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I have Ubuntu installed on my USB (FAT32). Now how do I run it from the USB without deleting C: drive?

Muhammad Rahman
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2 Answers2

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From Wikipedia

A live USB is a USB flash drive or a USB external hard disk drive containing a full operating system that can be booted. Live USBs are closely related to live CDs, but sometimes have the ability to persistently save settings and permanently install software packages back onto the USB device. Like live CDs, live USBs can be used in embedded systems for system administration, data recovery, or the testing of operating system distributions without committing to a permanent installation on the local hard disk drive.

Types of live USB devices

  • USB 2.0 flash drive
  • USB 3.0 flash drive
  • portable (small enough to fit in your pocket) external SSD
  • ✔️ external hard drive (SSD is much faster than HDD)

There are two types of Ubuntu installations on a USB flash drive, a full installation of Ubuntu on a USB flash drive and an Ubuntu live USB which is not a full installation of Ubuntu on a USB flash drive, also known as an Ubuntu live USB. Neither type of Ubuntu installation on a USB device is the equal of a dual boot-ed Ubuntu operating system due to performance and wear limitations inherent in USB flash drive media.

Full Installation of Ubuntu on a USB flash drive

The process of doing a full installation of Ubuntu to a USB flash drive is identical to installing Ubuntu on a hard drive except for the installing the GRUB bootloader. All of the steps to follow in the Ubuntu installer are identical except for installing the GRUB bootloader. Installing the GRUB bootloader on the USB flash drive will replace the existing GRUB bootloader on the hard drive which you don't want to do, unless you disconnect the cables to your hard drive(s) first before you start the Ubuntu installer to do a full installation of Ubuntu on a USB flash drive. So disconnect the hard drives first, then you can install Ubuntu on a USB flash drive.

You can alternatively do a full installation of Ubuntu on a USB flash drive without disconnecting the internal hard drive cables first by selecting the Something else option in the Installation type screen of the Ubuntu installer. You need to create only a single / partition (root partition), no swap partition, and change the installation of the grub bootloader to the USB flash drive. Double-check your partitioning choices that everything that will be changed is only changed on the USB flash drive, then click the Install Now button in the lower right corner.

Additional information about a full installation of Ubuntu on a USB flash drive.

  • I recommend that the USB flash drive be at least 32GB. This is consistent with the recommended >=25GB disk space for Ubuntu.
  • A USB 3.0 flash drive is a lot faster than a USB 2.0 flash drive.
  • The advantage of using a USB flash drive lies in its portability, not in its performance. The performance of a full install of Ubuntu on a 32GB USB flash drive is nothing like what you would get from running Ubuntu in a virtual machine application such as VirtualBox.

Ubuntu live USB

Is a full installation of Ubuntu on the USB flash drive what you wanted? Some people have suggested that what you wanted to do was to make an Ubuntu live USB which can also contain additional space for persistent file storage if necessary. An Ubuntu live USB session can be run after booting the USB flash drive without effecting any files on the C: drive. To make an Ubuntu live USB follow the instructions in How do I make a bootable Ubuntu USB?. To boot the Ubuntu live USB without automatically booting to Windows instead, follow the instructions in How to change boot priority?.

karel
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Get Unetbootin (http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net), plug in a USB, open UNBI, and select Ubuntu from the first dropdown. Select what version in the next dropdown (most likely, you'll want 14.04 since it's LTS) and make sure you choose the right architecture. Then click OK and it will automatically make a live USB for you. You can click the Reboot Now button to try it now, or if you want to use it on a different computer/try it later then just press exit.

kiefac
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