Creating flash drive install disk

zoqaeski · 2011-09-25 05:31:43

Windows is stupid. I followed the steps to create an Arch installer on a flash drive and keep it usable as a drive while I still had access to an Arch machine, and I thought it worked. To an extent, it does; it boots and the installer loads fine. But I can't use the drive because Windows won't recognise the FAT32 partition on it, and keeps telling me I need to format the drive.

I partitioned the drive with two partitions, the first is a FAT32 and the second is an ext4 one with the installer on it. I don't have access to a Linux computer to modify the partitions, and all my data is on ext4 partitions which Windows won't read, so I can't copy across the ISO I downloaded and start again from scratch using the basic Arch Live installer.

Does the Arch live image need to be extracted onto a separate partition to boot, or can I just put it on a FAT32 drive? I think I might have a way to "fix" my flash drive so it works on all systems, but I don't know for sure.

ewaller · 2011-09-25 06:00:22

Moderator comment.

I agree that Windows can be frustrating. I think that your particular anthropomorphism is not just technically wrong, it also runs afoul of our policy regarding the respect of other operating systems

ewaller · 2011-09-25 06:01:59

How is the drive partitioned? I think Windows wants the entire drive to be formated as FAT32, as opposed to having a partition table.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-09-25 05:31:43

Creating flash drive install disk

#2 2011-09-25 06:00:22

Re: Creating flash drive install disk

#3 2011-09-25 06:01:59

Re: Creating flash drive install disk

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