I am using:
dd if=/home/parents/Downloads/1.iso of=/dev/sdb1
command to create a bootable installation USB stick

i tried different USB sticks (new ones and old ones) however only one of them is seen by the computer at boot time and I am able to install from it but the other ones even though it says they were successfully created they don't show on boot BIOS menu as the one that boots. I checked on LINUX and compared the one that works with the one that doesn't work with "Disk" utility from debian and the one big difference I notice is the stick that boots properly has 3 partitions on it comparing with the other ones who have only one (why is it that since I use same command?). Is that the reason the computer doesn't boot from it? What can I do to make all USB stick I have bootables?

It will not boot because instead of putting the ISO on device you are writing it to a partition.

so what should I do?

This is likely an issue with the machine rather than the USB stick.

Also, you might want to make sure there aren't any other partitions on the stick. You should be running the dd command on the raw device rather than an existing partition.

dd if=/path/to/iso of=/dev/sdX

Where X in sdX is the flash drive device, in your case, it was sdb.

why it works on one stick and not the other? what kind of partitioning i should use?

thank you so much. It worked (and it was so simple ... just remove the number 1 at the end)

Thanks for the update and solution.

Many many ways exist to make a usb but all tend to require some special iso or image to begin with.

Tools like dd, and 7z and programs like Rufus may help. Some may need creators (programs) to make a usb bootable.

Haven't seen it in a while but you used to have to force some usb's to become bootable.

Just to add it to the mix, for a GUI solution to creating bootable USB drives, I use the following programs:

Linux - UNetbootin

Windows - Rufus

1 members found this post helpful.