boot - Convert a thumb drive to flash drive

08
2014-07
  • user1608638

    I have two USBs, both Kingston DT101 G2, 8GB. Both FAT32.

    When I connect my USBs into my machine (Ubuntu), one is detected as a "Thumb drive" and the other is detected as a "Flash drive".

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    I wonder:

    • Is there any way I can convert my thumb drive into a flash drive?

    PS. The reason I want to do this is that I have a special case where I use these USBs to boot a live version of Ubuntu. However, the thumb drive freezes or loops at the machine company logo screen on some computers.

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    ubuntu 9.10 - howto move existing linux installation to usb-flash and make it bootable?
  • pavel

    Is there any possibility to move my already installed ubuntu linux to the usb flash and make it bootable. So that it would boot on the other machine? P.S. I have an installed ubuntu karmic linux installed on my machine. I want to make it portable, to move it with all installed packages and tuned software to a usb-flash drive.


    • Related Answers
  • jfmessier

    Although I did not do it myself, I would try recommend the following:

    • Get yourself a USB stick (16G or more) with the base Ubuntu, and set it up with the appropriate partition. If you're using the default Ubuntu disk partitioning (everything under /), that should be easy.

    • Copy all files form all directories to the UST stick

    • run grub-install on the new device, such as /dev/sdb1:

      cd /boot/grub grub-install /dev/sdb

    You should be able to boot from your new USB stick.

  • Journeyman Geek

    Not easily. If i were doing it, i'd do a two step process - move my install to a live cd with remastersys, then install it to a liveusb with some livecd to usb tool