rather than through a hub.
    Use a different cable if possible.

  3. Check Compatibility and Drive Recognition:
    Confirm that Windows recognizes your SSD in File Explorer. If not, troubleshoot the drive itself (try connecting it to another PC).
    If Rufus is having trouble with large drives, it might be related to the drive’s partition style—switching between MBR and GPT might help.

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If you’re trying to create a bootable USB from a Windows 11 ISO and find that Rufus can’t find drive, you might consider using the dd command as an alternative. The dd command is a powerful utility available on Linux and macOS that allows you to directly write an ISO image to a USB drive at a low level, bypassing some of the issues that cause Rufus to not detect the drive.

1.First, identify your USB drive’s device name. On Linux, you can run lsblk or fdisk -l, and on macOS, use diskutil list. It’s crucial to correctly identify the drive to avoid overwriting the wrong device.

2.Once you’ve confirmed the device name (for example, /dev/sdX on Linux), prepare the dd command. It typically looks like this:

sudo dd if=/path/to/windows11.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync

3.Replace /path/to/windows11.iso with the actual path to your ISO file, and /dev/sdX with the correct device identifier.

4.Execute the command carefully. This process will overwrite the entire USB drive, so double-check the device name before running it.

Using dd is effective when Rufus can’t find drive, but it requires caution. Make sure you select the correct drive to prevent data loss or damage to other devices.