virtual-machineusb-drive

How do I check if an USB drive is bootable?

I just created an USB drive and would like to check if it's correctly bootable without rebooting my actual computer. How should I do?

Solution

  • Under Linux, you have to know which device path got the drive with for example with dmesg | tail after insertion, let's assume it's /dev/sdb.

    Qemu

    sudo qemu -hda /dev/sdb or sudo qemu-system-x86_64 -hda /dev/sdb for 64 bits.

    VirtualBox

    VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/usb.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdb
sudo chmod 666 /dev/sdb*

    then add ~/usb.vmdk as a disk in a VM and boot on it

    Don't hesitate to add other ways to do.