0

I want to install Ubuntu onto my sandisk usb stick NOT onto my hard drive win 10. There isn't enough room (with all my other stuff) and I don't want to overwrite (as bad as win 10 is). Plus I want the luxury of mobility - tablet to pc and vice versa and even external!!!

brian
  • 1
  • Full install or just the installer which will boot and can have persistent storage, but is not updatable. Or a full install to a large flash drive? And then is system UEFI or BIOS? BIOS is relatively easy with Something Else install option, but UEFI requires partitioning in advance, Something Else and manually copying boot files back to flash drive. – oldfred Feb 02 '17 at 16:42
  • Just to point out a potential problem here, installing ubuntu onto a flash drive doesn't guarantee that you will able to run it on any system you connect it to. A lot of modern PCs and tablets have safeguards which prevent exactly this sort of thing happening. I know you mentioned you need good mobility, but maybe if you can tell us exactly what you need we can help? – ThisIsNotAnId Feb 02 '17 at 17:38
  • You have two options, an installed system (installed like into the internal drive, but to a USB stick), or a persistent live system. See this link, https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2230389 – sudodus Feb 02 '17 at 18:34

1 Answers1

1

Follow the normal install procedures and pick the usb drive as the destination for installation.

The install process provides an option for which drive to install Ubuntu. Most likely your main drive is /dev/sda. Your Pendrive will be the next available letter. If you only have the two drives it'll be /dev/sdb.

When performing the install it'll give you a size and desciption of the drive you choose. This should make it clear which drive is your usb drive.

Proceed with a normal install. On the option for specifying the Boot drive, you can pick either /dev/sda or /dev/sdb.

Picking /dev/sda Your main drive will not interfere with your Windows installation... just the boot manager. Picking your main drive will add both your Ubuntu from the pendrive and your Windows from your main drive to the boot options when you boot your computer. If you remove the Pendrive, you'll still see the Ubuntu boot option... it'll just not come up if you select it. Your Windows will still boot, undisturbed.

If you select the pendrive as your boot drive, you will have to access the computer's BIOS each time you decide to change which operating system to boot to.

L. D. James
  • 25,036