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I need help creating a bootable pen with windows iso. I tried so many ways and nothing... One of my pendrives even broke(doesn't show up in the PC when I connect).

I tried with UNetbootin but if I format my pendrive to fat32, when I restart my PC I got to a screen with only one option "Default". That does nothing.

And if I try to format to NTFS... UNetbootin just don't accept my pendrive.

I tried with Furius(but I don't know how to use this program) and manually with the terminal, but I'm much lazy for that.

PS: When I started I was trying to format to WIN10, but now it doesn't matter, I really need a partition with Windows.

PS2: My PC doesn't have a CD/DVD Reader, so...

PS3: My Pendrive is only of 4GB, my win10 iso is ~3,8GB so I can use, this is not the problem, even if I couldn't use this iso, I could only download a WIN8/7/XP and install another just to get to windows(after this, get to WIN10 is pretty easy).

PS4: I'm running ubuntu 16.10

Fisheko
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    Please consider using Rufus, which is the software recommended on Ubuntu's site, to make your bootable USB drive. https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows – Nick Weinberg Feb 08 '17 at 02:10
  • Rufus is a Windows app. The OP is running Ubuntu. – L. D. James Feb 08 '17 at 03:01
  • It appears that some people are trying to close this question. The OP is running Ubuntu. I'm sure it's within the topic of Ubuntu to run applications to make files and media that is compatible with other OS's... such as creating a *.docx file for a Windows machine, creating USB bootable pendrive for Windows, or cross compiling to an .exe file under Ubuntu. I wouldn't want to have to find a Windows machine, when I can do it all from the comfortable environment of Ubuntu. – L. D. James Feb 08 '17 at 03:09
  • Please tell us which operating system and version you are running right now (for example Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS), and if you are running an installed system or 'only a live system' from a USB drive. – sudodus Feb 08 '17 at 07:33
  • I'm running the Ubuntu 16.10. I can't use Rufus because it doesn't detect my USB when I open with wine... – Fisheko Feb 08 '17 at 15:08
  • @sudodus It's apparent by his reference to UNetbootin that he's not running a Try Ubuntu session, and is trying to get a handle on using it. – L. D. James Feb 08 '17 at 15:35
  • Use the Disks tool (gnome-disk-utility) to create the USB media. Open Disks, select Restore Disk Image from the menu on the top right. Choose the ISO file and the USB drive to write it to and start restoring. – cl-netbox Feb 08 '17 at 15:35
  • @cl-netbox Great information. I use gnome-disk-utility lots of time. However, I have never used it for that task. I'll test it ASAP and add it to the answer. I always try to suggest something native to a default install for applications (or default repository prevision) when they exist. – L. D. James Feb 08 '17 at 15:39
  • @L.D.James : It works perfectly, I'm using it for years, here are links to 3 of my answers proving success -> http://askubuntu.com/questions/758658/creating-a-usb-media-using-unetbootin-isnt-recognized-as-booting-media/758660#758660 | http://askubuntu.com/questions/809563/inability-to-boot-to-ubuntu/875178#875178 | http://askubuntu.com/questions/880662/motherboard-replaced-how-can-i-recover-grub/880723#880723 ! :) – cl-netbox Feb 08 '17 at 15:41
  • Sorry @sudodus I did not answer you. I am not in a live version, my Ubuntu is installed in half of my HD. Btw, cl-netbox this Disk Tool is different from GParted? – Fisheko Feb 08 '17 at 15:41
  • Disks alias gnome-disks is a different tool from gparted. Disks is installed in the standard Ubuntu system, so it is already there for you. – sudodus Feb 08 '17 at 15:56
  • I already found a solution with the L.D. answer, but thank you all. Btw, in my ubuntu the GParted came with the ubuntu system too, so I thought it was a upgrade from Disks or something like that. – Fisheko Feb 08 '17 at 16:25
  • @cl-netbox I didn't doubt your reference for a second. I usually test and answer before posting it. I almost put your reference in my answer before doing what I normally do. I have had problems using the gnome-disk-utility method. I have tried a number of times with three different pendrives on three different computers and ran into problems. I haven't read the details of your answer yet. I will later and try to see what is happening different in your environment that I'm missing. If I had posted it as an answer, immediately I wouldn't be able to support the steps to make it work. – L. D. James Feb 08 '17 at 23:05
  • ...continued.. on the last attempt I noticed and error when selecting the drive no boot sector. The pendrive mounts and all the contents are the same as the on the pendrives that boots. For your information, in using both Winusb and gnome-disk-utility I first formatted the disk as in gpt partition, then msdos partition with a fat32 format of the entire disk. It was my intentions to be sure that it would work using a freshly formatted that didn't have anything previously on it. If I learn the culprit, I'll update my answer with steps for this method to ensure it'll work. – L. D. James Feb 08 '17 at 23:11
  • @L.D.James Testing everything before posting an answer is a very good idea and exactly what I am doing as well. There is nothing special that has to be done when preparing an USB stick, here's what I do usually ... Before starting to use a new USB drive, I always create a new partition table (msdos) - then I create one new partition, format this partition with fat32 file system and set a boot flag - and using that preparation method I never had any single failure when creating an installation media with the GNOME Disks utility. :) – cl-netbox Feb 09 '17 at 10:31
  • Thanks for the information. I've made lots of boot medias. But I've only had to place the ISO on the media to have it boot. My pendrives were not out of the box. They had been used for various purposes mainly formatted in the Linux environments for those purposes using ext4 partitions and often gpt partition tables. The changing formats was to try to test what would hopefully be a sure method of being able to get a typical tested workable format for users having problems. I also wanted to try to ensure the method wasn't piggybacking off the previous create method. ...continued... – L. D. James Feb 09 '17 at 12:14
  • ... continued. @cl-netbox While gnome-disk-utilinity and the the cat iso to device are good backup/restoral methods, I don't think they beat the ease of using programs like Startup Disk Creator, Ubuntin , and Winusb for creating a bootable media from an ISO. Thanks for the valuable information of what needs to be done manually when it fails. I believe to require an initial format from the default distribution of a pendrive is a little overwork for a novice. My best recommendation would be providing a method that automatically handles this part. – L. D. James Feb 09 '17 at 13:02

2 Answers2

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Use woeusb in Ubuntu to create a Windows Boot Disk from an ISO.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install woeusb

Update:
The winusb had been renamed woeusb in the webupd8 repository.

L. D. James
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  • I'll try this right now. – Fisheko Feb 08 '17 at 15:12
  • So, I got this error mensage: http://i.imgur.com/YVtYVHL.png but the USB appears to be OK, with the files inside it. I'll try to reboot now. – Fisheko Feb 08 '17 at 15:43
  • I believe I recall seeing and error message at the end of creating a Functional Windows Pendrive. However, the media always booted and installed Windows without errors. I when through a few pendrives before I finally tested on for a Windows install. – L. D. James Feb 08 '17 at 15:49
  • Yes it worked even with the error message, really thank you ._. – Fisheko Feb 08 '17 at 16:23
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I'm just going to go on a limb here and say you're not quite understanding how the file sizes work. A 4GB USB drive does NOT have 4GB of usable space. Space is taken by the filesystem no matter what format you use. That being said, your USABLE space is less than 4GB. Now that that's out of the way, flash memory will degrade over time. You will not always have the amount of space you started with. The flash controllers in the chip will manage allocation and data placement accordingly as cells die. Here's the kicker. You want to install a 3.8GB file which is likely ACTUALLY between 3.8GB and 3.85GB and NOT just 3.8GB. This depends more on the filesystem rather than the data itself because each filesystem will have different properties. That being said, you have even less to work with. Now, this is still fine, I'm sure you have some space, yeah? Well, it's still not that simple. WRITING the file will change it's properties too. The data you're writing doesn't just magically appear as an exact copy on the device. There's directory data, pointing data, referencing data, and recovery data which ALL adds up when the ISO is written to the disk. See, because the ISO file is now opened up and spanning the disk, just like the files on your OS do on your computer. These files have directories/locations that now need to be referenced so the system knows where they are and can link to them.

TL;DR: You need more space. It IS possible, but you'd have to have the kind of luck someone does when they manage to shoot a full court basket with a blindfold in a wind tunnel.

  • In short, I can't use my 3,74GB pendrive to mont a 3,3GB ISO? – Fisheko Feb 08 '17 at 15:12
  • For the most part no, it's highly unlikely you'll be successful. Trying over and over is the only advice I can give you but you'd be better off with a slightly larger drive. It's kinda chance-y. –  Feb 08 '17 at 18:37