How to Make Flash Media Bootable: A Guide

The average computer user has at least heard about "Linux". Now there are probably about four reasons you are reading this now. One, you want to boot Windows on flash media. Two, you want to put Mac OS on flash media. Three, you want to put Linux on flash media or you are just reading this because you having nothing better to do. I am sorry to say that I will not be showing you how to put Windows or Mac operating systems in flash media. So if that is what you want to do, stop reading now and go do something else. So if you are still reading this I assume that you want how to put Linux on to flash media.

Step 1 Find Your Flash Media

The first step in making a bootable device is finding the device that you will be putting it one. This is one of the most important steps, if not the most important. There are a wide range of devices that you can use. I will just list a few.
1. Flash Drive 512MB-64GB
2. Memory Cards
3. MP3 Players(NOT iPods)
4. External Hard Drive
5. Cell Phone Memory

If you know of any other flash devices that could be used please tell me. Not all of the devices above will always work, it will depend upon the specifics.

Comments

[akinich]

Hey nice instructable!!!

i have a question
i got both mac os x 10.6 iso file
and xp home iso file
so can i use the above program to make them live ub too???
ANYBODY
please reply asap
thanks
akinich

[davijordan]

We were running osx, mswindows and linux. ended up using the same programs on all platforms, so we dumped everything for linux. Linux that fits on a floopy usually does not have the latest kernel. Even Debian which had a net install via floppy discontinued it.

[pfred2]

I'm not sure if you're aware of them or not but there are plenty of Linux distributions that fit on floppy disks. Floppys are rarely bigger than 2.66MB more typically 1.44MB both of which are considerably smaller than DSL at 50MB.

This one is amazing and my favorite:
http://www.toms.net/rb/

At least you got the Unetbootin part right which is helpful but not essential. There are other methods of getting GNU/Linux onto a USB device.

http://www.debian-administration.org/article/Boot_Debian_from_an_USB_device

Just saying

[d.mokhtar]

Very useful tut...Thankx for all
Bcktrack very good choice for hacking and reversing...bit I like Ubuntu.. ^--^
Please telle me does it possible to créta abbotable device with MAC OS !?
(not under mac , but with OS X like os to boot)

[The magical duct tape kid]

This is AMAZING! It works great! But, I do have one question; How do i get files to store on my internal hard drive, not my flash drive?

[csteinmetz1]

You need to find the drive that it names your hard drive. It depends on your version of Linux.

[cyrozap]

Nice. Am using for Backtrack 4.