There is no boot sector in usb?

I had downloaded the Ubuntu 12.10 Desktop Iso file and used the USB installer provided at pendrivelinux.com to boot from the USB device. I cannot install Ubuntu from windows as I am having some network issues in connecting from windows.

When the system is restarted using the USB Device as the primary boot option, I am able to use the " Try the Ubuntu" option. But when I click Install Ubuntu, it selects the available network and restarts.

It just shows me the error " There is no boot sector in USB " and logins into the windows screen.

Please help me in solving this issue.

Thanks, Arun

2 Answers

Welcome to askubuntu Arun ! try Unetbootin to make pendrive bootable. You have to just provide .iso path, doesn't affect you choose distro and version or not.

I had the same problem: After successfully installing Ubuntu 13.04 from installation DVD (which I burnt from an ISO I downloaded), after the reboot and selecting the USB harddrive before starting Windows, I got the message

No boot sector on USB device

even though I had selected the USB HDD during installation as the destination to install the bootloader.

Luckily, starting the system via the Ubuntu installation DVD (which utilised the USB HDD, so it seems only the bootloader was missing on the USB HDD) worked.

After logging in, I started a terminal (press Ctrl-Alt-T) and did a

sudo grub-install /dev/sdb

which was fast and effective to (re-?) install the bootloader onto my USB HDD.

ATTENTION: Make sure you adjust what is sdb for me to your drive, which might be different!

After that, I didn't need the Ubuntu install DVD any more to start Ubuntu from my external HDD.