Persistent Live USB Install?
Persistent Live USB Install?
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.
Choose a distro with persistence like Tails or use a program like MKUsb to make your iso of choice have persistence.
I wasn't aware of any distroa that do that. I'll check out tails
How is the speed on something like Tails? It’s amazing to me to be able to boot and move around an OS like that with a flash drive.
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
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.
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
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.