Any way to manually make a bootable USB from ISO?

Question

I've been using Unetbootin but it occasionally fails to create a bootable usb the way I need it to, especially with the newer versions.

Is there a way I could extract the iso myself?

Here is how to extract ISO to usb and make it boot able http://askubuntu.com/a/116886/35775 — Web-E, Mar 29 '12 at 05:59
This question appears to be abandoned by the OP. Voting to close it. — Ringtail, Dec 24 '12 at 20:59

score 26 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 10 '15 at 01:10

26

This is a bit destructive, but works all the time. It will write everything to the /dev/sdb (which is the usb device. )

sudo dd if=/path/to.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=16M

read the manpage of dd

edited Apr 10 '15 at 01:10

Community

1

answered Mar 29 '12 at 08:20

gajdipajti

3,451

22

This will only work if it is a hybrid ISO containing an MBR and partitioning to allow you to use it as a disk image too. So it may or may not work for the questioner's case. – James Henstridge Mar 29 '12 at 09:47
@JamesHenstridge: This is true, however, most "live CD" ISOs have this property. So, this method should work for most real-live use-cases. – oneself Apr 04 '13 at 15:01
1

isohybrid is a useful command for this purpose: http://superuser.com/a/592656/45927 – Ehtesh Choudhury Oct 09 '14 at 03:59
@EhteshChoudhury that is how the kernel does it on make isoimage: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/64291f7db5bd8150a74ad2036f1037e6a0428df2/arch/x86/boot/Makefile#L177 – Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com Sep 14 '15 at 14:28
worked fine on my laptop when booted in live cd with ubunto – Sadegh Jan 26 '16 at 18:25

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23

Depends. If you are going to use a Live Linux ISO like the Ubuntu LiveCDs then you can use the tool that comes with Ubuntu called Startup Disk Creator. Type Startup in Dash and it should appear there. From there on, the disk creator can create a Live USB from any Linux ISO that is a LiveCD.

If you are referring to a Windows ISO for example that changes everything. I suggest you see this question: How to create a bootable USB from a .iso file?

Ringtail · Answer 3 · 2012-12-24T20:59:30.153

0

According to this tutorial it is possible.

Just use whatever distribution CD you choose in its place.

Note: Usually the failure to create a bootable USB is the USB itself. Some thumb drives just don't want to cooperate.

edited Dec 24 '12 at 20:59

answered Mar 29 '12 at 05:24

Ringtail

16,127

or a bad ISO... – Brock Hensley Jul 03 '13 at 21:57
3

Although your answer is 100% correct, it might also become 100% useless if that link is moved, changed, merged into another one or the main site just disappears... :-( Therefore, please [edit] your answer, and copy the relevant steps from the link into your answer, thereby guaranteeing your answer for 100% of the lifetime of this site! ;-) You can always leave the link in at the bottom of your answer as a source for your material... – Fabby Mar 24 '15 at 12:00

score -3 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 20 '12 at 07:25

-3

Use the following Program:

Universal USB Installer Click Here

answered Nov 20 '12 at 07:25

KashmirHackers

349

1

That's not manually. – anatoly techtonik Jun 24 '13 at 14:53
@techtonik It's as "manual" as dd or any other piece of software that performs the same function. – Jason C May 23 '14 at 01:01
@JasonC, are you sure that simple raw copy from ISO to USB is enough to make it bootable? I thought that you need to do some checks that ISO fits USB correctly and set some bits to make it bootable. – anatoly techtonik May 23 '14 at 08:08

Any way to manually make a bootable USB from ISO?

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