Having trouble using UNetbootin to create a bootable USB Drive ..

[ahmadka]

Hey all .. Well if you've read my last few threads then you know that I'm trying to create a backup disk image of a netbook I recently received ..

Anyways, (long story short) I'm trying to make a USB Hard Drive I have (a 2.5" internal 80GB Hard Drive in a 2.5" enclosure) bootable, from which I can load a Linux based PE to create backup images, etc .. I can't get this step done for some reason ..

Here's what I'm doing exactly:

1) I format the said USB Hard Drive to FAT32 ..
2) I download the CloneZilla ISO image (or the Linux image from Macrium Reflect - procedure is same for both) which are bootable CD images ..
3) I run UNetbootin, select the ISO file, and indicate the drive letter of my USB Hard Drive, and start the procedure ..
4) UNetbootin now says that my USB Hard Drive is 'bootable' ..
4) I restart my computer and try to boot from the USB Hard Drive ..

All I get is a the blinking underscore ...

Please note that in UNetbootin, I had to check 'Show all drives (use with care' option to see my USB Hard Drive's letter in the list .. I also indicated my USB Hard Drive as a 'USB Drive' in the list, and not 'Hard Disk' ..

What am I doing wrong above ?

Please don't deviate from the topic .. I'm using a USB drive and not CD/DVDs as the netbook that needs to be backed up doesn't have an optical drive ..

Also, I can't use Windows 7's built-in backing up features as they don't support backing up hidden partitions ..

 

[dbwillis]

what W7 hidden partitions?
Anyways...easiest thing would be to make a Win7PE bootable flash drive to use imagex, ghost ro anything else you load onto it.
Thats all we use at work...W7PE flash drives, all the way up to 32gb ones

 

[Bahamut]

Who makes the hard drive (the external USB one)? If it's made by Western Digital or Seagate (or Maxtor), those companies offer a free version of Acronis True Image which is pretty much superior to just "backing up" data and perfect for doing such a bit-for-bit system image (where the entire hard drive is backed up to a single or multiple image files, everything - that means hidden partitions as well).

Also, if the hard drive inside the Netbook is made by any of those that works too, obviously, and you'd be able to run it from either a) the Windows-based version of True Image (where you can image the system live, in real-time, with Windows actually running, to any external drives or even across a network) or b) by having True Image reboot the machine and then run from a DOS-environment.

Anyway...

The problem you're having is two-fold, so pay attention:

1) When Unetbootin writes that ISO image to that external USB drive, that drive from that point on is seen only as an externally attached drive that is exactly the size of the ISO you wrote to it and nothing more. I just checked and what that means is the Clonezilla ISO (clonezilla-live-20101130-maverick.iso is the latest) is 138MB in size.

When you write that image to the external drive, that "drive" becomes 138MB in size, period. It doesn't matter if it's a 60GB drive, it doesn't matter if it's a 120, 250, 500, or even 1GB in size, the computer itself cannot "see" more than the size of the drive that's been partitioned on it with Unetbootin and the drive image (the ISO) that you write to it.

I just did this myself using Unetbootin, that clonezilla-live-20101130-maverick.iso file, and a 320GB USB 2.0 external drive I own (a Seagate) and what I just described is precisely what happens. My ThinkPad T60 boots to a blinking cursor and sits there, dead in the water because it's not going to work that way.

2) Even if you do get it to work (which again is pretty much not happening), Clonezilla won't be able to see the rest of the capacity of the external USB drive as I just described above. Simple.

Your solution?

a) Get a USB stick, even a lowly 256MB ancient one will do (but it'll be USB 1.1 so slower to boot and run off)
b) Write the clonezilla-live-20101130-maverick.iso to that USB stick with Unetbootin
c) Clear off the external USB hard drive if needed
d) Attach the USB stick and the USB hard drive
e) Reboot the Netbook off the USB stick with the USB hard drive attached (so the BIOS can recognize it)
f) Clonezilla should see the USB hard drive
g) Make your backups
h) You're done
i) Send me $100 just for my time and because you're a nice person

Ok, ok, i) is maybe wishful thinking but but but...