Boot from USB doesn't work

[tschoppi]

Hi everyone

I'm not new to Linux, but new to creating a bootable USB thumbdrive. Now, I've tried the Unetbootin-method twice and I've checked the MD5, and everything went smoothly.
But my computer won't boot from the USB stick. First of all, there are 4 types of USB to boot from:
USB-FDD (i assume: Floppy Disk Drive)
USB-ZIP (no idea)
USB-CD (the whole CD architecture is on the USB stick?)
USB-HDD (Hard Disk Drive)

Now, first of all: Does Unetbootin write a boot sector on my pendrive?
Which of those USB-types shall I choose to boot? Until now none of them has worked.

Specs: Windows 7 Ultimate, 64bit
Apacer 8GB flash drive
bt4-final.iso

How do I get this to work?

Thanks for your patience and explanations!

tschoppi

[Snayler]

USB-FDD - External USB Floppy Disk Reader
USB-ZIP - External USB ZIP Disk reader
USB-CD - External USB CD/DVD reader
USB-HDD - USB Storage Device

If this is correct (I'm assuming here), you should choose the last option.
Also, check if you are using the latest version of unetbootin.

[tschoppi]

I downloaded unetbootin today from sourceforge. Filename: unetbootin-windows-393.exe
Maybe BIOS can't "see" the USB drive? Although I'm always catching something by the lines of "USB-drive FLASH device" or something like that...
It's just weird...

[Snayler]

Have you followed any tutorial? If so, which one?

[xX_Spiidey_Xx]

And you've formatted the USB stick to FAT32 before you tried Unetbootin? If you haven't, this should resolve your issue.

Go grab a copy of USB_Format.exe >> Actually, I have one you can use. >> Google Docs

[Snayler]

Go grab a copy of USB_Format.exe >> Actually, I have one you can use. >> Google Docs

One thing I don't understand: why use an external program if windows can format a usb drive by simply right-clicking on the drive?

[xX_Spiidey_Xx]

I haven't used Windoze 7, and don't know if it will mount USB devices if they're formatted in a non-DOS format (IE Ext4).

Plus, it's a nifty little tool, not that it does much other than formatting.

[Snayler]

I haven't used Windoze 7, and don't know if it will mount USB devices if they're formatted in a non-DOS format (IE Ext4)

My windoze detects ext3 drives, but only because I installed a reiserfs driver. Natively it's not supported, but my guess is that if you insert a pen drive into a usb port and if windoze doesn't recognize the file system, it will ask the user to format the drive. I could be wrong, though.

[jamshid]

im using window 7, and try using boot from USB... i just follow the tutorial and it runs smoothly i didn't encounter any problem

[tschoppi]

OK.
I'm back from skiing and I now went through the trouble of installing BT4 persistently on my laptop machine (which, BTW, was a good idea) and followed the tutorial on offensive-security.com
So after going through this whole trouble I expected my BIOS to boot from it correctly. But it now mumbles something about "incorrect floppy disk" and "try again"... And I even followed the tutorial very closely.
The error only occurred when using USB-HDD and USB-FDD as boot first device. The other two USB-* options just ended in no-output-let's-boot-from-the-HD.

You got any ideas? My creative thinking is at a wall right now...