How to burn a raw image into a USB

Microsoft Windows users:

  • Download and install ImageWriter
  • Plug the USB drive in one of computer’s USB ports
  • Open ImageWriter and select the USB disk from the list at the bottom

  • Click on the “Select” button and select the file you have downloaded then press “Copy”
  • If you can’t see the file, enter “*.*” in the “File name” field and press “Open” to see all files, then select the file and press “Open” again

Linux users (terminal) – USB:

  • Plug the USB drive in one of computer’s USB ports
  • To identify USB disk’s device name type:

ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/*usb*


From the example image above, sdb is the USB disk, located under /dev/sdb

  • To unmount the device (must be root), type:

umount /dev/sdb

  • to write the USB disk (must be root), type:

dd if=/path/to/file/downloaded of=/dev/sdb

WARNING: Make sure you replace “sdb” of the example above with the appropriate drive. dd will erase all data of the device selected!

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