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Persistent Live USB Install? (lemmy.world)

submitted 9 months ago by AlternatePersonMan@lemmy.world to c/linux4noobs@lemmy.world

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How can I easily make a live USB drive that is persistent? My goal is to boot it through the boot menu (not grub). And just reboot to Windows for the few things I need on my laptop. I would prefer if my laptop had no trace of Linux installed. I found a guide, but it looked endless and needlessly complicated. Does anyone have a premade process? I'm not attached to any distro.

Any help is much appreciated.

Background: Every couple of years I get fed up with windows and give Linux another try. I love the idea behind it, the stability and... Inevitably I find something that won't run, then get fed up. I no longer have the energy for Wine or running more than a command or two. I want the idiot experience.

Recently, I put together a live USB of Mint. It did most of what I need, but I didn't want to deal with grub or partitions. Errors there suuuuck. So, I figured a persistent USB version would be great. From what I read, you can just install like normal, only to the USB drive. Of course I accidentally installed grub and nearly gave myself a heart attack when I couldn't get to the boot menu. (Had to put the USB drive back in). The Linux install didn't work either- not sure why. So, now I'm back to hating Microsoft's increasing ads and data tracking, wishing Linux was just a little simpler.

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[–] en_senada@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Choose a distro with persistence like Tails or use a program like MKUsb to make your iso of choice have persistence.

[–] AlternatePersonMan@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

I wasn't aware of any distroa that do that. I'll check out tails

[–] abominable_panda@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

Dont have instructions yet but I think you partition your usb drive so you have the liveusb on one and basically a persistent flash drive on the other and save your home data to that

[–] ordellrb@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

i did a regular install of mint or ubuntu, i don't remember onto an Usb-Stick once(ssd's were expensive back then). remove the Internal Disk first to make sure not to change it. And then Install Mint regularly and choose the Usb-Stick as Drive 1, You will need 2 Sticks 1. The Live-Usb 2. The definitive Storage Medium. Keep in Mind that Usb-Sticks are not as reliable as a regular Disk, so make sure to keep important stuff in a Backup too.

[–] AlternatePersonMan@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That's a good idea. I was doing it on a laptop. But I can unplug the drives from my tower pretty easily. I did pick up another decent USB stick, but it seems silly that I can't just convert the current one to persistent

[–] ordellrb@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

here is a Article about something like this: https://itsfoss.com/ubuntu-persistent-live-usb/ , Its written for ubuntu , but mint is mostly ubuntu. This site has some good Articles, i use it often.

[–] AlternatePersonMan@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

Not attached to Mint, just thought I'd try it. I'll give this a look. Thanks