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How to run (almost) any version of Linux from a USB drive

By Codrut Nistor

Posted in Linux, Uncategorized

Yesterday a customer ask me what to chose for his netbook: an external DVD drive or a bigger USB Drive. I told him that a would choose a USB drive because is more versatile and you can out it in your pocket. I also showed him how to install an OS on his netbook. A few days ago i showed you how to install Windows 7/Vista from a USB drive. Now i will show you how to install any version of Linux to your netbook/notebook/computer.

All you need is a USB drive (recommended 8GB) and a program called UNetbootin. UNetbootin is a gret piece of software. With it you can create a bootable Live USB drive . Also you can create a "frugal install" on your hard drive. What is a frugal install? A frugal install is where you boot off the hard drive usually via grub or lilo and load the DSL compressed image.

UNetbootin is available in two versions: for Windows and for Linux. Don't worry if you didn't downloaded the version of Linux you wanted. You can choose from UNetbootin what version you want and the program will download it for you. To make your USB drive bootable you will have to choose the version of Linux you want select where your USB drive is and press Ok. You can also use a ISO image of your Linux distribution.