How do you create a bootable partition on a USB drive?

Posted by Nathan DeWitt on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Nathan DeWitt
Published on 2009-07-15T12:34:20Z Indexed on 2010/05/31 23:34 UTC
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Filed under:

osx

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boot

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livecd

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osx86

I have a bootable ISO designed to be burned to a double-layer DVD. I don't have a double layer DVD burner, so I would like to stick the ISO image on a 50 GB partition on a USB hard drive I have. How do I get the boot info onto the hard drive?

If it helps, it's an OSx86 Live CD.

Attempt 1:

booted into Ubuntu 9.04 LiveCD
deleted the partition on my existing USB hard drive
sudo dd if=/path/to/image.iso of=/dev/MyUSB
booted to USB drive
error: Error Loading OS

Atempt 2:

booted into Ubuntu 9.04 LiveCD
deleted the partition on my existing USB hard drive
sudo mkdosfs -I -v -n iPC /dev/MyUSB
sudo syslinux /dev/MyUSB
sudo dd if=/path/to/image.iso of=/dev/MyUSB
booted to USB drive
error: Selected boot device not available - strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility

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