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gustavo17pacheco
Asked: 2015-05-07 06:56:34 +0800 CST

How to make a bootable USB pendrive

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This is the first time I've ever tried to install a Linux distro in my PC. I have used Linux already, but that was some years ago and it was a really ugly distro made for schools, so I thought that Linux was s*** and just stuck to Windows. A few days ago I found out about Ubuntu, and decided I would give it a try.

Since my computer DVD port won't open, I decided to use a USB drive. My first try was using Universal USB Installer. The process went fairly quickly in this old 2006 PC and I thought I would just plug it in, choose USB-HDD as boot and everything would work fine. Unfortunately, I got an error saying that something called syslinux was missing, so I just restarted the computer, booted into Windows XP and did some research.

I used WinMD5Sum on my .iso and it was OK. I tried renaming isolinux, isolinux.bin and isolinux.cfg to syslinux, syslinux.bin and syslinux.cfg, but still no luck. So I thought my computer just wouldn't boot from FAT32, and since it was not formatting things properly, I used my cousin's Windows 8.1 machine, but I soon found out I couldn't format in FAT16, because the pendrive is 8GB. So I formatted it in NTFS because someone said it worked.

I then did the process again with Universal USB Installer, but now, instead of giving me the syslinux error, it just booted straight to Windows, even if I choose USB-HDD. Then I tried UNetbootin and same problem. As I type this in, I'm doing the process one more time in FAT32 now using Universal USB Installer, because at least that gave me some sign of life. Please, anyone that has some experience with Ubuntu, help me. I have to quickly get rid of the Windows XP in this machine because it's so full of crap, it's even scary to use.

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4 Answers

  1. This is most likely going to be a duplicate but I'll post my answer anyways.

    First I would be really interested in knowing from where you downloaded your iso images? AFAIK, you are not using Ubuntu.

    So it is very simple.

    1. Download the appropriate Ubuntu installer from here

    2. Follow the instructions given in the ubuntu website on how to create a bootable USB in windows (alternatively you can use UNetbootin instead of the tool suggested in the link)

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  2. Personally, I use Win-Flash Novicop to create the Bootable USB Drives. This is a free application and works well to create bootable USBs, however only downside is that this program will recognize the mounted ISO's either in the default CD-ROM or if the CD/DVD Rom doesn't work for you then you can download Daemon Tools Light which is another free program to mount the ISO files by creating a virtual drive in your computer(Avoids Burning the External DVD's or CDs).

    Try creating the bootable CD, using Novicop and then make sure you change the boot order in BIOS for your USB Prior to other Devices (such as HDD or CD/DVD Writer).

    Please post any further problems, if presist, during the install.

    Good Luck!

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  3. Gustavo!

    I prefer to use RMPrepUSB to create bootable USB drives.

    I think it's more customizable and offers more flexibility to change Linux boot variables, like "kernel" and "initrd" (initial ramdisk).

    Give it a try...

    • First of all, undo any modifications to the ISO file (I advise you to download a new fresh one);
    • Follow this tutorial to make a bootable USB drive;
    • Then paste into your "menu.lst" file (created at previous step) the code I've posted in my answer;
    • Boot your machine with the bootable USB drive, and choose the menu entry you want.

    I hope it helps!

    Laters!

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  4. I always use rufus to make USB drive as boot-able one.

    Simple two steps will make it easy

    1. Download the proper iso file for UBUNTU.

    2. Install the rufus, select the UBUNTU ISO file path. Start the process.

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