Trouble Making a Live USB

I've made live CDs in the past. A few clicks and presto completely bootable CD every time.
Now, I decided to get a 64bit linux distro and make a live USB and complete and total failure occurred.

I started with Ubuntu Studio 11.04 the boot software ran and said it was complete. Then when I rebooted and got a "this media is not bootable" message. I thought maybe it was an incomparable distro so I tried to use another distro (Mint11) and got the same result.

I've tried using the following software:
UNnetbootin
YUMI
Universal USB Installer

I've tried both distros with each of the above software and recieved the same message each time.

What am I doing wrong/not doing?

Does the drive have to be completely blank other than the ISO and the boot software?

Any and all help would be appreciated

thanks in advance

Fry

 

In Ubuntu look for Startup Disk Creator, and make your bootable thumb drive from there. I had no issues with it myself.

 

Hmm...I've done it twice and it worked this way for me.
Download Universal USB Installer.
Then download the ISO you want(I used Kubuntu 11.04). I don't know if you can use Studio version as live usb.
Now execute Universal USB Installer, and screen will pop up
Like HERE.
After following those instructions, you should be seeing it install.

Now I can't remember if it needed a reboot after it was done or not to start using it but it probably couldn't hurt. When you reboot with USB Flash drive in, it'll first boot to a screen where you can choose what to boot to, choose Ubuntu and the rest should be simple. If the USB in NOT installed it'll boot to whatever OS you have on your PC.

Now you should be seeing desktop. I would probably go to System updates first and let it do its thing then your ready to go.

Hope this helps, and forgive me for the way I wrote it as others that don't know as much about this may get a clearer picture.
Good luck.

PS. Have you checked the boot settings in BIOS to make the flash drive the first thing it boots from?

 

OK, Update time.
I switched to my own personal computer not the shop computer which I was trying to use earlier. I was able to create a Live Mint USB. Unfortunately, Ubuntu studio did not. It only gave me options to install it.

Since I can't seem to make a live USB for Studio, I am considering installing Studio on one of the partitions on my laptop.
On that note, I have a couple of questions:
Is there a guided option that will allow me to select a specific partition?
If not, can it be done by selecting the "manual" option?

thanks in advance and I appreciate all the help so far

Fry

 

Your .iso file may be corrupt. Honestly, I've never had a problem while torrenting .iso files so if you re-download use bittorrent.

 

OK, I'll try that later tonight and report back my findings.

 

I use live USB keys all the time to install on our servers which now often come without CD/DVD drives. The trick for me is to first create it with Startup Disk Creator, then immediately recreate it with UNetBootin. Seems Startup Disk Creator makes a disk that gets to busybox and dies, while UnetBootIn makes a disk that isn't recognized as bootable. By doing SDC first I get a bootable USB key, then by running UNetBootIn I get one that works. YMMV

BTW, this is the machine I'll be installing ubuntu on this weekend: HP DL580

 

OK, update time again.
I was able to make a live usb with the latest Ubuntu and Mint versions on it.
I did some more research and found that there is no live version of Ubuntu Studio so I'm going to hold off on that for now. I'll probably install a copy on one of my partitions later when I have more time.

Overall it was a success since the main objective was to make a live USB. I just wish I could have done it with studio.

Thanks to all who helped me with this.

Fry

 

I've found a possible live usb replacement for ubuntu studio.
The new distro i want to try is ear os media center edition.
Does anyone have any experience with this distro?
I DLed it earlier today but I think I must have have a bad install because it haults at a cmd line prompt after displaying the splash screen for about 2 minutes.
Im going to try to DL it again and redo the USB key.
If anyone can shed some light on this that would be great.

thanks

Fry