I'm still using my slow ass usb key, i dunno why. I've learned it reads at 11MB/s, and writes at 512kB/s.

Does Ubuntu have a "toram" boot option, like DSL and Tiny Core (and puppy?)? That would load everything into RAM, but if you have the memory available it would run a hell of a lot faster than from your key.

ubuntu 10 has a usb key install that creates a .casper file that contains all your session and home data, it sits in the root of the key next to the the root filesystem, its like a live disk with a session file.

not all bios support usb startup though, and most locked down systems in business or education will have that bios option disabled to deter hacking from a key inside the network.

I've loaded Ubuntu onto a USB and installed it on my netbook. I also put Windows 7 Ultimate onto a 4gb thumb drive and installed it from there.

Lots of tools out there that work for it if you google for them.

ISO means untouched, you can do it with grub2, but the distro has to have a livecd varient, or dur... it gets technical. Casper isolinux blah. Hacke ry.

Ms provids an win7 to usb tool.

I mean, to install from usb, to destination.

ubuntu now has wubi which will install from windows if you have the live iso on disk
it will load to usb and set the bootloader

unfortunately, less than half of the motherboards you run into will actually boot from a usb key.

I think in a few years every computer will be able to, but not now.

I'll just leave this here... you can thank me later when you realize what it is.

http://www.sarducd.it/beta.html


*hint, drop the hirens iso into the iso folder. It isn't listed as an option but it gets built anyway.

pe util disks can be a lifesaver

Thanks CM.