How do I place a bootable ISO on a USB drive?

Question

What's the best way of placing a bootable ISO on a USB drive? ISOs such as a live Linux preview disk, Windows installation ISO, etc.

Answer 1

UNetbootin works very well, is easy to use with a simple wizard, and supports a broad range of Linux distros.

To install Windows from a flash drive, here is a post explaining how to install Windows 7 from a flash drive.

Answer 2

To create a bootable USB drive from Windows (any) installation disks, use WinToFlash.

It doesn't get any easier.

WinToFlash is freeware and portable.

If you only have the ISO, mount it as a virtual CD/DVD drive (e.g. with WinCDEmu)

For Linux distros, use the previously recommended UNetbootin.

Answer 3

Try using Ultra ISO, fairly simple to use. Available here

John

Answer 4

Look at UNetbootin,

UNetbootin can create a bootable Live USB drive, or it can make a "frugal install" on your local hard disk if you don't have a USB drive. It can load distributions by automatically downloading their ISO (CD image) files, or by using existing ISO files, floppy/hard disk images, or kernel/initrd files, for installing other distributions.

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Update: Unetbootin is freely available from Sourceforge (thats the link I gave).
If you need additional binaries you can either repackage the ISO you are using or (if its not required at boot time) pick it up after the boot completes from another partition made on the same flash drive.

Couple of links that might be a useful as reference,

1. Create a Bootable Ubuntu Live USB (Ubuntu Feisty reference)

   Instructions on how to update the Live CD and modify it's contents are also given.

2. melux: a custom ubuntu iso creation script

   Melux is a Bash script which automates the creation of custom Ubuntu ISO images. It does nearly everything you would ever need to do: creates necessary working directories, mount-loops the original ubuntu iso, copies its contents, mount-loops the squashfs file, copies its contents in a new dir and chroots in it where it modifies sources.lists and resolv.conf so that the chroot system is usable, and then presents a nice menu for the user to select which package groups to add.

Answer 5

For Linux Live USB drives, I'd recommend using Pen Drive Linux. They tell you how to make pretty much every distribution bootable from a pen drive, and they link you to the tools needed.

For Windows-based bootable USB drives, you'll need to add the bootmgr compatible code with bootsect.exe, then you can simply copy an entire Windows CD/DVD to the USB drive. Guide for Windows 7 found here.

Answer 6

If you want to get really fancy, the Sandisk Cruzer U3 emulates a USB CD-ROM drive for it's "U3" utilities, in addition to being a standard thumbdrive (yes, it shows up as two different USB devices).

Of course, people have subsequently figured out how to install custom ISOs into the virtual CD device.

In any event, it's really awesome, because it is even recognized by the BIOS as a CD-Drive.

Answer 7

Check out the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. This is a Microsoft-produced tool on CodePlex for mastering USB flash drives for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 from a DVD ISO.

The Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool allows you to create a copy of your Windows 7 ISO file on a USB flash drive or a DVD. To create a bootable DVD or USB flash drive, download the ISO file and then run the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool. Once this is done, you can install Windows 7 directly from the USB flash drive or DVD.

Answer 8

Some ISO images already have the appropriate boot sector; for example, Arch Linux ISOs. In this case, all you need is to write the image using dd ... of=/dev/sda or similar. (Using a partition, sda1, will not work.)

But if the ISO image is not specially prepared to be used from a USB drive, you will have to copy the .iso file to the disk as an ordinary file – mount, cp, all that – and install a bootloader such as Syslinux or lilo or GRUB. (There already are several pages on the Internet on this topic.)

Answer 9

Why don't try Unetbootin?

UNetbootin allows you to create bootable Live USB drives for Ubuntu, Fedora, and other Linux distributions without burning a CD. It runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. You can either let UNetbootin download one of the many distributions supported out-of-the-box for you, or supply your own Linux .iso file if you've already downloaded one or your preferred distribution isn't on the list.