[ Solved ] How to format USB and burn image to USB in Linux Sparkylinux?
sdb is your usb or is it sdc? Check it before you go further...
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=512 count=16
unmount
sudo mkfs.vfat -n '' -I /dev/sdb
gparted --- create MS-DOS partition table and format to FAT32
usb image writer - select iso and burn to usb
sudo mkfs.vfat -n '' -I /dev/sdb
or
sudo mkfs.vfat -n 'my own label for pendrive' -I /dev/sdb
I use gparted to format the usb sticks to fat16 or 32, then dd or unetbootin or image writer to burn the iso.
Easiest way is to use the old installer ;)
For some reason when I use gparted I don't get good results all the time. For example the last time I burned Ubuntu 15.04 64bit on usb it simply wouldn't disappear. Format USB was not helpful and gparted was not helpful...
The only thing that formatted the usb is the above mentioned commands.
Or use this - https://partedmagic.com/
There is an another option: install 'mintstick' which is available in our repos.
It provides 2 tools:
- usb formatter
- live system usb creator
keep in mind that USB sticks are made a hidden section, like some secure sticks
and I noticed sparky's usb stick format uses UDF format like the old CD RW drives used,
so you not get full access to the stick and it may freeze up. eg frozen bit may get stuck into read-only mode
Puppy Linux's formater has an option for booting in older machines by using superfloppy (no partitions) or as a fake ZIP drive (partition 4 boots the drive),
those methods can really revive an old machine