UNetBootIn doesn't see NTFS usb drive

[drefhill]

To install Windows 7 on my netbook i have to make a bootable USB key with Windows 7 on it.
Windows 7 works only on NTFS partition so i have to format my USB key in NTFS
But UNETBOOTIN doesn't show my key when formated in NTFS.
In previous version it used to work (version 494 for example).

Some extras informations here
http://www.webupd8.org/2010/10/create-bootable-windows-7-usb-drive.html

[Gabriel Elder (eldergabriel)]

I also ran into this problem in an identical scenario a while back: netbook, no optical drive (internal or external), and win7 only installs from ntfs source media. I managed to trace the problem down to a few regexes in unetbootin.cpp. After a few minor mods, I recompiled and tested with an ntfs-formatted usb flash drive. It booted from the flash drive and went through the installation just fine. I thought I had submitted a patch, but maybe I oops'ed and it went to /dev/null. Anyways, here's what it should need (based on v583 sources)...

unetbootin.cpp:
line 575, change from --
if (QString(callexternapp(volidcommand, QString("-t %2").arg(usbfileinfoL.at(i).canonicalFilePath()))).contains(QRegExp("(vfat|ext2|ext3|ext4)")))
--to-->
if (QString(callexternapp(volidcommand, QString("-t %2").arg(usbfileinfoL.at(i).canonicalFilePath()))).contains(QRegExp("(vfat|ext2|ext3|ext4|ntfs)")))

and line 583, change from --
if (tstrblk.section('=', -1, -1).remove('"').contains(QRegExp("(vfat|ext2|ext3|ext4)")))
--to-->
if (tstrblk.section('=', -1, -1).remove('"').contains(QRegExp("(vfat|ext2|ext3|ext4|ntfs)")))

Just for the record, I'll attach a diff -u patch.

hth,
- gabriel

[Igor Zubarev (igor.zubarev)]

any news?

[Anders Trier Olesen (anders-trier-olesen)]

Please fix this. This is a very requested feature, and people has started using dirty hacks [1], and referring to older versions of unetbootin [2].
[1] http://askubuntu.com/questions/162174/how-do-i-use-unetbootin-to-make-a-bootable-windows-usb-installer
[2] http://www.linuxandlife.com/2012/12/unetbootin-create-bootable-usb-windows-7.html

[Gabriel Elder (eldergabriel)]

I submitted a pull request to the original author on github, to merge in my aforementioned patch, here:

https://github.com/gkovacs/unetbootin/pull/4

Hopefully this will get incorporated into an official release and provide the requested fix sometime soon.

- gabriel

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

The attachment "allow ntfs-formatted devices to be listed and selectable as target drive" seems to be a patch. If it isn't, please remove the "patch" flag from the attachment, remove the "patch" tag, and if you are a member of the ~ubuntu-reviewers, unsubscribe the team.

[This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by ~brian-murray, for any issues please contact him.]

[Shane StClair (srstclair)]

Can we get this NTFS patch merged? As noted, there are blog posts spelling out workarounds using very old (494) versions to get around this:

http://www.webupd8.org/2010/10/create-bootable-windows-7-usb-drive.html

Thank you!

[David Britton (dpb)]

The following works around the problem quite well for me. Maybe it just needs better documentation on the unetbootin man page?

For Example:

   unetbootin installtype=USB targetdrive=/dev/sdd1

[Kostiantyn Shchepanovskyi (kshchepanovskyi)]

Thank you, it works:

> unetbootin installtype=USB targetdrive=/dev/sdd1

Anyway, it is only a workaround.

[Noman Knost (romankost)]

It's April the first of 2015. And no joke: ntfs is still not supported out of the box. Is there anyone who knows why?

[Jaka (jaka-luthar)]

THIS PROBLEM SUCKS SO MUCH! It's so stupid... how could it work before? Why would somebody remove such a feature from a program?

To install a windoz usb you already need a windoz computer. Is there any alternative tool that can create win live usb on a linux system?

It doesn't look like the author of unetbootin gives a shit!

[Jouni "rautamiekka" Järvinen (rautamiekka)]

^ I think you can emulate how it works easiest on Window$ since 7: using §diskpart§ simply partitions and makes the partition bootable, after which you can simply copypaste ISO content to the drive, so if you can do the same on Linux, it should work.