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you can write a file to a drive in a unix-like environment using the "dd" command.

 

this would work in linux, or in macos.. the command goes: dd -if /path/to/iso -of /dev/yourdrive

 

Though, what problems are you having "Bun"ing the dvds? That's by far the easiest option.

I've burned the DVD's properly, my IDE DVD drive won't read them. I get nothing but a blinking cursor. I've posted elsewhere on the forums, but I didn't get any kind of answer.

 

I figure I can bypass my "unfriendly" DVD drive by just using my external HDD to boot the ISO.

 

I actually tried the DD command about 2 hours ago, and it didn't do anything. It said "/dev/sdb1 is a directory" and didn't actually copy anything. I used an ubuntu live cd as I have vista installed right now.

 

If I managed to get dd to work, how would I go about making that bootable?

 

Thanks

~ Stony

Hmmm..

 

Dunno why it would say it's a directory... that hardly makes sense...

 

Are you sure it's /dev/sdb1?

 

Also, are you sure it's not mounted?

 

anyway, if you do manage to dd the iso to your flash drive it should be bootable by default.

 

for what it's worth, if you have another mac, you can use disk utility to do the same thing as dd, I believe.

My ISO file is stored on my Windows Vista NTFS partition, which is sda1. It even shows up in the partition editor. My external drive is sdb1, and also shows up as a FAT32 in the partition editor. The disks are NOT mounted:

 

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/sda1/Users/Jacob/Documents/Downloads/Leopard-10.5.2-AMD/Leopard-10.5.2-AMD-EFI.iso of=/dev/sdb1

 

dd: opening `/dev/sda1/Users/Jacob/Documents/Downloads/Leopard-10.5.2-AMD/Leopard-10.5.2-AMD-EFI.iso': Not a directory

 

Any suggestions?

Yeah... you're going to need your windows partition mounted...

 

try:

mkdir /mnt/temp
mount -t ntfs /dev/sda1 /mnt/temp
dd if=/mnt/temp/Users/Jacob/Documents/Downloads/Leopard-10.5.2-AMD/Leopard-10.5.2-AMD-EFI.iso of=/dev/sdb1

 

I'm not 100% sure it will be bootable off the flash drive just like that, I always wondered why it works like that when it does, since the header info off the dvd, as well as the partition structure etc will all be byte-for-byte copied to the flash drive... but it does, sometimes, work just like that.

 

to be sure, once you've done that, open gparted - which is in the menu somewhere as Disk Manager or Partition Editor or something... and make sure the partition on your flash drive is set as bootable. (I think it's like right click, manage flags, check the one that says active or boot)

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