How to Create a Live-USB (Linux)

Most Linux distributions are available on a live CD, which allows a system to boot directly from CD without installing it on your computer.

However, the live CD are really coming to age as removable media such as keys offer speeds much faster and less fragile than their hard-drive based counterparts. It is also beneficial, as some public computers do not support booting from CD, however, they often allow booting from USB.

This article explains how to create a USB key itself as a Live CD, a Live USB in a way.

Equipment and tools

* You will need the software UNetBootin: http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/unetbootin-windows-latest.exe

* A system compatible with Windows XP, 2000 or Vista

* A USB flash drive or other removable media, with a capacity sufficient to accommodate the distribution of your choice.

* A computer that can boot from a USB device.

Installing Linux

1. Download the ISO image of the version of Linux you want to install on the USB key. In this example, the distribution used is the latest version of Ubuntu.

2. Open the utility UNetbootin and go to the second option "disk image" and select the ISO. Once selected, point to the ISO file that you just downloaded.

* Make sure the selected drive letter corresponds to the correct distribution.

* Click OK to start copying files.

3. After copying the files (this will take between five to ten minutes), you must restart your PC.

Restarting

Now restart your computer and boot from your USB drive (via BIOS).

The result is the same as if you had a Live CD, but the system is much faster. It's also possible that some distributions will make small caches on the USB device itself. This is useful to gain an extra speed advantage over the CD based method that is ordinarily used.