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It's really super easy. If you're creating the bootable USB stick on a Windows machine, use RUFUS ( https://rufus.akeo.ie/ https://rufus.akeo.ie/ ). It's about

by stryk 10y ago

It's really super easy. If you're creating the bootable USB stick on a Windows machine, use RUFUS ( https://rufus.akeo.ie/ https://rufus.akeo.ie/ ). It's about as straight-forward and noob-friendly as it gets. A single window, options in plain English. If you're creating the bootable USB stick from a Linux machine, use Etcher ( https://www.etcher.io/ https://www.etcher.io/ ). Also very user friendly and simple. It's even distributed as a downloadable .AppImage file, so it's a double-click install on most distros. On Mac OSX - sorry, no idea, haven't used one since Apple IIe's in middle school, but I'm sure there is something similar out there for OSX (and if nothing else, you could probably get dd working in a terminal if you had to) EDIT: Forgot to mention that RUFUS on Windows will automatically detect which versions of syslinux (the low-level booty-BIOS-y stuff) the .ISO that you select uses, and sets itself up accordingly. It can even use a newer version of syslinux if the one supplied in the .ISO is outdated. Really solid software.

j_s 10y ago
RUFUS is fast but Yumi is best if you want a swiss-army-knife style bootable USB stick with multiple images to choose from, including Windows install DVD images. It also supports setup on an existing USB stick you don't want to completely wipe. http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/ http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/ http://AlternativeTo.net http://AlternativeTo.net pulled up UNetBootin as a cross-platform alternative. http://unetbootin.github.io/ http://unetbootin.github.io/
- voltagex_ 10y ago
  UNetBootin seemed to break a lot of images back a few years ago when I used it. Rufus actually scans the image and makes sure it's using the correct bootloader / filesystem type.
quesera 10y ago
On macOS (and Linux etc) you can write images to USB drives using dd, cp, or even cat. If you prefer a GUI, Etcher is cross-platform.
Lagged2Death 10y ago
Thanks for the tip, but Rufus was one of three programs I tried, and it created a couple of duds (and a working stick) for me. I suspect that the paradigm of bootable flash drives simply leaves more variables uncontrolled than write-once disks do.

by stryk 10y ago

j_s 10y ago

RUFUS is fast but Yumi is best if you want a swiss-army-knife style bootable USB stick with multiple images to choose from, including Windows install DVD images. It also supports setup on an existing USB stick you don't want to completely wipe. http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/ http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/ http://AlternativeTo.net http://AlternativeTo.net pulled up UNetBootin as a cross-platform alternative. http://unetbootin.github.io/ http://unetbootin.github.io/

voltagex_ 10y ago
UNetBootin seemed to break a lot of images back a few years ago when I used it. Rufus actually scans the image and makes sure it's using the correct bootloader / filesystem type.

quesera 10y ago

On macOS (and Linux etc) you can write images to USB drives using dd, cp, or even cat. If you prefer a GUI, Etcher is cross-platform.

Lagged2Death 10y ago

Thanks for the tip, but Rufus was one of three programs I tried, and it created a couple of duds (and a working stick) for me. I suspect that the paradigm of bootable flash drives simply leaves more variables uncontrolled than write-once disks do.