[vox-tech] creating a bootable USB key
I have a windows 7 install disk that I would like to make into a bootable USB key so that I can install the OS on a computer without an optical drive. I have tried a number of different tutorials/methods on my kubuntu 10.04 laptop (64 bit), but so far nothing has worked. The first thing I thought of was to try kubuntu's startup disk creator, but I would get an error like: Could not move syslinux files in /media/8F0E-C29F: [Errno 2] No such file or directory. Maybe /media/U3 System is not an Ubuntu image? I then tried ripping the install disk as an iso file and then using UNetbootin to make a bootable USB. I used K3B with copy medium to create an iso image of the install DVD; I assume that there is nothing fancy about this operation. I saw no error messages during the process. However UNetbootin takes about 1 sec to go through the process of copying everything to the USB and saying done (no errors are generated). Not surprisingly, the USB key is not recognized as a bootable medium. I have even tried using Gparted to format the USB as fat32 with a boot flag, then mounting the iso file and using dd to copy all of the contents to the USB key. There were no errors in copying, but it was never recognized as bootable (yes, the BIOS is set to first boot to the USB). I used kubuntu's startup disk creator to put kubuntu 10.10 on this same USB key and it worked correctly, so I don't think it is the USB key. My question is, has anyone successfully made a bootable windows USB key using Linux? If so, how did you do it? Thomas ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
Re: [vox-tech] creating a bootable USB key
On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 01:29:13AM -0800, Thomas Johnston wrote: [snip] My question is, has anyone successfully made a bootable windows USB key using Linux? If so, how did you do it? Let me just share my own experience and see if it provides assistance. I have used Fedora's Live usb creator. https://fedorahosted.org/liveusb-creator/ I also have used ubuntu's live usb creator http://www.pendrivelinux.com/creating-an-ubuntu-live-usb-from-cd/ I have used the Knoppix Hacks by Kyle Rankin book to create a live usb as well. The Ubuntu creator won't create a live image from the Fedora image. brian -- Brian Lavender http://www.brie.com/brian/ Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence! Professor Edsger Dijkstra 1972 Turing award recipient ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
Re: [vox-tech] creating a bootable USB key
I successfully used gtk-usb-creator to create a bootable USB key. On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 10:14 AM, Brian Lavender br...@brie.com wrote: On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 01:29:13AM -0800, Thomas Johnston wrote: [snip] My question is, has anyone successfully made a bootable windows USB key using Linux? If so, how did you do it? Let me just share my own experience and see if it provides assistance. I have used Fedora's Live usb creator. https://fedorahosted.org/liveusb-creator/ I also have used ubuntu's live usb creator http://www.pendrivelinux.com/creating-an-ubuntu-live-usb-from-cd/ I have used the Knoppix Hacks by Kyle Rankin book to create a live usb as well. The Ubuntu creator won't create a live image from the Fedora image. brian -- Brian Lavender http://www.brie.com/brian/ Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence! Professor Edsger Dijkstra 1972 Turing award recipient ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech -- Sláinte, Richard S. Crawford (rich...@underpope.com) http://www.underpope.com Publisher and Editor in Chief, Daikaijuzine (http://www.daikaijuzine.com) ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
Re: [vox-tech] creating a bootable USB key
On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 10:14:33AM -0800, Brian Lavender wrote: On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 01:29:13AM -0800, Thomas Johnston wrote: [snip] My question is, has anyone successfully made a bootable windows USB key using Linux? If so, how did you do it? Let me just share my own experience and see if it provides assistance. Sorry, I just automatically saw bootable USB. I missed that you wanted it to be a Windows bootable. I found this. Did you try this? It's not free software in the sense of freedom. It uses components of free software components and works with XP and 2003 server. I don't know about Windows 7 though. http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ I found it as a result of this page. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/windows-pocket,1113.html brian -- Brian Lavender http://www.brie.com/brian/ Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence! Professor Edsger Dijkstra 1972 Turing award recipient ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
Re: [vox-tech] creating a bootable USB key
On 11/16/2010 02:29 AM, Thomas Johnston wrote: I have a windows 7 install disk that I would like to make into a bootable USB key so that I can install the OS on a computer without an optical drive. I have tried a number of different tutorials/methods on my kubuntu 10.04 laptop (64 bit), but so far nothing has worked. snip My question is, has anyone successfully made a bootable windows USB key using Linux? If so, how did you do it? No, but I have done this: (requires a windows computer to create the usb) http://www.jaxidian.org/update/2009/08/28/98/ Orson ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
Re: [vox-tech] creating a bootable USB key
On 11/16/2010 01:29 AM, Thomas Johnston wrote: I have a windows 7 install disk that I would like to make into a bootable USB key so that I can install the OS on a computer without an optical drive. I have tried a number of different tutorials/methods on my kubuntu 10.04 laptop (64 bit), but so far nothing has worked. If you should happen to download Win-7 from Pirate Bay it comes with a ISO-USB tool. Note: I have not tried this tool so I don't know how well it works. Nor and I'm encouraging you to break the law by downloading a pirated version of Win-7 instead of paying the fee to Microsoft. Just that if you were to download the torrent you would get a tool which claims to do what you want. IF you should decide to download the file, make sure that the user has a pirate skull and cross-bones. Otherwise don't trust the torrent. For example sake only, these would be a good ones to download: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5952557/Windows_7_Ultimate_%2864_Bit%29_x64_%28November_2010%29 http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5952553/Windows_7_Ultimate_%2832_Bit%29_x86_%28November_2010%29 But again I'm not suggesting you break the copyright and download these torrents which contains ISO which will validate as genuine via Microsoft when you use the 'Loader' released by Daz. That would be breaking the law. Just download the folder in the torrent: Windows 7 ISO To USB - Flash Tool Tony ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
Re: [vox-tech] creating a bootable USB key
I have tried several of the procedures recommended in the replies and I have encountered snags. I have kubuntu 10.04 (64 bit) and run XP (32 bit) under VirtualBox. I tried the method mentioned by Harold (using the diskpart under DOS) but the utility would not see my USB drive. I have no trouble accessing the USB under VB with windows explorer but diskpart would only see the virtual harddrive that XP is installed on. Strange ... I then tried using microsoft's own USB creator (Windows7-USB-DVD-tool). It took awhile to get the necessary packages installed before I could run the MS tool, but once I did I hit another hurdle. The MS tool kept saying that I did not have a valid iso. WTF?!?! I found this post though: http://www.withinwindows.com/2009/11/01/use-the-windows-7-usbdvd-download-tool-with-custom-isos/ The author mentions: It appears there are two (possibly more) “navigation buoys” within UDF-formatted ISOs that point to important chunks of the image called Anchor Volume Descriptor Pointers (AVDPs). The first AVDP is somewhere near the top of the image. The last AVDP is located in what appears to be the last logical block of the image. (My guess is this is to support bi-directional reading.) So assuming each logical block of the image is 2048 bytes large, one could also assume the last logical block is –2048 from the end of the file, right? Well, that’s what the tool assumes. It checks for the last AVDP at the start of the last logical block, doesn’t find it, and bombs out. In the post you can download his tool to fix the UDF offset issue, very easy to use. Once I did the MS tool had no trouble mounting the ISO and copying the files to the USB. HOWEVER, it completed the copy operation (after about 1 hour) and gave me an error about not being to run the bootsect.exe. My copy of XP is 32 bit and the OS I am attempting to put on the USB is 64 bit! I found a 32 bit bootsect file online and used the the info in Orson's post to make the USB bootable and started copying the files. SO, hopefully when the files are done copying the stupid USB will actually work. I will let you know how it goes. thanks for all the replies! thomas On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 1:52 PM, Orson Jones orson.lu...@afriskito.net wrote: On 11/16/2010 02:29 AM, Thomas Johnston wrote: I have a windows 7 install disk that I would like to make into a bootable USB key so that I can install the OS on a computer without an optical drive. I have tried a number of different tutorials/methods on my kubuntu 10.04 laptop (64 bit), but so far nothing has worked. snip My question is, has anyone successfully made a bootable windows USB key using Linux? If so, how did you do it? No, but I have done this: (requires a windows computer to create the usb) http://www.jaxidian.org/update/2009/08/28/98/ Orson ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
Re: [vox-tech] creating a bootable USB key
On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 02:38:40PM -0800, Tony Cratz wrote: IF you should decide to download the file, make sure that the user has a pirate skull and cross-bones. Otherwise don't trust the torrent. For example sake only, these would be a good ones to download: snip FYI, I'm going to zap those torrent URLs from our list archives. :^/ -bill! mailing list admin hat on ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
Re: [vox-tech] creating a bootable USB key
On 11/16/2010 03:24 PM, Bill Kendrick wrote: FYI, I'm going to zap those torrent URLs from our list archives. :^/ Which is fine. They may not be valid in the future anyway. Tony ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
Re: [vox-tech] creating a bootable USB key
OK, I think I finally figured out something that would work. The first key was finding the post: http://www.withinwindows.com/2009/11/01/use-the-windows-7-usbdvd-download-tool-with-custom-isos/ and using his tool to modify the ISO of the windows install DVD. The second thing was to use the multibootiso utility from: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/boot-multiple-iso-from-usb-multiboot-usb/ to make the USB bootable and copy the iso files to the USB. That took way too much effort. If anyone needs to do the same but this process doesn't work for them, I have two suggestions: (1) go out and by an external optical you will save yourself a whole lot of time and effort, and (2) you might try the procedure described here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/itprovistadeployment/thread/882d06e8-1ff5-4aff-bc5b-3418707015c5 Thanks for all your replies! Thomas On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 3:27 PM, Tony Cratz cr...@hematite.com wrote: On 11/16/2010 03:24 PM, Bill Kendrick wrote: FYI, I'm going to zap those torrent URLs from our list archives. :^/ Which is fine. They may not be valid in the future anyway. Tony ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
