The days of live CD/DVD are coming to an end. People have started using USB Flash drives for their everyday data storage needs and other purposes. We can easily download Linux live bootable CD/DVD’s from the official website of the respective Linux distribution. After downloading that ISO file, we just have to burn it into a CD/DVD. Creating a bootable CD of Linux is not that hard but things can get tough when we want to install Linux on a USB Flash Drive. The process is not so simple.
The plus point of using a USB disk is that it is small, can be carried around easily and has fail rate next to none, compared to optical media. For every Computer geek out there, they know how handy can Linux be, when Windows refuses to boot, when we want to partition the hard drive, recover valuable data, and we can do much more than this. Thus, using a flash drive to boot up a Linux distribution has many advantages. Plus you can use this flash drive in a Netbook also, which are mostly not equipped with optical drives.
Install Linux on Thumb Drive
Thankfully there are some really useful softwares that can help us to achieve this. One of them is Live USB Install. There are some more applications to do this task, but what makes Live USB Install stand out is that it can install from a variety of sources like from CD/DVD, ISO image and that’s not all, this program can also download the specified Linux distribution from the internet. You will need to pick which version of Linux you want to install and in which drive. For this, select the “Internet” option and then the “Distribution”. The selected Linux package will be automatically downloaded from the internet and then installed in your flash drive.This program not only works on Windows but also on Linux.
From this screenshot of the program, we can say that the interface is very simple and straightforward. Follow the process in 3 main headings: “Install from”, “Select Linux Distribution” and “Install to”. You can install from either any CD/DVD drive, ISO image which you have downloaded or download a new distribution from online. In the next step, just select which distribution are you installing e.g. Ubuntu, Puppy, MeeGo, etc and then select “Version” which in most cases will be the latest version. In the third option – “Install to”, we just need to select the USB Flash drive letter, e.g. G: (Click on that “Refresh” button if your drive is not being detected).
Download LiveUSB Install (Linux on a stick).
LinuxLive USB Creator for Creating Bootable USB Stick
There’s another program that does the same task – LinuxLive USB Creator. This program creates portable, bootable and virtualized USB stick running your favorite version of Linux. Its completely free and open-source software for Windows users. This program has built-in virtualization feature that lets you run your Linux within Windows just out of the box. Virtualization right out of the box is a great feature, for those who who want to keep trying out different linux flavors, without the hassles of formatting and installing. Their website offers good amount of tutorials and guides to get started quickly.
So dump your CDs and DVDs and start using your handy flash drive to boot up your favorite Linux distribution. Try using any of these tools to create a bootable Linux USB Pen Drive.
Remember: When booting from your newly created bootable flash drive, you will need to go to BIOS and enable “Boot from USB” option. This option will let you boot from the flash drive.
Try out LinuxLive USB Creator
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