Pen Drive Has No OS

[nujinini]

Hello!

I was trying to install parted magic on my newly bought pen drive and after following instructions here and do a reboot, I get a quick error that says pen drive has no operating system or something of that sort. Then it goes to the regular grub menu. It just shows for about a second. Did I buy a defective USB flashdrive? I still have a week to return defective items if ever.

Thanks

jun@jun-laptop ~ $ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for jun: 

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc5e3f820

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        1930    15502693+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            1931       15817   111547327+   5  Extended
/dev/sda3           15818       29555   110350485    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4           29556       30401     6795495   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda5            9778       14512    38033856   83  Linux
/dev/sda6            3836        5224    11157111   83  Linux
/dev/sda7            5225        8475    26113626   83  Linux
/dev/sda8           14513       15817    10481663+  83  Linux
/dev/sda9            1931        3835    15301849+  83  Linux
/dev/sda10           8476        9777    10458283+  83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 4105 MB, 4105175040 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 499 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x04030201

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1          32      257008+   6  FAT16

[oz]

Your pen drive probably isn't bootable. You can make it that way through any one of several methods, but the easiest way that I've found to do it is to use UNetbootin to install Parted Magic:

UNetbootin - Homepage and Downloads

[oz]

On the Parted Magic webpage that gives instructions for creating a USB install, they give this link for a number of ways to make your device bootable, but many users find all of those methods rather complex and in some cases, cumbersome. That's my reason for suggesting Unetbootin as a possibly easier alternative.

[nujinini]

Thanks Oz,

Just done "download for linux" and it gave me an executable file. Can't open it.

EDIT: I think I might be doing something right here. Will get back in a while.

EDIT: Got it! The Unetbootin did the job for me. I was intimidated at first but after playing around with it, I discovered out how to use it.

It's always a good day when I learn something something new.

Thank you!

[oz]

Got it! The Unetbootin did the job for me. I was intimidated at first but after playing around with it, I discovered out how to use it.

Right... unetbootin works surprisingly well and is quite easy to use once you understand what's happening with it.