Creating and booting a UNetbootin live USB drive

You can use a bootable, live CD to evaluate and/or install any distribution of a Linux operating system. Alternatively, you can use a bootable, live USB drive for testing and installing Linux. This document explains how to create a live USB drive through the UNetbootin utility running under either Windows 7 or Linux, and then boot that live USB drive on almost any PC. While creating your live USB drive, you can either select a Linux distribution through UNetbootin or use an ISO file that you have previously downloaded.

Note: You can use either a live CD or a live USB drive to scan for viruses in a PC that runs Windows 7, or earlier. Please see Using Linux to rescue Windows.

Creating a live USB drive through Windows - If you are running Windows on your PC, you can create a live USB drive for evaluating any Linux distribution. For example, if you are running Windows 7 on your PC, you can do the following:

1. Connect a USB drive to a USB port on your PC. It should display UDISK in an AutoPlay window.
   
   
   
   
2. Go to unetbootin.scourceforge.net, and then click Download (for Windows).
   
   
   
   
3. Open your Downloads folder, double-click unetbootin-windows-578.exe, and then click Yes (in the User Account Control window) to display the UNetbootin window.
   
   

   
   
4. Select Distribution, select a Linux distribution, such as Puppy Linux, and then click OK to download and install UNetbootin and create a live USB drive. Be patient, this takes time.
   
   
   
   
5. After the installation completes, remove your live USB drive, and then click Reboot Now.
   
   

Creating a live USB drive through Linux - If you are already running Linux on your PC, you can create a live USB drive for evaluating any other Linux distribution. For example, to select another Linux distribution through an ISO file that you had downloaded previously, and create a live USB drive on your Linux PC, you can do the following:

1. Connect a USB drive to a USB port on your PC.
2. Go to unetbootin.scourceforge.net, and then click Download (for Linux).
3. Open your Downloads folder, right-click unetbootin-linux-578, click Properties, click Permissions, click the Allow executing file as a program checkbox, and then close the Properties window.
   
   
   
   
4. Double-click unetbootin-linux-578, type your password, and then click OK to display the UNetbootin window.
5. Select Diskimage, and then click the Select disk image file box ( ... ) at the right.
   
   
   
   
6. Click Computer, double-click the unlabeled folder, double-click Home, double-click your home-folder name (such as Dave), double-click Downloads, select an ISO file to install onto your live USB drive, and then click Open.
7. On the UNetbootin window, click OK to install UNetbootin and create a live USB drive. Be patient, this takes time.
   
   
   
   

   
8. After the installation completes, remove your live USB drive, and then click Reboot Now.

Booting a UNetbootin live USB drive - After creating a live USB drive according to either procedure above, you can boot that live USB drive to evaluate and/or install your previously-chosen Linux operating system. To boot a live USB drive, do the following:

1. Connect your live USB drive to a USB port on your PC.
2. Boot according to the boot sequence on your particular PC. (Here are two possible examples: While your PC starts to boot, press F11 to display a Please select boot device window, and then select USB: UDB DISK. While your PC starts to boot, press F9 to display a Boot Menu window, select Hard Disk, and then select USB-HDDO: UDB DISK 2.0 1.0.) Note: Write down the step-2 boot-sequence for your particular PC; you will need it each time you boot your live USB drive.
3. Continue according to the Linux distribution that you have booted through your live USB drive.

Note: If you cannot boot your live USB drive, verify that the BIOS on your PC supports booting a live USB drive. Typically, you can access BIOS setup by pressing Delete while your PC starts to boot. Alternatively, you can test your live USB drive by trying to boot it on a separate PC.