Seems to be a little tricky to get a definitive answer on this from google so I’m asking you lot.

I want to install to a USB stick, so I can run Windows normally, but boot from the USB stick to get Linux independent of the Windows and its HD.

To do this, it looks like I can simply boot from another USB and install to the target USB as if it were a normal HD. Does that sound right?

Basically yes, just be very careful to put the bootloader on the USB drive.

If you are using a linux machine or a Mac to make the bootable stick, you can use dd to put it on.

The command is something like: dd if=<location of linux.iso> of=<path of linux stick, /dev/sdb or something>

it will take a while and you should check the location of the USB stick using mount beforehand.

I use unetbootin for this, nice and easy.

There’s a program that does all the hard work for you, with instructions here: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/

Unetbootin creates installation USBs from ISOs doens’t it? I want to actually install the distro onto the usb, not just create an installation disk.

You can just install onto the USB and select that as a target disk.

If you are paranoid just pull your physical disk whilst installing so you don’t accidentally delete your data.

You could **** around with the MBR however as its a removable drive I would just boot, hit f12 to enter bios -> f8 for boot menu then boot off the usb stick.

Have you thought about using virtualbox and put the vdisk on the USB? As that’s much easier

This is an Intel Atom 520 1.3GHz. Virtualbox did work, but it was ludicrously slow 🙂

last time I checked they told you how to run the OS from the USB stick on the actual website of the distro

https://rufus.akeo.ie/ is my new goto USB iso writing program – many others have not been as reliable(?)

If you use it a lot, like leaving it in all the time and booting from it, you’ll burn the NAND out much faster than in normal use.

Unetbootin585 seems to work for me.

Second pendrivelinux it will either download the selected distro (decent choice) and install it to a USB with the option for the spare space on the USB for storage or do the same from a pre-downloaded distro on your hard disk.

I use unetbootin a few times a work for this and it just works

If you use it a lot, like leaving it in all the time and booting from it, you’ll burn the NAND out much faster than in normal use.

Old article but things have only gotten better:
http://www.zdnet.com/article/usb-drive-life-fact-or-fiction/

If you are using a branded USB then you will be OK for 60,000,000,000 writes, so you should be OK. If you are worried follow the same guidelines as SSDs:

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Storage_Administration_Guide/ch-ssd.html

If you are running Linux on SSD you also need to be aware of https://blog.algolia.com/when-solid-state-drives-are-not-that-solid/

Cool. Good find. I may now do it – a portable computer!

I found it to be incredibly slow when running off a USB stick. Swapped out for a small SSD and its like lightning.