[Live-demo] duplicating bootable flash drive

[Alex Mandel]

On 02/13/2012 01:07 PM, edgar.soldin at web.de wrote:
> On 13.02.2012 21:32, Hamish wrote:
>> Alex wrote:
>>> You might be able to write a script that uses fdisk and dd
>>> if you want to get fancy with it.
>>
>> if you use dd on the entire device like
>>  'dd if=/dev/sdf of=/dev/sdg'
>> is there any need to use fdisk?
>>
> 
> yes a block by block copy on a large enough device should do the trick. of course you will loose an unpartitioned part on the end of bigger devices. it could be used after adding a partition there later on.
> 
> ..ede


I can't recall the exact reason, but the method I describe using
"Startup Disk Creator" in Ubuntu 11.04 or newer (does not work in 10.04
to make an 11.04 usb stick), you can do as many drives as you have usb
ports. Not running 11.04, use the 1st usb stick to boot the machine, and
make sure the iso file is on the hard drive.

This was the fastest and most reliable method we could find at Foss4G
when we re-imaged the 300 drives that shipped broken.

* There are several quirks to this method. All drives will finish at the
same time.
* When you open the Startup creator program it sometimes grays out. The
trick is to use the keyboard to move the cursor before it grays out.

All of this is way too insane, but unfortunately we haven't been able to
find a vendor in the US that can do bootable usb (Though the one we
worked with for Foss4G is trying to correct their process). We do know a
vendor in Spain that can do it right.

So for more than a handful of drives I recommend not doing it yourself.

Thanks,
Alex
PS: Yes this will get pasted into a wiki page