USB Boot Disks

Here are different ways to create and use USB Boot Disks

 

 

5 Comments

  1. Bob Liebl Bob Liebl on July 26, 2014 at 8:38 AM

    Not all Distro’s are bootable but most are.

    I used to use UNetBootin all the time but have found that I have problems with it not booting in a lot of machines lately.

    So right now I am using Mint 17 (XFCE, Cinnamon) so I installed from Software Manager USB – Creator – GTK.

    It gives you two programs in the (Accessories) menu
    1: USB Stick Formatter
    2: USB Image Writer

    This program is very straight forward and I don’t think you will have any questions on using it.

    Email me if you have any questions..

  2. Ross Schnarrenberger Ross Schnarrenberger on August 31, 2014 at 7:21 AM

    Somebody gave me a netbook that ran XP. It has a 1.6 GHz Atom processor, one GB of RAM and a 144 GB hard drive. I want to put only Linux on it. It doesn’t have an optical drive. Is Mint 17 with XFCE too much for it? Should I try a smaller less complicated distro?

  3. Bob Liebl Bob Liebl on August 31, 2014 at 7:43 AM

    Hi Ross,

    That’s funny. Just yesterday Pete from the group installed Mint 17 XFCE (32 bit) on a netbook he was running running windows 7 starter on. After he got it running he said was faster then windows 7 and he would let me know more on Wednesday at the Linux class, but was happy with it so far.

    Two things to note:
    1. UNetbootin did not work for him. He had to install USB Image Creator (see above in the post, how to install it) Try UNetbootin first.
    2. Once you get into the Live CD environment you need to make sure you log into your WiFi and have a connection before you start the install. This tells the installer what files to install for the WiFi. Very Important.

    Also make sure you have already downloaded the Mint 17 XFCE 32 bit ISO before you try to install the Live CD on your USB Stick.

    You may know most or all of what I am saying here but just trying to help you best I can.

    If you have any problems or questions, email me back or call call me.

    Good Luck and Have Fun!!!

  4. Bill Scott Bill Scott on September 9, 2014 at 1:49 PM

    Bob I recently made a bootable flash drive for Mint 17 using Rufus. It works and is simple to use. Ross should be OK with Mint 17 XFCE but I would try Mint 17 Cinnamon first, just me.

    Rufus site

    http://rufus.akeo.ie/

  5. Bob Liebl Bob Liebl on September 17, 2014 at 8:29 AM

    Hi Bill,

    Rufus looks like a good lite weight USB creator. The only thing is that is for Windows only.

    So if your using Linux only it won’t work for you. Will have to use the UNetBootin or the USB Image Writer programs.

    So, if your using Windows to make your USB stick bootable then Rufus will work just fine.

    Either way, your goal should be to boot a Linux Distro so you can see that Windows is not your only choice.

    Have fun and play with more then one. Find the one you like and then install it.

    Bill, if you want you can sent me articles you want me to add to the website and I will get then published in the How To section.

    Thanks and enjoy the cold winter that’s coming.

    Bob L

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