I cannot remember the last time I burned a CD or DVD. I can remember the last time I attempted to create a bootable USB device from an ISO. Unfortunately, I have memories of wasting time creating bootable USB devices as well. In this post I will discuss how to use UNetbootin to make creating bootable USB devices easy.
UNetbootin is a free application available on SourceForge. It is available for Windows, Linux and Mac. Once downloaded, simply run the application — no installation necessary!
The GUI requires a couple inputs:
- Select either a Distribution or a Diskimage
- Select the device to put the image on
There are a couple important things to be aware of:
- If the device is inserted after UNetbootin is started then it will not be displayed. You need to close and re-open UNetbootin to see new devices
- Creating a bootable USB using UNetbootin on Mac does not work. I have not spent a lot of time investigating this issue, but I can confirm that the UNetbootin operation completes on Mac, but the resulting USB device does not boot. It looks like someone has found a workaround (I have not tried it yet): http://tech.anoj.net/2013/01/fixing-unetbootin-on-mac-os-x-to-create.html
I typically use UNetbootin to create bootable USB devices for server firmware updates as well as ESXi updates in environment where I do not have Update Manager running.
How do you create bootable USB devices for ISOs?
© 2015, Steve Flanders. All rights reserved.
