Win32 Disk Imager
Win32 Disk Imager is a free open-source tool for writing raw disk images to USB drives and SD cards and backing them up to image files.
Win32 Disk Imager is a free, open-source Windows utility for writing a raw disk image to a removable device or backing up a removable device to a raw image file. It works with USB flash drives, SD cards and CF cards, and it is widely used to write operating system images for single-board computers such as the Raspberry Pi and for other embedded development projects. You select an image file, choose the drive letter of the target device and click Write; the Read button does the opposite and saves the whole device to an .img file. Version 1.0 added an image verification function, SHA1 and SHA256 checksums next to MD5, and an option to read only the allocated partitions. The program cannot write CDs or DVDs, and it does not image internal system disks. It is released under the GPLv2 licence, and the source code is hosted on SourceForge.
Win32 Disk Imager writes or backs up a complete SD card or USB drive image in a few clicks, free of charge.
Windows XP or Vista: use the older 0.9 release
USB port or SD/CF card reader
PROS
Allows for image verification after writing.
Calculates MD5, SHA1 and SHA256 checksums of images.
CONS
Handles raw images only, without compression support.
Cannot write images to CDs or DVDs.
