In this article, we will show you how to create an ISO from a bootable USB drive in Linux. We will explain two ways to achieve this: via the command line interface (CLI) and a graphical user interface (GUI) program.
Create An ISO From A Bootable USB Drive Using dd Tool
dd is a commonly used command-line tool for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems, used to convert and copy files.
To create an ISO image from a Bootable USB Drive files, first you need to insert your USB drive and then find the device name of your USB using following df command.
$ df -hT
Sample Output
Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev devtmpfs 3.9G 0 3.9G 0% /dev
tmpfs tmpfs 787M 1.5M 786M 1% /run
/dev/sda3 ext4 147G 28G 112G 20% /
tmpfs tmpfs 3.9G 148M 3.7G 4% /dev/shm
tmpfs tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
tmpfs tmpfs 3.9G 0 3.9G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1 vfat 299M 11M 288M 4% /boot/efi
tmpfs tmpfs 787M 56K 787M 1% /run/user/1000
/dev/sda5 ext4 379G 117G 242G 33% /media/tecmint/Data_Storage
/dev/sdb1 iso9660 1.8G 1.8G 0 100% /media/tecmint/Linux Mint 19 Xfce 64-bit
From the output above, you can clearly see that our attached USB device name is /dev/sdb1.
Now you can run the following command to create an ISO from a bootable USB drive as shown. Make sure to replace /dev/sdb1 with your USB drive and /home/tecmint/Documents/Linux_Mint_19_XFCE.iso with the full name of the new ISO image.
$ sudo dd if=/dev/sdb1 of=/home/tecmint/Documents/Linux_Mint_19_XFCE.iso
In the above command, the option:
- if – means read from specified FILE instead of stdin.
- of – means write to specified FILE instead of stdout.
Once done, you can verify the ISO image using following ls command as shown.
$ ls -l /home/tecmint/Documents/Linux_Mint_19_XFCE.iso
Create An ISO From A Bootable USB Drive Using Gnome Disks
Gnome Disks is a graphical tool used to manage disk drives and media in Linux. It is used to format and partition drives, mount and unmount partitions, and query S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) attributes.
If you don’t have gnome-disk utility on your system, you can install it by running the following command.
$ sudo apt install gnome-disk-utility #Ubuntu/Debian $ sudo yum install gnome-disk-utility #CentOS/RHEL $ sudo dnf install gnome-disk-utility #Fedora 22+
After successfully installing Gnome disk, search and open it from the system menu or dash. Then from the default interface, select the bootable device from the list of mounted devices on the left-hand pane, by clicking on it and click on disk options. Then click on Create Disk Image option as shown in the following image.
From the dialog window, set the name of the ISO file, its location and click Start creating. Then enter your password to open the bootable device and the process should start if the authentication is successful.
That’s it for now! In this article, we’ve explained two ways to create an ISO from a bootable USB drive in Linux. Use the comment form below to share your thoughts with us or ask questions.
Hi Aaron,
Great Post! Thank you for sharing this informative post on creating iso from bootable USB in Linux. I am pretty with the content and It really works…
Keep up the Good Work… Keep sharing…
Thanks
@Pulkit
How nice it is to get feedback from you. Many thanks.
Perfect! Thanks!
I needed to free up my 4G USB thumb drive to make a different flavor – live bootable stick (gonna try Antix) but wanted to keep the Mint19.3 ISO in case I need it again.
I had deleted the original ISO download so I wanted to get it back off the bootable USB. I can’t believe the confusion in the comments here…
It is clear which way the IF and OF are oriented and what the commands are intended to achieve.
In fact, there are any number of google results about how to go from ISO to bootable USB but very few on going the other way, so THANKS again !!
@Kohn
We do understand, many users are only familiar with creating a bootable USB using an ISO image but creating an ISO from a bootable USB. Many thanks for the useful feedback.
IFandOFare swapped this will write the contents of your stick in the.isofile -.-Thanks for that. I thought so as, well. :-)
Your USB Stick has ISO9660v Partition that is not a problem to make an iso from it! But the most Bootable USB-Sticks has a vfat or fat32 or ext2/3/4 formatted partition
And Now ??
This Instruction will not Work with formats other than ISO9660
I have a 16GB USB-Stick with a bootable Linux Partition (Type 83) and need this as a bootable iso file
Did you ever figure out how to make it work with fat32/vfat partitions?
Shouldn’t you provide the iso filename for if=... and the media for of=…? In the parameter definition, you say so but in the example, you do the other way.
@SEBI
Check the heading, “2 Ways to Create an ISO from a Bootable USB in Linux”. We are showing how to create an ISO(/home/tecmint/Documents/Linux_Mint_19_XFCE.iso) from a bootable media(/dev/sdb1).
I had the exact same problem as sebi!
I have an iso file of an operating system and have been wanting to create a bootable USB stick with it, and running into problems. After searching and following a few different sets of directions, I stumbled on your article. I did not read the title carefully and therefore followed the advice even though what I’m trying to do is the opposite.
The article is good, but perhaps you might consider editing it to warn readers that this is NOT for creating a bootable USB from an iso, since I suspect it’s more common to want to do that.
@Laur
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us, we will add a note about this.
I accidentally deleted my image so i re created .Thanks buddy
@AbdulRehman
Good to know that this worked for you. Thanks for the feedback.
Thank you!
This will create an image of USB (.img actual file type) and not standard ISO9660 format iso file, you are just changing the extension name, and the size of the output file is equal to the size of the input USB drive, ie: if there is 300MB of content in the 2GB USB drive, then the output file is 2GB only!.
I use “cp file.iso /dev/sdx” :-)
@Carlos
Many thanks for sharing.
Wanted to know how to make a USB bootable from a bootable ISO image that is booted without any problem using vmware/virtualbox.
When I put this ISO image on USB stick it doesn’t boot at all. I tried many programs, many techniques and none of them worked.
Copy-Paste ISO to USB is not working as you have to write boot sector to the underlaying hardware. Try to use a program like UUByte to make a bootable USB from ISO.
@hurukan
Check this out: https://www.tecmint.com/install-linux-os-on-usb-drive/ or https://www.tecmint.com/create-bootable-usb-in-linux-commandline/