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  • 2 days ago
In this guide, I’ll show you exactly how to create a SteamOS bootable USB using the best tools available in 2025: Rufus, Balena Etcher, and Ventoy. Whether you need to re-image your Steam Deck, fix a "boot loop" error, or you're testing the new SteamOS 3.7 on third-party handhelds like the ROG Ally or Legion Go S, this step-by-step tutorial has you covered.

As of late 2025, Valve has expanded official support, making it easier than ever to run SteamOS on non-Valve hardware. I'll walk you through the pros and cons of each flashing tool and how to avoid the common "USB Freeze" issue that many users are facing with newer BIOS versions.

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Tech
Transcript
00:00all right what's up i'm Ayyan and in this video i'm going to show you how to install
00:04steam os on a bootable usb drive first of all go to this link to download the steam os because
00:10to install steam os you have to download steam os click here and this will open up this download
00:16steam os or steam deck image click agree and download the steam os deck image once it has
00:23started downloading we need a tool to flash it onto a usb drive so there are multiple ways you can
00:31either use rufus on windows rufus is recommended or also you can use belina etchard and my favorite
00:38one is the ventoi tool so we're gonna touch all of these tools in this video well steam os is
00:45only
00:45flashable on a steam deck or legion go or rog ally which ones is recommended make sure you
00:53read all of these before you try flashing so first of all we are going to be downloading belina etcher
00:59to download it go to this link all the links are provided in the description and download belina
01:05for downloading i am going to be using the windows version because i am using windows select download
01:12and belina etcher is now downloading this is going to take some time and belina etcher is probably
01:23the easiest way to flash onto a usb device but it is for minimum options rufus has multiple options
01:32that you have to you know flash multiple times in order to get different images okay looks like our
01:40downloads are now complete now let's open up the belina etcher and start flashing it onto our usb drive
01:50okay i'm just gonna open it up like this this might take some time because it is installing in the
01:58background so it is opening up okay so let's wait a little bit more and now here we have the
02:09belina etcher
02:09program right here so there are three options are given here flash from url clone drive and make sure you
02:18check the settings but there's nothing much that you can change here so flash from file is what we
02:23are going to be using because we have a steam os file downloaded select the first option and go to
02:29your downloads folder where you have downloaded the steam os image click open and now we are going to
02:34select the target as you can see my usb drive is not showing up here make sure you have a
02:39minimum of
02:408 gigabytes on the usb drive let's plug it in and before flashing it make sure there is nothing
02:47important on it yep this is curly linux and i'm going to form it the whole disk this will delete
02:53everything on the usb drive so select your usb drive and click on flash this will start flashing
02:58and after you're done simply plug it on to your device where you are installing it and you're good
03:04to go so next option is the rufus one which is the most popular one make sure you download the
03:11rufus
03:11tool i will provide the link in the description go here and use the portable version because that is
03:17the best one that you can get okay now rufus is downloaded because this is very small it doesn't
03:22take much of your time simply go to your downloads folder open up rufus by double clicking on it or
03:29just
03:30right click and open say yes to the prompt and say yes to get all those updates because updating is
03:37highly
03:37recommended let me close everything in the background and here we go this device is not showing up so
03:44i'm just gonna unplug it and plug it in again like this okay well i also got some update as
03:53well
03:53yep updates are highly recommended so i'm just gonna install it say yes and all your updates are now applied
04:01so if you wanna remove everything to make it non-bootable simply select non-bootable
04:06you get those options in rufus but you don't get those options on blenature so
04:11simply select and select the file now you are ready to boot it will automatically go with the
04:16recommended options so you don't have to change anything sometimes it gives you the options to
04:22change stuff so rufus is the best one that you can get but there is one catch you have to
04:28flash
04:29multiple isos again and again in rufus that is why the favorite option that i highly
04:35recommend is the vento option which i will show you right now so this is writing the image this
04:43might take a while so let's go to the vento options so i will provide this link in the description
04:49so you can download vento for yourself i am going with the vento for windows dot zip file
04:55we have used the roofers and villainature and vento is by far the favorite one that i use and love
05:04because i sometimes use kali linux windows and now steam os so i've also used linux mint in the past
05:13on my uncle's laptop okay so vento is the best one that you can get in short answer so we're
05:21just gonna
05:21extract this file and open it up you have to flash vento once on your device and you don't have
05:28to
05:28ever do it again you can also update it which won't delete any of the data which is a plus
05:33point in my
05:34books okay the window is selected by usb automatically if it doesn't simply refresh it and it will select
05:41the usb again as you can see there is no vento on device because i used blena etcher and roofers
05:47on
05:47my usb so let's see the options we have nothing to change here language is good every setting is good
05:54simply hit install say yes and double check yes this will install vento for the first time on the usb
06:01drive which will delete everything but if you already have vento installs you can click on update and it
06:07will update when to the latest version which is good and it won't delete any of the data okay so
06:14we
06:14are good when toy is installed and we're good to go so how you can install steam os on it
06:22so let's go
06:24to our downloads folder as you can see steam os is right here but it is in a zip format
06:28which means
06:29before putting it onto a usb you have to uh extract the dot img disk image file so just gonna
06:39right
06:39click on it go to the seven zip and you can also use windows extract but windows extract is quite
06:49slow
06:50and it is not giving me the progress but i don't know why might be some issue or problems with
06:56the
06:56windows or maybe it is generally slower than seven zip so i highly recommend that you go with seven
07:02zip and not use the windows default one so i'm just gonna cancel it out and right click on the
07:10file go
07:11with seven zip and hit extract this will make a folder and which is a good thing let me show
07:17you how this
07:17folder is so just open up the folder as you can see you get the disk image file this is
07:23the dot img file
07:24that will be used for flashing if you put the whole seven zip file it won't work so make sure
07:31you extract
07:31it before putting it onto a usb drive we're just gonna wait for this this is going to take a
07:38little bit
07:38of time but i will skip it to the end like i always do so not much of the time
07:45is wasted okay the extract
07:48is now complete now all you need to do is to put it by opening up right clicking on it
07:53and select the
07:55send to win toy the usb drive okay this will start copying the file and you don't have to flash
08:02it
08:02simply put it on the you can put multiple isos on the usb drive and it will work flawlessly for
08:08every one
08:09of them if you have a huge usb drive like 32 gigabytes or 64 ones and the transfer is complete
08:18which means our usb is ready to use all you have to do is just restart your computer boot from
08:24the usb
08:24or even steam deck or rog ally wherever you want to use the steam os anyway that's been it thanks
08:30for
08:30watching
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