Hi All,
I have an Windows 11 ISO I burned to a 8GB USB stick. The burning process removed a bunch of hardware silliness.
The stick is only about 5BG used.
Is there a way to make an ISO out of the stick and only get the used space (dd get everything)?
Many thanks, -T
On 5/26/25 7:26 PM, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
Hi All,
I have an Windows 11 ISO I burned to a 8GB USB stick. The burning process removed a bunch of hardware silliness.
The stick is only about 5BG used.
Is there a way to make an ISO out of the stick and only get the used space (dd get everything)?
Many thanks, -T
# sudo mkisofs -o /home/kvm/myImage.iso -R -J -input-charset utf-8 ./CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9 File ./CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9/sources/install.wim is larger than 4GiB-1. -allow-limited-size was not specified. There is no way do represent this file size. Aborting.
:'(
# ls CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9/ autorun.inf bootmgr efi setup.exe support boot bootmgr.efi setup.dll sources 'System Volume Information'
On 5/26/25 8:55 PM, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
mkisofs -o /home/kvm/myImage.iso -R -J -input-charset utf-8 ./ CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9 File ./CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9/sources/install.wim is larger than 4GiB-1.
# mkisofs -V "W11 24H2 Rufus" -allow-limited-size -o /home/kvm/myImage.iso ./CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9
qemu-kvm mount as cdrom: No bootable device
The USB drive does boot and load fine
On 5/26/25 9:42 PM, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
On 5/26/25 8:55 PM, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
mkisofs -o /home/kvm/myImage.iso -R -J -input-charset utf-8 ./ CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9 File ./CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9/sources/install.wim is larger than 4GiB-1.
# mkisofs -V "W11 24H2 Rufus" -allow-limited-size -o /home/kvm/ myImage.iso ./CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9
qemu-kvm mount as cdrom: No bootable device
The USB drive does boot and load fine
You're only copying the files, not all the parts that let it boot.
On 5/26/25 9:45 PM, Samuel Sieb wrote:
On 5/26/25 9:42 PM, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
On 5/26/25 8:55 PM, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
mkisofs -o /home/kvm/myImage.iso -R -J -input-charset utf-8 ./ CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9 File ./CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9/sources/install.wim is larger than 4GiB-1.
# mkisofs -V "W11 24H2 Rufus" -allow-limited-size -o /home/kvm/ myImage.iso ./CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9
qemu-kvm mount as cdrom: No bootable device
The USB drive does boot and load fine
You're only copying the files, not all the parts that let it boot.
Is there a better way to do what I am after or should just use dd and waste 3GB of space on the created ISO?
On 5/26/25 10:07 PM, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
On 5/26/25 9:45 PM, Samuel Sieb wrote:
On 5/26/25 9:42 PM, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
On 5/26/25 8:55 PM, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
mkisofs -o /home/kvm/myImage.iso -R -J -input-charset utf-8 ./ CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9 File ./CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9/sources/install.wim is larger than 4GiB-1.
# mkisofs -V "W11 24H2 Rufus" -allow-limited-size -o /home/kvm/ myImage.iso ./CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9
qemu-kvm mount as cdrom: No bootable device
The USB drive does boot and load fine
You're only copying the files, not all the parts that let it boot.
Is there a better way to do what I am after or should just use dd and waste 3GB of space on the created ISO?
Why can't you get the original iso file you used?
On 5/26/25 10:15 PM, Samuel Sieb wrote:
On 5/26/25 10:07 PM, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
On 5/26/25 9:45 PM, Samuel Sieb wrote:
On 5/26/25 9:42 PM, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
On 5/26/25 8:55 PM, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
mkisofs -o /home/kvm/myImage.iso -R -J -input-charset utf-8 ./ CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9 File ./CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9/sources/install.wim is larger than 4GiB-1.
# mkisofs -V "W11 24H2 Rufus" -allow-limited-size -o /home/kvm/ myImage.iso ./CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9
qemu-kvm mount as cdrom: No bootable device
The USB drive does boot and load fine
You're only copying the files, not all the parts that let it boot.
Is there a better way to do what I am after or should just use dd and waste 3GB of space on the created ISO?
Why can't you get the original iso file you used?
Because it was redone to USB with rufus whilst removing the silly hardware requirements and the spyware user account:
W11 24h2 rufus.full-4.7.exe Win11_24H2_English_x64.iso
https://windowsforum.com/threads/how-to-install-windows-11-on-unsupported-ha...
states: Bypassing Hardware Requirements
To bypass hardware checks that might block the installation of Windows 11: [*Remove Requirement for 4GB+ RAM, Secure Boot, and TPM 2.0: In the Rufus setup window, check the box labeled "Remove requirement for 4GB+ RAM, Secure Boot, and TPM 2.0."
You have to click "start" to get to these above options
On Mon, May 26, 2025 at 10:31 PM ToddAndMargo via users users@lists.fedoraproject.org wrote:
I have an Windows 11 ISO I burned to a 8GB USB stick. The burning process removed a bunch of hardware silliness.
The stick is only about 5BG used.
Is there a way to make an ISO out of the stick and only get the used space (dd get everything)?
Determine the original size of the ISO and use the "count=" option of dd.
To install an ISO from a USB stick, you’ll need to use a tool like Rufus or BalenaEtcher to make the USB bootable—just copying the ISO file won’t work. Once that’s done, restart your computer and use the boot menu (usually F12 or Esc during startup) to select the USB drive. If it doesn’t boot, check your BIOS settings—make sure Secure Boot is off and the USB is set as the first boot option. I had a similar issue once while multitasking and checking a <a href="https://subwaymenu.de/subway-kalorien/">subway kalorien tabelle</a>.
On Fri, 2025-05-30 at 07:47 +0000, Oliver Ava wrote:
To install an ISO from a USB stick, you’ll need to use a tool like Rufus or BalenaEtcher to make the USB bootable—just copying the ISO file won’t work.
Neither of them are anything I've heard of. Certainly, you can't just copy the ISO file to the stick as a file. Fedora Media Writer was a tool for doing that kind of thing, too (for *properly* creating a bootable drive). But using "dd" to write the file directly as-it-is to the flashdrive always used to work. It's a simple direct dump command line tool, and various front ends had been written to use it outside of the command line.
A problem in recent times isn't so much to do with using dd (or something else) to do the job, but more to do with the boot structure in the ISO file. *It* just won't boot on certain motherboards.
But one of the other ISOs (with a different booting method) does work. I struck this, myself. The Mate spin wouldn't, but the server spin did.
On 5/30/25 12:47 AM, Oliver Ava wrote:
To install an ISO from a USB stick, you’ll need to use a tool like Rufus or BalenaEtcher to make the USB bootable—just copying the ISO file won’t work. Once that’s done, restart your computer and use the boot menu (usually F12 or Esc during startup) to select the USB drive. If it doesn’t boot, check your BIOS settings—make sure Secure Boot is off and the USB is set as the first boot option. I had a similar issue once while multitasking and checking a <a href="https://subwaymenu.de/subway-kalorien/">subway kalorien tabelle</a>.
I have a functioning/bootable USB drive. I want to make an ISO out of it but do not want the extra space included that dd gives
On Fri, 2025-05-30 at 06:52 -0700, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
I have a functioning/bootable USB drive. I want to make an ISO out of it but do not want the extra space included that dd gives
I think you'd have to play with sizing:
Shrink the partition of the working drive down to what it needs to be (with some spare). Use something like dd to dump that *partition* to a file, not dumping the entire drive.
On 5/30/25 7:33 PM, Tim via users wrote:
On Fri, 2025-05-30 at 06:52 -0700, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
I have a functioning/bootable USB drive. I want to make an ISO out of it but do not want the extra space included that dd gives
I think you'd have to play with sizing:
Shrink the partition of the working drive down to what it needs to be (with some spare). Use something like dd to dump that *partition* to a file, not dumping the entire drive.
It's not really a partition. There are one or two apparent partitions, but taking that won't get you the iso back. You also need the boot sectors and whatever else. The difficulty is finding out how much of the flash drive is used by the iso. There should be some way to find the extent of the iso, but I couldn't find any tool that will give that number.
On 5/30/25 8:33 PM, Samuel Sieb wrote:
On 5/30/25 7:33 PM, Tim via users wrote:
On Fri, 2025-05-30 at 06:52 -0700, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
I have a functioning/bootable USB drive. I want to make an ISO out of it but do not want the extra space included that dd gives
I think you'd have to play with sizing:
Shrink the partition of the working drive down to what it needs to be (with some spare). Use something like dd to dump that *partition* to a file, not dumping the entire drive.
It's not really a partition. There are one or two apparent partitions, but taking that won't get you the iso back. You also need the boot sectors and whatever else. The difficulty is finding out how much of the flash drive is used by the iso. There should be some way to find the extent of the iso, but I couldn't find any tool that will give that number.
I fired up gparted on the flash drive:
There is a bunch of empty space on sdc1, but the fly in the ointment is sdc2: the fat16 UEFI_NTFS partition stuck at the very end where is has to reside.
Looks like I am going to have to hold my nose and just accept the empty space and use dd.
Thank you all for the tips!
-T
On 5/26/25 8:55 PM, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
On 5/26/25 7:26 PM, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
Hi All,
I have an Windows 11 ISO I burned to a 8GB USB stick. The burning process removed a bunch of hardware silliness.
The stick is only about 5BG used.
Is there a way to make an ISO out of the stick and only get the used space (dd get everything)?
Many thanks, -T
# sudo mkisofs -o /home/kvm/myImage.iso -R -J -input-charset utf-8 ./ CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9 File ./CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9/sources/install.wim is larger than 4GiB-1. -allow-limited-size was not specified. There is no way do represent this file size. Aborting.
:'(
# ls CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9/ autorun.inf bootmgr efi setup.exe support boot bootmgr.efi setup.dll sources 'System Volume Information'
Figured it out.
1) do not mount the flash drive from a file manager. Mount it from the command line.
Here are my notes:
How to make an iso of a USB flash drive in Linux.
Note: the resulting ISO is not bootable. To re-make a bootable USB drive from it, run Rufus from Windows or woeusb from Linux (# dnf install WoeUSB)
# mkdir /mnt/iso # mount /dev/sdcX /mnt/iso # get /dev/sdX from `ls /dev/sd*` # mkisofs -allow-limited-size -o image.iso /mnt/iso
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Go Canes -
Oliver Ava -
Samuel Sieb -
Tim -
ToddAndMargo