While this seems like a straight forward task, the few methods I've tried so far don't create a USB device that my Dell computer will recognize as a valid bootable USB drive.
Here's what I've tried so far (using a cheap 2gb thumb drive, along with the 64-bit Ubuntu Desktop 13.10 ISO from Ubuntu's website):
- Insert USB drive, and format it to MS-FAT32 using Disk Utility; then follow this How to create a bootable USB stick on OS X Ubuntu guide
verbatim(update: I wasn't as verbatim as I thought! see comment under accepted answer). - Insert USB drive with existing formatting; open Unetbootin, using the same ISO, create a USB installer disk.
In both cases, when I explicitly tell my Dell computer to boot from the "USB Device", I get an error along the lines of "Can't find valid boot disk; press F1 to try again".
I ended up creating the boot disk with the same ISO using a different computer running Ubuntu, using the Startup Disk Creator — thus I have confidence the ISO is fine — but I'm stuck wondering, how can I do this with my OS X computer (currently with 10.8.5)?
Best Answer
For me it has always worked (albeit building Mint install usb pen drives DOS MBR partitioned) using Terminal , and as per the instructions on the Linux Mint website (http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/744), which I copy below:
Hope it helps