5.2.2.2. Making Fedora USB Media with dd

⁠5.2.2.2. Making Fedora USB Media with dd

Warning — These instructions could destroy data

When you perform this procedure any data on the USB flash drive is destroyed with no warning. Make sure that you specify the correct USB flash drive, and make sure that this flash drive does not contain any data that you want to keep.

Note

The Fedora Project recommends using livecd-tools rather than dd for creating USB media whenever possible.

Use this method for the distribution image, the minimal boot media image, or on systems with a UNIX operating system (including Mac OS X).

Plug in your USB flash drive.
Become root:
```
su -
```

Because your flash drive will be completely overwritten by this procedure, it is important to specify the correct drive. Run the command dmesg shortly after connecting the drive. The output will identify the device node of the drive, in this case /dev/sdd:

          [36255.217474] usb 2-1.7: Manufacturer: Kingston
          [36255.217476] usb 2-1.7: SerialNumber: 0019E06B0848SK88050A1E7C
          [36255.218125] usb-storage 2-1.7:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
          [36255.218188] scsi7 : usb-storage 2-1.7:1.0
          [36256.221078] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Kingston DT 101 II        1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
          [36256.221399] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0
          [36256.222051] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] 3930112 512-byte logical blocks: (2.01 GB/1.87 GiB)
          [36256.222815] [sdd]d 7:0:0:0: [sdd] Write Protect is off
          [36256.222818] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] Mode Sense: 22 00 00 00
          [36256.223547] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] No Caching mode page found
          [36256.223550] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] Assuming drive cache: write through
          [36256.226945] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdd] No Caching mode page found
          [36256.226947] sd 7:0:0:0: [sddsdd] Assuming drive cache: write through
          [36256.483172]  sdd: sdd1

The device name (similar to /dev/sdd) and the partition name (similar to /dev/sdd1) both appear in several lines towards the end of the output. You will use the device name, the procedure will be creating a new partition.

Use the dd command to transfer the boot ISO image to the USB device:
```
# dd if=path/image_name.iso of=device
```
where path/image_name.iso is the boot ISO image file that you downloaded and device is the device name for the USB flash drive. Ensure you specify the device name, not the partition name. For example:
```
# dd if=~/Download/Fedora-19-x86_64-DVD.iso of=/dev/sdc
```