I have yet to see anyone perform a Win7-->Win8.1 from a USB drive. The ISO files available on the Internet generally do not work. It took me 2 years to get a Win7 USB stick to be able to run installs *neither of the programs mentioned here worked for me on Win7. I used something called
WinNToBootIC. I've tried both the one you used *unetbootin*, and *rufus*, which trouble mentioned. Neither of those worked. I don't know if this is true for Win8.1 as well, but none of the 3 of these worked with creating a bootable Win8.1 USB stick. Copy protection is improved in Win8.1 over Win7 and I suspect the guys writing these utilities haven't figured out how to work around it yet.
I know for a fact that Microsoft does not have a Win8.1 ISO image file that you can burn onto DVD that works reliably for either an upgrade or a full install.
Why can't you just purchase a legit copy of Microsoft Win8.1 from newegg.com or similar?
As here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...escription=WINDOWS8.1+UPGRADE&N=-1&isNodeId=1
The Win8.1 standard full version is $109.99 US; and the Pro version is $189.99. Notice these are Download versions which require a Broadband high-speed internet connection (either DSL or CableModem).
You can also purchase the DVD media versions, but they usually cost more. You also didn't mention in your post if you had a Win8.1 license key (product key or COA) available to you from another computer or 8.1 media. It looks to me like you tried to use an expired link from Microsoft on the Win8.1 trial version without an 8.1 product key. This ISO file was only good for 1 year after Win8.1 came out in 2012; which means it expired 2 years ago! No wonder you can't get it to work!

What you really want, is legit Win8.1 media; otherwise you cannot get Microsoft updates via Tuesday patches, and your 8.1 install would be full of security holes. Additionally, it would fail the
Windows GAV (Genuine Advantage Validation) test. So, the way you are trying to install it would never work; and even if it did, it wouldn't be a legit install.
If your goal is
NOT to have genuine 8.1; but just to fool around with it without actually buying a legit copy, that's fine. You can mess with the Trial 8.1 until the cows come home, but you shouldn't be using it as your
"daily driver" computer. I have separate computers for both Win8.1 and Win10. I believe you are trying to do something that at the present time cannot be done, and that's why you're having lots of difficulties.
Hope that saves you some frustration and wasted time.
Best,
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>