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I am trying to create a bootable USB stick from a .iso image (it isn't a linux distro or anything of the sort) intended for use with a CD. I've tried UNetbootin and dd but they don't boot.

RolandiXor
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Calixte
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5 Answers5

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Try Ubuntu Startup disk creator, I don't think it discriminates about which input ISO you give it. (System->Administration->Startup Disk Creator), then select the .iso you want to burn and the output USB drive. I've used it several times now for creating a boot environment on both a thumb drive and a backup USB hard drive.

You haven't told us anything about the USB drive itself though, it might be handy to::

  • print the output of sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdX (where sdX is the device (sda/sdb/sdc etc) name given to the USB drive upon plugging it in, you can find this at the bottom of dmesg as you insert the drive)

    Mine (in a MacbookPro):
Device      Boot    Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1          26      204819+  ee  GPT
/dev/sdb2   *          26        3065    24414064   af  HFS / HFS+
/dev/sdb3            3082        3212     1048576   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb4            3212        9291    48827392   83  Linux

    (Make sure a partition on the drive is actualy marked as bootable (* in the boot column)

  • attempt to boot from a bootable USB thumb drive or similar on your machine to test it, maybe its not capable or not setup to boot from an external USB device (check BIOS for more info)

  • also, try the bootable drive on another machine as this will at least tell you if the drive itself is working correctly
kwiksand
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    The USB creator ("usb-creator-gtk") won't touch an openSUSE .iso when I try it. It seems to only like Ubuntu .iso files. – Pointy Jun 30 '11 at 14:01
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    This tool is no longer necessary for openSUSE as their ISO's have been designed to be bootable using only the dd command – MaKR Mar 20 '15 at 04:45
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    Startup Disk Creator reliably crashes for me, both when I try 'Erase Disk', and when I try to create the USB image. Starting it using 'sudo usb-creator-gtk --allow-system-internal', as suggested on related SO threads, does not help. Ubuntu 15.04 Desktop. – Jonathan Hartley Jul 23 '15 at 12:26
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    Unfortunately this solution isn't generally useful and doesn't correctly answer the question asked; it will only write ubuntu distro iso, and can't be used to write other bootable isos (still as of 16.04!) – Escher Oct 21 '16 at 10:48
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Usually, Unetbootin works perfectly so try to file a bug if possible.

If you want to make a bootable ubuntu flash disk, you could try the Ubuntu Startup Disk Writer.

For Fedora, there is a similar utility.

armornick
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MultiBoot USB does what you want. Your ISO should be a Linux distribution though.

Pete Ashdown
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A "bootable" USB disk requires a "bootable" ISO files to be burned on it.

The litmus test is simple: If burning the said ISO on a DVD would get you a bootable DVD, then any of the methods (like "startup disk creator") to "burn" the ISO on usb would do the trick. But if the ISO would not give you a bootable DVD, then it can NEVER give you a bootable USB, because bootable is just not what your ISO is.

I know I am reviving a two year old thread, but looking at the number of views, and its unanswered status, I could not resist answering it.

Bhavin Doshi
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The best software to create a bootable USB from a .iso file for me is multisystem which can be downloaded by clicking this link.

interface

Zanna
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user139172
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