How to Create a Bootable USB Drive in Linux Mint

Creating a Bootable USB Flash Drive in Linux Mint from an ISO image file is easy. Plus, no need to download or install anything, Linux Mint offers several basic utilities for this.

Introduction

For a new installation of Linux Mint or to install a new OS, you need a bootable device, for example a USB stick. Therefore, most operating systems are available as ISO Image files intended for the creation of this device.

But simply extracting the contents of an ISO image to a device will not make it bootable. To do this, you have to use a utility that formats the key in a special way.

And, Linux Mint comes with basic tools to do this:

mintstick (USB key creator)

The Gnome Disks utility

And the command line

However, once your USB drive becomes bootable using one of these possibilities, it will no longer be able to serve as a storage device. Indeed it structures and totally modified. But this is not final! And it will always be possible to completely reformat it so that it can store documents again ...

Also, these methods work to create a bootable Windows installation USB drive. You just need to get the Windows 10 installation ISO file from its download page on Microsoft's website from an OS other than Microsoft's.

Solution 1: Use mintstick to create a Bootable USB drive in Linux Mint

Mintskick is a utility developed by Linux Mint. Installed by default, it provides two functions broken down into two launchers in Menu> Accessories:

Bootable USB key creator from an ISO file

USB key formatter to store documents on it

It has the advantage of being very easy to use. This is the solution I recommend for beginners.

Create Bootable USB Drive with Mintstick in Linux Mint

The content on your key will be lost, so remember to back it up before you start.

Launch USB key creator with the Menu> Accessories> USB key creator or with the command:

mintsick -m iso

Select the ISO image (1) then your USB key (2). Do not use the wrong device, because its content will be erased. Then, click on Write (3) to start the creation.

Enter your administrator password.

Once the operation is complete, click Validate.

There you have it, your Bootable USB key is ready.

Format your USB key with Mintstick to use it as a storage key

Launch USB key formatter from Menu> Accessories> USB key formatter or with the command:

mintsick -m format

Select your USB key (1). You can change the file system (2) or leave it FAT32 (recommended to keep compatibility with other OS) as well as give your key a custom name (3). And start the operation by clicking on Format (4).

Enter your password to get started.

Once the operation is complete, click Validate.

There you have it, your key is ready to store documents.

Solution 2: Use Gnome Disks to Create Bootable USB Drive in Linux Mint

Gnome Disks is a GNOME utility. It allows you to manage hard disks and removable storage devices:

create, modify, delete partitions

manage and modify mount points

etc.

Another of its features is disk image creation and restoration. It is the latter that interests us to create a bootable USB stick from an ISO image file.

Compared to Mintstick, Gnome Disks allows more advanced usage.

Create Bootable USB Drive with Gnome Disks in Linux Mint

The content on your key will be lost, remember to save it before you start

Launch Gnome Disks via Menu> Accessories> Disks or from the command line:

gnome-disks

Select your USB key (1) then in the Menu (2) do Restore disk image ... (3).

So select your ISO Image file (1), then start Restore (2).

Then validate by clicking on Restore.

And authenticate yourself.

There you have it, your Bootable USB key is ready.

Format your USB key with Gnome Disks to use it as a storage key

Select your USB key (1) then in the Menu (2) do Format disc… (3). this will erase all partitions on the disk.

I advise you to keep the default settings. And do Format ...

And confirm by clicking Format.

Now you have to recreate a partition on your USB key. Select your USB key (1) and click on the + icon (2).

By default, all available space is allocated to the new partition, click Next.

Finally, give a name to your USB key (1). You can activate Erase (2) to write 0s to all sectors, but it will take longer. You can also change the partition type (3), but to keep compatibility with other OS, I recommend keeping FAT. Then, do Create (4).

After a little while, your key is ready to store documents.

Solution 3: Use Command Line to Create Bootable USB Drive in Linux Mint

In Linux, there are several commands to create a Bootable key from an ISO image file. Here is the method I use:

Create a bootable USB drive from the command line

First, identify on which Device corresponds to the USB key with:

lsblk

So, if one or more partitions of the key are, unmount them:

sudo umount / dev / sdXY

/ dev / sdXY: with X to adapt with the corresponding device letter and Y with the number corresponding to the partition to unmount (example: sdb1).

Finally, copy the image to the USB stick with:

sudo dd if = / path_to / image.iso of = / dev / sdX bs = 4M status = progress && sync

dd: command to copy a disk

if = / path_to / image.iso: to adapt with the path to your iso image

of = / dev / sdX: to be adapted with the device corresponding to your USB key (example: sdb)

bs = 4M: size of the blocks

status = progress: allows the indication of the progress of the operation (optional)

&&: to chain another command

sync: force the buffers to finish emptying on the key

And, finish by disconnecting / reconnecting your key.

Format your USB key from the command line to use it as a storage key

There are several tools to manage the partitions of a disk from the command line: fdisk, cfdisk, ... Here's how to do it with fdisk.

Start by disassembling your USB key

sudo umount / dev / sdXY

/ dev / sdXY: with X to adapt with the corresponding device letter and Y with the number corresponding to the partition to unmount (example: sdb1).

Now, to change the partitions on your USB drive, do:

sudo fdisk / dev / sdX

Then enter d to erase a partition. And redo the manipulation to erase all the existing partitions (in principle there are two ...)

So, do n to create a new partition. And, hit Enter four times to keep the following default settings:

Partition type: primary

partition number: 1

and First sector and Last sector to have the partition on the entire USB key

Now do t to change the partition type and b to change it to FAT32.

And, save the changes then exit with w.

q allows quitting without modifying anything

Finally, format your key in FAT32 to be able to use it:

sudo mkfs.vfat / dev / sdXY

/ dev / sdXY: adapt X and Y according to your configuration