Computer on USB drive?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Josh Randall
  • Start date Start date
I've been toying with the idea of putting my entire OS on a thumb
drive. Probably Win98SE

My reason for this is I want to use Linux on my new box, but still
need to use it until I get up to speed with Linux and get everything
working
Click to expand...

The other posters suggestions about using two drives is good, but you
can also put a version of Linux on a USB drive and run it from there.
There are several smaller distros that will work like that.

Then later when you're comfortable, you can blow 98 off the main drive
and install a full distro of Linux, maybe dual-booting with 98.

Flash Linux is one such distro: http://flashlinux.org.uk/

Damn Small Linux can also do it and can be purchased already on a 128MB
USB drive: http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/usb.html

An article here on it: http://edgefield.org.uk/guides/Linux/index.php

You can also get a version of Damn Small Linux that will run on top of
the QEMU emulator from WITHIN Windows while on a USB drive:
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/usb-qemu.html

Feather Linux can run off USB: http://featherlinux.berlios.de/

Flonix can do it: http://www.flonix.com/article.php?id_article=102

Puppy Linux is another tiny distro that can do it:
http://www.goosee.com/puppy/

RUNT Linux: The ResNet USB Network Tester can do it:
http://www.ncsu.edu/project/runt/

SLAX (a version of Slackware) can do it: http://slax.linux-live.org/

I haven't tried any of these yet, but I intend to once I get a 512MB or
1GB flash drive for a reasonable amount of money.

There's also now a 2GB flash drive for $100:
http://www.usmodular.com/products/monstor_drive.html
 
Clive Savage said:
On 30 May 2005 11:42:53 -0700, (e-mail address removed) wrote:
Click to expand...
There was an article in one of the PC mags (PCPro?) and the Guy
(Gordon Lang) did exactly that.
Click to expand...
Have a look at this http://www.litepc.com/
Bye for now.
Click to expand...

I own 98lite, and I asked this very question to the support desk- here's
the advice I got:

It certainly is possible to put 98lite on a USB key. The best method is
to start on a hard drive first. You then use 98lite to reduce the size of
your windows image. Then you would use software such as Norton Ghost or
other drive imaging software to take an image of the hard drive and write
this image to your USB key.

For this to work, your system BIOS must support booting from the USB key
and your system BIOS will need to allocate the same drive letter to the
USB boot drive (normally C). If the BIOS does the job properly then the
operating system will never know it is on a USB key. Some implementations
of USB boot are better than others - the only way to really test is to do
it.

Make sure you turn the swapfile OFF and have at least 128-256MB of system
RAM. Turning the swapfile off preserves the flash media.
 
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