How do I burn an ISO image to a USB flash drive?

Question

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Place a bootable ISO on a USB drive?

What is the best way to burn an ISO image onto a USB flash drive?

Not sure if this will help or not, but to make your ISO "bootable" on Windows: http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html — , Dec 23 '09 at 22:36
Could you clarify if you want it bootable or just to extract the contents? — Goyuix, Dec 24 '09 at 03:24
The answers on this question are better than the other one. The other question should be closed. 38k views vs 2k views. This is the question people have. — Ian Boyd, Jul 23 '11 at 15:22
I think this question is not really a duplicate. The other refers to making the USB bootable, whereas this asks for a sector-by-sector copy of any binary data. — jiggunjer, Jan 04 '16 at 05:00

score 22 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 23 '09 at 22:57

22

For some variants of Linux, UNetbootin does this without any extra configuration or work.

answered Dec 23 '09 at 22:57

Anonymous

well, the only bad thing is, it changes some of the screens and I'm not sure if it works everywhere – phunehehe Dec 24 '09 at 03:52
Another option is usb-creator-gtk, which is what I used in order to install Linux on my netbook. – Elle H Dec 24 '09 at 04:09

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:17

5

Depending on the ISO image, I recommend WinToFlash for anything Windows.

For Linux distributions, see Anonymous' answer.

edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:17

Community

answered Dec 23 '09 at 22:58

3

badam-PISH. I should upvote this just for the punchline ;p – Journeyman Geek Dec 24 '09 at 00:04
I don't see anything in WinToFlash that lets you select an ISO to use – Brad Mace Jun 13 '13 at 02:27
1

WinToFlash is completely adware ridden. I wouldn't recommend it. – Sedat Kapanoglu Aug 01 '13 at 07:36
1

Chrome blocks the download. – CoderDennis Jul 15 '14 at 08:48

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 26 '14 at 18:28

5

You can use the dd command to "burn" an ISO image to a USB drive from the command line:

dd if=file.iso of=/dev/sdb

Change /dev/sdb to the mount point of the USB drive.

Be careful, as this will destroy the original contents of the USB drive.

Additionally, if the ISO is bootable (such as in installer image) then the USB drive will boot the same way.

edited Mar 26 '14 at 18:28

answered Dec 24 '09 at 03:55

phunehehe

2

This does only work with specially crafted ISO images. – Andreas Wiese Mar 26 '14 at 18:33
Do you have a windows version for this? – jiggunjer Dec 30 '15 at 05:35

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 23 '09 at 22:28

3

Use 7-Zip and just extract the contents onto the USB drive.

When extracted, you'll see the same contents you would if you browsed to the disc.

answered Dec 23 '09 at 22:28

The Matt

5

But will 7-zip make it boot-able? – Greg Dec 23 '09 at 22:28
No, probably not. You might want to put that in your question when you migrate it to Superuser. Making it bootable will require some additional steps. – The Matt Dec 23 '09 at 22:31
1

This answer is no good. An ISO is more than just a file archive. – jiggunjer Jan 04 '16 at 04:57

score 2 · Answer 5 · edited Jul 23 '11 at 14:27

2

You can't really "burn" an ISO image to a USB flash drive.

If you want a bootable USB from an ISO image, there are a couple of things you need to do

edited Jul 23 '11 at 14:27

Peter Mortensen

answered Dec 23 '09 at 22:33

You can "burn" an ISO to a flash drive, byte-by-byte. Maybe just not with windows ;) – jiggunjer Dec 30 '15 at 05:35

5 Answers5