Ubuntu – Convert bootable USB to ISO file

isousb

My laptop comes with a program called "Acer Recovery Management", which allows you to make a bootable recovery USB stick, from which you can boot to recover the computer to its original state.

Now, of course (I don't know why Acer didn't think about this) I don't want to give up a perfectly usable USB stick – which BTW needs to be at least 16 GB – to be a 'recovery disk' that I will probably never use anyway. But I still want to make it, just in case.

So, is there a way to convert the data on this bootable USB to an ISO file (or format), so that I can keep it on an external hard drive somewhere instead of a USB stick, and in case of problems convert the ISO back into a bootable USB with e.g. unetbootin?

Best Answer

To create an image from a drive

sudo dd if=/dev/sdx of=/path/to/new.iso

Alternatively, to create a USB drive from an image

sudo dd if=/path/to/iso of=/dev/sdx

Replace /dev/sdx with your USB drive, e.g. /dev/sdc.

WARNING: It is imperative that you make certain you are using the correct drive. If you don't use the correct drive, you could lose your data. To check your currently mounted drives, use the command lsblk.

Note: Copying large files (1 GB or higher) can take a long time, be patient.

Related Question