How to burn Linux ISO to USB on Windows 11/10 PC?

+1 for the CMD utility and the Windows 11/10 Media Creation Tool is unable to burn Linux ISO to USB as the partition scheme is totally different.

The core principle of a Linux boot disk is to make the Linux kernel and initialization program (Initramfs) loaded preferentially when the computer boots by writing them to the boot partition of the USB device. The following are the key steps:

Step 1: USB Device Recognition

Windows abstracts USB devices as virtual discs through drivers, with each partition corresponding to a logical unit (LUN). You need to locate the disc number of the target USB device (e.g. Disk 2) via diskpart or wmic command.

Step 2: Unlocking write protection

By default, Windows locks the read-only properties of USB devices to prevent accidental formatting. The readonly attribute needs to be cleared with diskpart.

Step 3: Partition Alignment and Formatting

Linux bootloader requires a specific partition structure (e.g. FAT32 boot partition + Ext4 root partition). If the USB is not properly partitioned, delete the existing partition and create a new boot partition.

Step 4: Burn Linux ISO to USB

Use the dd command to copy the boot partition contents of the Linux ISO directly to the corresponding partition on the USB device. the ISO file usually already contains a bootloader (e.g. GRUB), so there is no need to install it.

Step 5: BIOS/UEFI Setup

When finished, you need to manually select to boot from the USB device in the system boot menu, bypassing the default boot sequence of Windows.