How to Make a Portable Operating System
This tutorial will tell you how to make a bootable usb flash drive that will boot any x86 or x64 computer, that can boot from USB, (even one with no working HDD), with HDD diagnostic tools, benchmark software, a disk partitioning utility, internet connectivity, sound, and much much more.
You can also use these steps to install linux permanently in a dual boot setup, but that's not the purpose of this tutorial..
If you want to try ubuntu on a permanent or semi-permanent basis, stop right now, skip to the end of this tutorial, read the tips, do some research, then come back when you know more about what you're about to do
Warning
THIS IS NOT FOR NOOBS..
one wrong move can wreck your windows installation.
This is for people who aren't familiar with Linux, but are willing to try new methods and have at least one extra working computer to use as a test dummy.
Note
What you need:
Unetbootin
A clean, FAT formatted USB flash drive that doesn't have U3, large enough to hold the iso.. (distros vary from a few hundred MB to well over 4GB)
There are smaller distros. but for full functionality, pick one that's roughly the same size as a windows disk)
A linux based live iso file, I chose 64bit linux mint (700MB download) because its vague resemblance to XP makes it windows-user-friendly and it has native support for SSDs
Here's a good source with a variety of choices
Linux Distros - Linux Freedom
but for the latest versions that work in a live environment, use unetbootin find a distro for you
Step one:
Download and run unetbootin as administrator
Step two:
Use unetbootin to download and install to the flash drive in a single step.
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After the download is complete , reboot from the flash drive
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As you can see.. it didn't take very long to boot from USB
in linux there's unrestricted access to all windows files, very handy for removing malware, replacing an infected registry from a backup, cleaning up a botched
driver install, or simply removing bloat to speed up a computer
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I'm not going to give away all my secrets, but unless you're blind, you can see the possibilities;
Here's a disk utility that can test a HDD and read SMART data, which will tell you if a it's about to fail, usually long before windows detects it
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Most distros also include a disk partitioning tool that is far superior to any of the other disk utilities touted in this forum
Attachment 99048
from sourceforge.net:
Quote:
Gparted Features - Create partition tables (e.g., msdos, gpt)
- Enable and disable partition flags (e.g., boot, hidden)
- Perform actions with partitions such as:
- create or delete
- resize or move (while preserving data)
- check
- label
- copy and paste
- Manipulate file systems such as:
- ext2 / ext3 / ext4
- fat16 / fat32
- hfs / hfs+
- linux-swap
- ntfs
- reiserfs / reiser4
- ufs
- xfs
For specific actions supported see detailed features. - Align partitions to mebibyte (MiB) or cylinder boundaries
- Supports hardware RAID, motherboard BIOS RAID, and Linux software RAID.
- Supports all sector sizes (e.g., 512, 1024, 2048, 4096 byte sectors)
Requirements
GParted is developed on x86 based computers using GNU/Linux. It can be used on other operating systems, such as Windows or Mac OS X, by booting from media containing
GParted Live.
A few screenshots of gparted
I could explain how to use it, but that's for another tutorial.. I would recommend not using any version of gparted to move encrypted ntfs partitions, though the version that came with 32 bit ubuntu 9.04 works flawlessly for copying ntfs windows installations to a new hdd if you disable password protection on all windows user accounts first.
Knowing how to do this has made a ton on money for me, and more importantly, saved me a fortune by using freeware instead of proprietary software, but again, fair warning:
Warning
If you're not already skilled with computers, you will wreck your system if you follow this tutorial
enjoy,
Madtownidiot
Tip
1st tip: Setting up the HDD for dual boot
Linux uses a file system even some of the most experienced windows users have never even heard of. If you want advice about linux ask someone who uses it. You can safely install linux to the same HDD as windows, but whatever you do, do not install linux next to the windows system partition. If you only have a single HDD to work with and this is the first time you've tried ubuntu, reinstall windows first using a relatively small system partition, then create and format a 2nd, larger partition for media and files to share between the two operating systems. The reason I can't stress this enough, is that if for some reason either windows or linux installation is fubared, you can reinstall windows and your programs without losing any personal files except for those you forgot to move to the shared partition
Windows based partition editors are inadequate for preparing partitions for linux and editing partitions to the linux HDD after linux is installed. There are two reasons for this. First, linux uses a file system windows cant read, 2nd, linux requires a 2nd partition for its version of the pagefile that windows can't see. The only other HDD prep that is really necessary is to leave about 20GB or more unpartitioned free space on the HDD.
2nd tip: Installing Linux
Make sure you are connected to the internet before beginning the installation process. The reason for this is to be sure of internet connectivity after the installation is complete, especially crucial for laptops. The first time you install linux.. just choose the default settings and when you get to the screen that asks where you want to install linux... choose "use the largest contiguous free space"
3rd tip:
Join the Linux forums. Those guys know as much about their version of linux as we do about windows 7...if you don't know.. ask somebody
Finally. if you decide to get rid of Linux, the easiest way is to use gparted to delete the linux partitions then do a repair install.
Portable Operating System 
Quote: Originally Posted by yowanvista 
Operating system 
