Create a bootable partition on a USB disk

[Fred Roller]

Andrew Farris wrote:
>> Fred Roller wrote:
>>     
>>> Garfield071 wrote:
>>>       
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> I want to boot Ubuntu from my 550 gig usb disk. My disk has been initialy
>>>> partiotionned with only one big partition. I have created a new NTFS
>>>> partition on the disk for this purpose with GPartEd. I have shrink the
>>>> current partition to free 50 Gig at the end of the disk and created the
>>>> new
>>>> partition in this space. I have formatted it in NTFS format.
>>>>
>>>> The problem is the "USB Startup Disk creator tool" doesn't see this new
>>>> partition. It sees only the old one. What do I have to do to make this
>>>> partition available for boot.
>>>>
>>>> Thank you.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>   
>>>>         
>>> Unless you have the ntfs tools:
>>>
>>> sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g
>>>
>>> Your system will not recognize the windows file system "ntfs".  reformat 
>>> to ext3, which you need for linux OS any ways. (there are others, but 
>>> ext3 is what I use.)
>>>
>>> sudo mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb1
>>>
>>> where sdb is the device of your usb harddrive and the 1 is the number of 
>>> the partition you want to format.  *DOUBLE CHECK THIS* don't want you 
>>> reformatting your main drive. ;-)
>>>
>>> Mine looks like:
>>>
>>> froller at metis:backups$ ls /dev/sd*
>>> /dev/sda  /dev/sda1  /dev/sda2  /dev/sda3  /dev/sda4  /dev/sdb  
>>> /dev/sdb1  /dev/sdc  /dev/sdc1
>>>
>>> dev sdc is my usb drive:
>>>
>>> froller at metis:backups$ df -h
>>> Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
>>> [snip]
>>> /dev/sdc1             112G  191M  112G   1% /media/MERCURY_120
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Once it's done formating, unplug and replug the drive in the usb port.  
>>> The system should automount and the USB Start Up Creator should 
>>> recognize it now.
>>>
>>> Fred
>>>       
> On Fri, 2009-09-04 at 08:08 -0700, Garfield071 wrote: 
>   
>> Fred,
>>
>> What I don't understand is my NTFS partitions is recognized by the system. I
>> am able to create and delete files in it. But"USB Startup Disk creator "
>> tool doesn't list it in the available partition. It list only the first
>> partition wich also NTFS.
>>
>> Thx
>>
>>     
>
> Please don't top-post. Thanks :)  (note, I moved your comment for
> others' sake)
>
> It could be that the startup disk creator tool can't handle a 'USB disk'
> with multiple partitions. I'm not sure as I've never tried it, and a
> quick google search didnt turn up much of interest...
>
>
>   
Andrews suspicions' are correct.  I reformatted my drive to ntfs.  The 
USB Start Up Disk Creator *did* see the disk at first with a requirement 
to format.  Once I clicked the format button the software immediately 
changed to requiring me to insert a usb stick. 

That said...we know your system can see the drive (i will assume it is 
/dev/sdc) so we will bypass the start up disk software and just run dd 
to create the drive.


      Command Line Interface

   1. Download the desired .img file
   2. Open a terminal and insert your flash media
   3.

      Look at the output of dmesg | tail -20 to determine the device
      node assigned to your flash media (ignore the device number; e.g.
      /dev/sdb, not sdb1)

   4.

      Run sudo umount /dev/device/node

   5.

      Run sudo dd if=/path/to/downloaded.img of=/dev/device/node bs=1M

   6. Remove your flash media when the command completes (you may need
      to wait a few extra seconds for it to finish)

which comes from:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromImgFiles

Another possibility, which makes more sense if this drive will only be 
used on one machine.  Install from CD and choose the USB drive as the 
destination hard drive.

Fred