Creating a bootable Linux USB flash drive

Alex Costa — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:10:43 +0000

I am currently working on a project to offer an Open Source Linux based Network Tool pre-installed in a very small custom built computer (like the fit-pc or linutop), I want to avoid having a CD drive and want to keep it simple for the client to reinstall the system if needed. I decided to create a bootable USB Flash Drive to accompany the system, while looking around I found this great application called UNetbootin that will create a bootable USB Drive from any Linux OS ISO image. You can create the bootable USB drive from either a Linux or Windows desktop.

UNetbootin has presets for most major Linux distros and can be also used to load various other systems:

Parted Magic, a partition manager that can resize, repair, backup, and restore partitions.
SystemRescueCD, a system repair, backup and recovery tool.
Super Grub Disk, a boot utility that can restore and repair overwritten and misconfigured GRUB installs or directly boot various operating systems
Dr.Web Antivirus, F-Secure Rescue CD, and Kaspersky Rescue Disk, which remove malware from Windows installs.
Backtrack, a utility used for network analysis and penetration testing.
Ophcrack, a utility which can recover Windows passwords.
NTPasswd, a utility which can reset Windows passwords and edit the registry.
Gujin, a graphical bootloader that can also be used to boot various operating systems and media.
Smart Boot Manager (SBM), which can boot off CD-ROM and floppy drives on computers with a faulty BIOS.
FreeDOS, which can run BIOS flash and other legacy DOS utilities.

Technorati Tags: Bootable USB drive, Linux, Opne Source, Rescue disk, System restore, UNebootin

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Creating a bootable Linux USB flash drive

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