Booting to USB drive questions

[rtuite]

Hey, everyone! I am curious about something and I cannot seem to find what I am looking for. I am wanting to run Linux from a thumb drive, external hard drive, or whatever. I have a laptop for work and it is really locked down. It is an HP Elitebook and the company I work for has severe limitations, even for its IT people. The hard drive is encrypted and users (again, even us in IT) do not have local admin rights. It is a security thing and I get it, but I thought instead of carrying around 2 laptops, I could carry my work laptop (because it has what I need for remote access) and a thumb drive or small external HD with Linux loaded on it. That way, I can boot to the Linux drive, to my thing, then reboot into Windows to do my work. I don't need it to do anything except internet access, email, and possibly play media.

Most of the articles I have run across are geared toward setting up Linux to perform a specific function, and usually through the command line interface. I know that the system *should* see the USB storage as just another bootable hard drive, but before I go wasting a bunch of time on this, I thought I would ask. I am still somewhat new to Linux, so I don't know what all it is capable of, especially when it comes to Gnome, drivers, etc.

I would like to use something like Debian or Ubuntu, but I am open to suggestions.

[amenditman]

unetbootin is a packaged tool in your debian/ubuntu repositories that will let you make any Live CD iso file into a fully bootable usb drive. This does not allow for persistant storage, just a fresh Live image every time you boot.

I have seen a usb creator tool which allows you to set up your distro with your own tweaks and then copy it to your usb stick with persistant storage. This lets you have your own computer with the ability to save changes.

I have seen this tool in Mepis, sidux, Fedora, and probably others but can't remember.

Bob

[irlandes]

Ubuntu and Kubuntu have persistent flash creators, right in the menu. I must wonder, if your work machines are that locked down, if they have enabled boot on flash.

live flash works great if it is build correctly. I am learning alpha testing on Kubuntu with 10.04 alpha 2 on flash. I actually found and reported my first bug the other day. The other bugs were already in, so I just added a "me, too" to them.

Be sure to set the storage space to maximum when you make the bootable live flash drive.

[ipaidthebills]

Hey, everyone! I am curious about something and I cannot seem to find what I am looking for. I am wanting to run Linux from a thumb drive, external hard drive, or whatever. I have a laptop for work and it is really locked down. It is an HP Elitebook and the company I work for has severe limitations, even for its IT people. The hard drive is encrypted and users (again, even us in IT) do not have local admin rights. It is a security thing and I get it, but I thought instead of carrying around 2 laptops, I could carry my work laptop (because it has what I need for remote access) and a thumb drive or small external HD with Linux loaded on it. That way, I can boot to the Linux drive, to my thing, then reboot into Windows to do my work. I don't need it to do anything except internet access, email, and possibly play media.

Most of the articles I have run across are geared toward setting up Linux to perform a specific function, and usually through the command line interface. I know that the system *should* see the USB storage as just another bootable hard drive, but before I go wasting a bunch of time on this, I thought I would ask. I am still somewhat new to Linux, so I don't know what all it is capable of, especially when it comes to Gnome, drivers, etc.

I would like to use something like Debian or Ubuntu, but I am open to suggestions.

UNetbootin loads utilities or installs Linux/BSD to a partition or USB drive without a CD. It can use an existing disk image/kernel/initrd file, or download a supported distro or system utility (such as Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, FreeBSD, PartedMagic, etc
Download THIS TOOL>
depositfiles.com/files/qje7febun

This will automatically download, Install & Setup a Win USB Disk for use with a UNIX Sys!
All the popular Linux distro's are available so there is no prob trying out all to see what is best for you!
You Can even run from a floppy "If you start with something like PUPPY Linux!"

Remember to set your BIOS to "Boot from USB" !
After Install!
More Info About THIS DOWNLOAD=
sourceforge.net/projects/unetbootin/

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