Can I Run Zorin from A USB Instead of Installing It?

I don't want to quite install Zorin onto the hard drive that is currently in my system. I have a build I'm going to be buying relatively soon, and the hard drive on that machine is what I want to actually install Zorin onto. Though, being that my current setup is already rather weak in specs, I don't want to run Zorin from a DVD, as it's suppoed to be slower that way. I theorized that doing so from a USB would be the best thing I could do in this case. However, I don't know if you can do that, or how to do it if you actually can. That being said, the main point of this is for an answer to the question in the title, but if you could answer this for me, I would like to know if it would actually be better to run it from a USB than a DVD. I would think that running from a USB would be faster than a DVD.

Hi,

see this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7171&p=34209#p34209

Wolfman wrote:Hi,

see this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7171&p=34209#p34209

Thank you for the feedback. If I understand this correctly, does this mean that installing it onto a USB will cause it to essentially work like a live CD and won't act more like an installation disk? Sorry if this seems like a stupid question, I just want to make sure I'm following what you linked correctly. Perhaps I'm being paranoid, but I just want it to boot from the USB and was worried that there was something I would miss that would cause the USB to try to install Zorin onto my hard drive instead of just booting from the USB.

Only if you click on 'Install'

Hi,

also click on the links in this section of the link I posted earlier if you want a persistent install to a USB stick:

"For persistent installation on a USB stick, please see here:"

Here's the link again:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7171&p=34209#p34209

Wolfman wrote:Hi,

also click on the links in this section of the link I posted earlier if you want a persistent install to a USB stick:

"For persistent installation on a USB stick, please see here:"

Here's the link again:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7171&p=34209#p34209

Thanks for reminding me. I'd looked at it previously, and only had an issue with reordering the boot sequence to boot from my USB. Apparently, my BIOS UI uses some fairly confusing terminology(such as considering my USB a "hard disk" and mistaking my external hard drive for a CD drive...). Also, I noticed two of the links you provided on persistence don't seem to work. It's possible that they answered the questions I'm about to ask, but I might as well ask anyway since the links appear to be broken.

Mainly, I'm wondering how much space I should allocate to persistence. I thought I remember seeing somewhere that it's best you allocate a somewhat large amount(well, large for a 16gb USB stick). I was thinking that one or two gigabytes would be fine, but I wasn't sure. Would that be enough? Would I need a higher capacity USB stick?

Hi,

if you intend to only use the USB stick, then allocate as much space as you can so you have room to store things should you want to!.

Wolfman wrote:Hi,

if you intend to only use the USB stick, then allocate as much space as you can so you have room to store things should you want to!. :D

Is there a maximum amount of space that can be allocated?

No!, install/use as much space as you have!. The bigger the better!.

Also read here, the advantages/disadvantages:

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/what-is-persistent-linux/

Wolfman wrote:Also read here, the advantages/disadvantages:

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/what-is-persistent-linux/

I see. I think the pros will outweigh the cons in this case. The only thing I could think of being an issue is that even what I allocate ends up being too much, despite having an external hard drive to instal large programs to. I highly doubt that, as I've got roughly 13gb of space to allocate if I actually need to.

Hi

Just to add here that there is normally by default a limitation of 4Gb to allocate to persistent file in the installation softwares. There is, I have seen somewhere, a workaround to get more allocated but I have not used that due to seems to be little complicated. If You have bigger than 8Gb USB drive you can make an additional partition there to be used for data storing.

Henriolavi wrote:Hi

Just to add here that there is normally by default a limitation of 4Gb to allocate to persistent file in the installation softwares. There is, I have seen somewhere, a workaround to get more allocated but I have not used that due to seems to be little complicated. If You have bigger than 8Gb USB drive you can make an additional partition there to be used for data storing.

In which case, I have a few more questions, but I think it might be best to make a separate post for those questions, as they deviate a little bit from the original topic.I wonder, since you did that, if I would have any difficulty making a partition for my external hard drive. Being that it's a 3TB hard drive, capacity won't be an issue at all, but would I have to backup files that are already on the drive before making the partition? Does it matter that the drive format is NTFS and I'm not able to reformat it to FAT32?

You should not format the external drive to FAT32 - you need to make a separate 'ext4' partition for GNU/Linux hard drive install compared to thumb drive which should be FAT32 but GRUB is installed to the memory stick mbr.

Its not good to use a flash drive like a regular hard drive, bcoz flash drives contain limited number of read & write cycles before the drive fails. So it should be used like a live cd to run an os for emergency purposes, like when your os in the hard disk isnt booting, etc.

Why not create another ext4 logical partition?
Dont think that swap partition is necessary; you can create a swap file after installing zorin, just like the page file in windows.

Cheers & Regards.

Source: My study of hard drives & flash drives when I was a student; my own experience and internet.