The Ultimate Guide to USB Flash Drives: Part III

Take your USB Flash Drive and load it up with software to turn it into a portable workhorse.

April 3rd, 2007 at 4:00am — Comments: (1) — By: Jonathan Danylko — Tags: General

In the last segment, we talked about how to get the best deal on a USB Flash drive. Heck, you could even get the USB Flash Drive for free.

So, now you have your USB Flash Drive and are ready for the best part of this series: loading software onto your USB Flash Drive. Choose between Operating Systems or Applications...or both.

Operating Systems

Mark my words. One day, people will walk around with 64GB USB Flash Drives around their neck or in their pockets and a shell of a PC will be sitting at their desk. The only thing they need to do is plug their USB Flash Drive into the PC Shell. When they turn on their computer, it boots to their USB Flash Drive instead of the internal hard drive and brings them into their mobile operating system.

PC BIOS settings are more common to have an option to boot from a USB device as opposed to booting from a hard drive. Check your user manual that came with your computer to find out if your system supports USB bootable media.

Think having an operating system on a USB Flash Drive is impossible? People are already doing it!

Portable Linux

Since Linux is naturally small, the entire operating system can fit on a USB Flash Drive with no problem. There are different flavors of Linux, though. It just depends on what is your favorite Linux distro (distribution) you want installed on your USB stick.

It seems Ubuntu is gaining in popularity with Linux because 1). it's simple to setup and 2). it has a Windows-ish look and feel. Although there are other Linux OS's available, Ubuntu may be the way to go for installing Linux on a USB Flash Drive.

Some sites I would recommend for individuals brave enough to create a bootable Linux operating system on USB stick are listed below:

• Pen Drive Linux - the leading site for installing a bootable Linux on a USB Flash Drive. The site provides installations of the following flavors of Linux: Ubuntu, DSL (Damn Small Linux), Knoppix, Slax, and PCLOS.
• Mandriva Flash - Installing a full 3D version of Mandriva Linux on a 4GB bootable drive. One downside...it's 89.00 Euro. One upside...You don't need to fiddle with it to work.

Portable Windows

Windows installed on a USB Flash Drive is very rare since it has so many drivers that need loaded and requires a lot of additional files, but since it is used on a majority of computers these days, here are a couple of Windows sites that address Windows installations:

• MojoPac - MojoPac is the equivalent of taking a virtual Windows PC with you. MojoPac takes common desktop files and uses a host PC for their driver files, but runs everything from the USB flash drive. Unlike Linux, it's not free. The cost is $30 and Gina Trapani over at LifeHacker has a great post about how to use MojoPac.
• Tom's Hardware (Windows in your Pocket) - Tom's Hardware is a favorite among many techies so it stands to reason that they have a great tutorial on building Windows XP on a USB Flash Drive.
• Install Windows Vista from a 4GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive - Simple steps to create your own bootable Windows Vista USB Drive.
• Create a bootable Windows PE 2.0 USB Drive - The Windows PE is meant for three things: Installing Windows Vista, Troubleshooting, and Recovery. Installing this on your USB Flash Drive may not provide you with an operating system, but definitely provides you with a portable copy of Windows Vista.

Applications/Utilities

I always carry utilities, business docs, and applications with me just in case I need to troubleshoot PCs or have business differences with clients. It should be your digital home away from home.

• PortableApps.com - If you love Firefox, Thunderbird, and OpenOffice, then you'll love having them on a USB stick wherever you go. Portable Apps provide a set of common applications in a suite that you can install on your USB Drive. The biggest USB Flash Drive you'd need is a 512MB for the standard edition. I'd just go with a 1 Gigger.
• The Daily Cup of Tech - They had a contest as to what type of USB Flash Drives someone would be interested in. The list was three pages long. The winner had their nomination created. A PC Repair USB Drive and a must-have utilities USB Drive were created for the contest winners and the public.

Conclusion

There are tons of portable applications that can be installed on a USB Flash Drive. The cost of a USB Flash Drive is dirt cheap and if you are a techie and you don't have one, shame on you. They are becoming more common that floppy disks.

Installing and running applications on a stick is easy, and now, so is installing Operating Systems, whether it's Linux or Windows. I'm sure everyone has their own use of USB Flash Drives.

I hope that this series on USB Flash Drives has opened your eyes to what USB Flash Drives are capable of handling. If you have any questions, please contact me and we'll take it from there.