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I have an iso file (acronis 2018, if it matters) which I want to deploy on an USB stick. But, I have one specific requirement, I want to deploy the iso file to a partition on the USB device. Tools like Rufus allow me to write an image file and make it bootable, but will remove the existing partitions and write the ISO file to a single partition on the USB disk.

So I started to look in different directions, and follow one of the many guides that say:

  • create partition on USB
  • make it active
  • extract all files

and voila, a bootable USB stick on a single partition. But of course, that does not work when I do it :).

I also see that the iso file I have (when I open it in 7zip) contains a [BOOT] folder when two .img files in it.

When I do use Rufus to write the image to my USB device, this folder does NOT appear. So my guess is, that this [BOOT] folder which contains img files, is part of the standard which is used by Rufus to write the img file and then do stuff.

I tried to write the img file myself with win32diskimager, but that leaves me with an unformatted (for me unusable) partition.

So as a summary: * Write ISO with Rufus => works, but I don't want to end up with a single partition (I know I could also restructure partions afterwards, but for me that's not an option) * Extract ISO to FAT "active" partion => does not result in bootable partition * Write img files (extracted from iso) to partition => seems to result in unusable partition.

I would love to learn more about this so that I can eventually create a bootable partition from an iso file.

bas
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2 Answers2

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MultibootUSB might be what you're looking for but of course, no guarantees but I'm in the same boat as well. I really wish it was easier to do this as well as it's fairly simple to create a USB disk that's bootable but it seems tricky when it comes to partitions and preserving your "free" space. Also...

I was looking into the same thing for Clonezilla and came upon this:

http://www.clonezilla.org/liveusb.php#linux-method-b

Note that this describes the method for the zip file instead of the iso.

The most important part I gather is this:

"Unzip all the files and copy them into your USB flash drive or USB hard drive. You can do this with a command such as: "unzip clonezilla-live-2.4.2-32-i686-pae.zip -d /media/usb/"). Keep the directory architecture, for example, file "GPL" should be in the USB flash drive or USB hard drive's top directory (e.g. /media/usb/GPL). To make your USB flash drive bootable, first change the working dir, e.g. "cd /media/usb/utils/linux", then run "bash makeboot.sh /dev/sdd1" (replace /dev/sdd1 with your USB flash drive device name), and follow the prompts. WARNING! Executing makeboot.sh with the wrong device name could cause your GNU/Linux not to boot. Be sure to confirm the command before you run it."

Please keep in mind, that this could maybe only be specific for Clonezilla and that it has no guarantee of working with your image but the reason I found this interesting is because it really sheds light on this issue and what the requirements are or what could be applied. Feel free to experiment, however, especially in case you have free space and reliable backups.

From what I gather as long as you keep the directories the same and make the flash drive bootable somehow, you could successfully boot from it. I think that's where the tricky part is: booting. I've searched on this subject for two days and from what I gather, a lot of the GUI software really messes this process up or lacks the option to write to a particular partition. Multibootusb might work well for maybe even writing .iso's to a partition. Fedora Media Writer or maybe even Clonezilla itself are also good options.

Do be aware in case you use an .iso with Clonezilla, it dislikes that iso filesystem that gets created so your software options are limited when it comes to iso's. I will update this in case I find any other software worth mentioning but I would definitely avoid Unetbootin, Disk Utilities in Linux, particularly those that come default with Gnome, Cinnamon and Xfce and also Rufus, unless they decide to add a feature for that. They are otherwise good but definitely avoid for this specific purpose.

Good luck on your search.

Update: I'm currently using Arch/Antergos and I found Multisystem to be excellent for booting multiple iso's off of a partition. I've tried this with All in One System Rescue Tools, MX Linux and Clonezilla. You could put more than one iso on a partition.

In my case, in order to boot I have to press F9 (on HP laptop), boot from EFI file, select my drive, select the efi directory, select boot directory, select grubx64.efi.

So far, this is the way I've been able to find to make your iso bootable but it does one better by letting you boot more than one iso, so I really like this solution. You can make this work using any iso as long as you're sure it is bootable.

Adraido
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An alternative technological approach to what you want might be to use an external HDD caddy like the Zalman VE-350 (https://www.zalman.com/na/contents/products/view.html?no=20) - a USB HDD caddy capable of acting like a usb cd drive.

You can just copy the ISO file to the external hard drive, and then activate the virtual ODD to make it act as a cd drive

Lawrence
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