I tried to use the usb-creator.exe from Ubuntu 10.10 desktop i386 ISO image and it does create an USB stick that doesn't boot. When I try to boot from it I get:
Operating System not found.
I try to do this from Windows 7 x64. I'm not looking to create a live Ubuntu media, only an installation USB disk.
I repeated the process several times and I even tried to reformat the USB drive (FAT32), no success yet.
The USB stick is a 8GB one.
Well you can create a Live-USB disk that can be used for installing the operating system with unetbootin. Here is the official documentation on USB installation.
Make sure that you boot the USB disk at system startup, i.e. when you on your computer. That means the BIOS of your computer has to be set to try to boot from USB before it boots from hard drive and the stick has to be inserted before hard drive booting takes place.
The usual procedure from within Ubuntu is to use Startup Disk Creator. With that you just select the Ubuntu image or LiveCD and the USB-Media and go ahead. See picture below:
I like the Universal USB installer. Download it from here
Then run the program double-clicking it with admin privilege. The program will run and you have to direct it to the downloaded iso file. Here is a screenshot below (credit goes to the site owner)
Please take caution to select the actual drive letter of the USB drive.
Now restart your PC to boot from the USB drive
There are lot of programs, My personal Fav:
All does same to create the usb from windows machine.
You point to the ISO, choose the usb and start. They will prepare the USB in 5-10 min.
Quoted: The recommended way to install Ubuntu from a USB flash drive is to use the usb-creator program, point it at a ISO image of a Ubuntu installation CD that you have downloaded, and let it create a bootable USB that you can use instead of the CD.
Source: Ubuntu
Below you can find more information that can help you in your process.
I recommend UNetbooting, you can read about it and others here:
http://www.webupd8.org/2009/04/4-ways-to-create-bootable-live-usb.html
Also, Ubuntu has a program installed by default called 'Startup Disk Creator'. This works great for installing Ubuntu (and derivatives) onto a USB.
balenaEtcher is the current default recommendation from ubuntu.com
Download: https://etcher.balena.io/
Source code: https://github.com/balena-io/etcher
While I'm sure suggestions from other answers will work, it might be a good idea to go along with whatever the Ubuntu team currently recommends by default just in case as a easy to use, safe and portable option. The software is mentioned e.g. at:
It's a cross platform Electron-based GUI app like many others.
Somewhat ironically it doesn't seem to have an official Ubuntu package or snap ready for install, even though they do publish an official DEB. Oh well.
To run the v1.18.11 appimage on Ubuntu 23.10 I first needed as per: Etcher appimage not working in Ubuntu20.04:
sudo apt-get -y install libfuse2
The UI is designed to be very simple and it seems to do safety checks to ensure newbies (or more "seasoned" hackers such as yourself :-)) won't flash the wrong thing.
Burn tested on Windows 11 Home 23H2 build 22631.2715.
From what I see, you have downloaded an ISO file and burnt it to a USB stick. In other words, you have created a liveUSB. And, you expect it to install Ubuntu inside of Windows 7. That is only possible if you have downloaded a WUbI installer. To install Ubuntu using a WUbI, you can follow this link.
If you are trying to install using a LiveUSB, check how to boot from USB for a better idea.
I prefer using Startup Disk Creator on the Live CD, (or usb-creator for Windows, extracted from the Ubuntu iso). Unetbootin should also work if the version is up to date.
The first thing you should do with either, is check the MD5SUM of the downloaded iso to confirm the download was not corrupted.
If the MD5SUM checks out try the Live USB on a second computer. Some computers just will not boot Ubuntu.
Get a pendrive 8gb or larger then:
If you need any further details/how to explanations, please ask ahead in the comments.
