Booting up Linux from a USB flash drive

Booting up Linux from a USB flash drive

Booting up Linux from a USB flash drive

Boot

Ok, let's go on. You have to check your BIOS settings before booting up Linux from your USB flash drive:

1) unplug your USB flash drive
2) turn off the computer
3) unplug the power cord connector
4) plug the USB flash drive again
5) plug the power cord connector
6) turn on the computer

Press the BIOS setup key to enter the BIOS setup utility. The BIOS setup key can be different depending on the BIOS brand. It is usually displayed immediately after you turn the computer on. In fact, you should see the message: 'Press XXX to enter setup' (or something like that) at the bottom of the screen where 'XXX' is the key or keys you have to press to enter the BIOS setup utility. As soon as you see the message, hit the key (otherwise the system will boot up as usual). Some common keys used to access the BIOS setup utility:

Acer                             Ctrl-Alt-Esc
AMI BIOS                     Del or F1 or F2
Aptiva                           F1
Award BIOS                 Del or Ctrl-Alt-Esc
Compaq                        F10 ( when the cursor is blinking in the top right corner of the screen)
Dell                               F1 or Del or Ctrl-Alt-Enter (Some require pressing reset twice )
Hewlett Packard            F1
Packard Bell                  F1 or F2
Phoenix BIOS              F1 or F2 or Ctrl-Alt-Esc or Ctrl-Alt-S or Ctrl-S or Ctrl-Alt-Ins
Sony                             F3 while you are starting the PC, then F2 or F1
Toshiba                         Esc or F1

Notice that some new motherboard designs have a jumper that disables access to the BIOS. Please read the motherboard manual to find out how to enable access to the BIOS. If your computer is not listed above ask to Google, as usual.

After entering the BIOS, look for 'USB Legacy' (or something like that) and enable it. Make sure that USB booting is enabled before the hard disk. Some items you could find are: 'USB-ZIP', 'USB-Floppy' or 'USB-HDD'. Just try them one after another until you find the working one. If you can't find any USB-like device to boot from, maybe the BIOS is not supporting boot from USB devices. If so, you could use a Puppy Linux distribution and follow the instructions explained here:

http://www.goosee.com/puppy/boot2pup.htm

Enjoy!

Helpful links:

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
http://www.puppylinux.org/
http://www.goosee.com/puppy/
http://featherlinux.berlios.de/
http://spblinux.ch.vu/
http://runt.mybox.org/
http://slax.linux-live.org/download.php (killbill, Popcorn, Frodo)
http://www.kanguru.com/fireflash.html

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