How to Copy DICOM Studies to a USB Drive
USB drives have largely replaced discs for handing over medical imaging — they're faster, reusable, and every modern computer reads them. DICOM Burner copies a study from your PACS straight to a USB drive in a single step, no disc burner required, with a DICOM viewer included on the drive.
You'll need DICOM Burner installed and a PACS server configured before you start.
- 1
Plug in the USB drive
Insert the USB drive into your computer. DICOM Burner detects it automatically and lists it under the USB Drive dropdown — if it doesn't appear, click Refresh to re-scan for drives plugged in since the app started.
- 2
Search your PACS for the study
Select your PACS server, enter search criteria (patient name, ID, modality, or date range), and click Search Studies to run a C-FIND query. Matching studies appear in the results grid.
- 3
Select the study and a viewer
Tick the study or studies you want to copy, then choose a DICOM viewer from the Viewer dropdown to bundle onto the drive alongside the images.
- 4
Click Export to USB
With your USB drive selected, click Export to USB. DICOM Burner retrieves the study from PACS and copies it straight to the drive, then verifies every file was written successfully.
- 5
Confirm the copy verified
Check the Burn & Copy Queue — a green "Operation completed and verified successfully" status means the copy finished and passed verification. A red status flags a failed copy so you can retry it.
The USB drive now holds the full study plus a portable viewer, so whoever you give it to can open the images on any Windows PC by launching the included viewer — no installation or PACS access needed.