My first lifeline-USB-Key. Help pls

[Ruffleduffle]

So i was toying around wiht the idea of making myself what I like to call a "Lifeline". One of those USB sticks with an OS on it and some helpful programs (antivirus, browser etc.) I have never set one up myfore and was wondering what programs and OS to install and how to set it up, maybe one USB just with an OS and another one with the programms. If possible I would liek to keep things small, so I can put it on ym keychain or a necklace or smth like that.

 

I would apreciate if anyone who has a bit of expertise with that could give some tips on what Linux distribution to get and choices like that. Or a small and efficient antivirus.

 

Cheers

[xdeathshot20]

5 minutes ago, Ruffleduffle said:

So i was toying around wiht the idea of making myself what I like to call a "Lifeline". One of those USB sticks with an OS on it and some helpful programs (antivirus, browser etc.) I have never set one up myfore and was wondering what programs and OS to install and how to set it up, maybe one USB just with an OS and another one with the programms. If possible I would liek to keep things small, so I can put it on ym keychain or a necklace or smth like that.

 

I would apreciate if anyone who has a bit of expertise with that could give some tips on what Linux distribution to get and choices like that. Or a small and efficient antivirus.

 

Cheers

the way that i got windows 10 on a usb is that i went onto a pc with it and got an iso file from microsofts website, not sure if u can still but then just follow the instructions and you should have yourself a working usb with a copy of windows on it

[Ruffleduffle]

4 minutes ago, xdeathshot20 said:

the way that i got windows 10 on a usb is that i went onto a pc with it and got an iso file from microsofts website, not sure if u can still but then just follow the instructions and you should have yourself a working usb with a copy of windows on it

i got a bunch of windows isos lying around. But all of those are just for installing windows, I wanted a bootable usb key. Mostly to use it to extract files from a dead PC or have a working option when my buddy calls me in the middle of the nivht saying that his pc froze up and wont do anything no more.

[TetraSky]

Parted Magic is what I use. Has anti virus, partition softwares and more, all within a bootable OS environment.

It used to be free and is now a paid software for $9 for the current version(8th of January 2017), but you can still get the old free ISO of it and it work just fine.

 

There was also things like Hiren's Boot CD or Ultimate Boot CD, but those haven't been updated in years... Kind of hard to find a proper "lifeline" suite these days. I guess a lot of people just get a bootable Linux OS and use that.

[Ruffleduffle]

Thank you, i am gonna giwe it a try!

[Droidbot]

I use YUMI MultiBoot, with a Ubuntu install with persistence (meaning that home folder is stored on the flash drive and it liveCD boots and has Chrome, a load of WiFi and Ethernet drivers, ClamAV, etc), Norton and Kaspersky Repair Tools, PartedMagic, etc. It's great. 

[Ruffleduffle]

sounds complicated, this will be my first time actually messing around wiht Linux myself. Things are gonna be intersting

[Droidbot]

1 minute ago, Ruffleduffle said:

sounds complicated, this will be my first time actually messing around wiht Linux myself. Things are gonna be intersting

it's based on a Windows utility.

just download, get your ISOs, add them into the program, put in the flash drive, set persistence with the slider, and bam its done

[Ruffleduffle]

sounds easy enough, what size usb do you recommend? I would liek to keep it as small profile  as possible

 

[Droidbot]

1 minute ago, Ruffleduffle said:

sounds easy enough, what size usb do you recommend? I would liek to keep it as small profile  as possible

 

i've got a 64 (it's overkill, but 16gb of it is Linux and the rest is a seperate partition that shows up in Windows)

I'd say 16-32 is the sweetspot

[Ruffleduffle]

so i could get away wiht one of those tiny 16gb ones? Nice!

[Zodiark1593]

Carry two. I've had a flash drive simply drop dead with no warning. 

[Bleedingyamato]

5 hours ago, TetraSky said:

Parted Magic is what I use. Has anti virus, partition softwares and more, all within a bootable OS environment.

It used to be free and is now a paid software for $9 for the current version(8th of January 2017), but you can still get the old free ISO of it and it work just fine.

 

There was also things like Hiren's Boot CD or Ultimate Boot CD, but those haven't been updated in years... Kind of hard to find a proper "lifeline" suite these days. I guess a lot of people just get a bootable Linux OS and use that.

How is this Parted Magic thing used?

 

 

 

5 hours ago, Droidbot said:

I use YUMI MultiBoot, with a Ubuntu install with persistence (meaning that home folder is stored on the flash drive and it liveCD boots and has Chrome, a load of WiFi and Ethernet drivers, ClamAV, etc), Norton and Kaspersky Repair Tools, PartedMagic, etc. It's great. 

Same question, how do you use your recovery option?  (Preparing the flash drive and actually using it.)

 

This sounds like something I'd be interested in possibly since I currently don't have any backups or recovery stuff in case everything goes to hell on me.  ?

[TetraSky]

6 hours ago, Bleedingyamato said:

How is this Parted Magic thing used?

 

 

 

Same question, how do you use your recovery option?  (Preparing the flash drive and actually using it.)

 

This sounds like something I'd be interested in possibly since I currently don't have any backups or recovery stuff in case everything goes to hell on me.  ?

In the case of Parted Magic, you either put it on a CD/DVD or create a bootable USB drive with one of the many applications that can do so out there(like RUFUS).

And then you boot to it after POST instead of Windows. (through the Boot selection menu or change bios boot order)

From there it will essentially open an OS-like environment, with mouse and keyboard support, comes with a bunch of built-in softwares like ClamAV which is an anti virus or Gparted if you have partition issues. It also come with a web browser if you need to lookup anything.

 

YUMI Multiboot is a bootable menu kind of thing that allow you to open one of the many softwares/OSes that's you've previously manually added to YUMI, from the same USB drive through a "menu" on boot. This way you can have a single usb drive that can boot things like Parted Magic, some anti virus's recovery disc, some Linux Distro,  etc...

 

This would be considered a bit more "advanced" than just Parted Magic on a USB stick, and is a good way to avoid having a dozen USB flash drives with multiple recovery softwares. As you can put them all on a single large capacity usb drive.

[ProjectBox153]

I'm shocked no one mentioned this. Use WinToUSB. There is a free version and it works MIRACLES! It takes a while to make the install, but then you're good to go. Try using Windows 10 or 8 for better driver support. It is really simple and acts like a hard drive when you boot from it. It's a lot easier (in some cases) than messing with Linux. (Also when I went to type Linux there I typed Linus!)

[Droidbot]

1 minute ago, Jamiec1130 said:

I'm shocked no one mentioned this. Use WinToUSB. There is a free version and it works MIRACLES! It takes a while to make the install, but then you're good to go. Try using Windows 10 or 8 for better driver support. It is really simple and acts like a hard drive when you boot from it. It's a lot easier (in some cases) than messing with Linux. (Also when I went to type Linux there I typed Linus!)

It doesn't work on my PNY Turbo.. at all. It just acts as a bootloader for my machine running Windows already. 

[ProjectBox153]

1 minute ago, Droidbot said:

It doesn't work on my PNY Turbo.. at all. It just acts as a bootloader for my machine running Windows already. 

Really? That's never happened with me. I use it all the time, and my Windows 7 portable HDD is just a tank running on random computers at school, my computers, and has never complained about the other Windows installations (other than checkdisk).

[Bleedingyamato]

2 hours ago, TetraSky said:

In the case of Parted Magic, you either put it on a CD/DVD or create a bootable USB drive with one of the many applications that can do so out there(like RUFUS).

And then you boot to it after POST instead of Windows. (through the Boot selection menu or change bios boot order)

From there it will essentially open an OS-like environment, with mouse and keyboard support, comes with a bunch of built-in softwares like ClamAV which is an anti virus or Gparted if you have partition issues. It also come with a web browser if you need to lookup anything.

 

YUMI Multiboot is a bootable menu kind of thing that allow you to open one of the many softwares/OSes that's you've previously manually added to YUMI, from the same USB drive through a "menu" on boot. This way you can have a single usb drive that can boot things like Parted Magic, some anti virus's recovery disc, some Linux Distro,  etc...

 

This would be considered a bit more "advanced" than just Parted Magic on a USB stick, and is a good way to avoid having a dozen USB flash drives with multiple recovery softwares. As you can put them all on a single large capacity usb drive.

Ok.  Thank you.

 

I'm wondering, how is this different from restoring from a backup?  

Like in your case I believe you've said you use Acronis.

 

Is using a USB drive like this more for trying to fix minor enough issues that a restore from a backup wouldn't be strictly necessary?

[TetraSky]

51 minutes ago, Bleedingyamato said:

Ok.  Thank you.

 

I'm wondering, how is this different from restoring from a backup?  

Like in your case I believe you've said you use Acronis.

 

Is using a USB drive like this more for trying to fix minor enough issues that a restore from a backup wouldn't be strictly necessary?

Everything has a purpose.
In my case, Acronis is useful since if I have an issue, I can always go back to a previous state, but what if acronis fails because windows in all its glory decided to change the drive letter of my backup(happened before) and then an issue arise that would mean losing days/weeks of data if I recovered from my last backup(because acronis doesn't actively tell you that it's not doings its job, so it might take a while before you notice... took 2 months before I noticed last time), using something like Parted Magic(or other recovery tools) I could fix most issues, be it broken partition (MBR missing?) or getting rid of viruses, without losing everything since my last backup.

 

Not to mention, if you regularly have to fix other people's PCs, who obviously don't have backups, such a tool come in handy often.

[Bleedingyamato]

2 hours ago, TetraSky said:

Everything has a purpose.
In my case, Acronis is useful since if I have an issue, I can always go back to a previous state, but what if acronis fails because windows in all its glory decided to change the drive letter of my backup(happened before) and then an issue arise that would mean losing days/weeks of data if I recovered from my last backup(because acronis doesn't actively tell you that it's not doings its job, so it might take a while before you notice... took 2 months before I noticed last time), using something like Parted Magic(or other recovery tools) I could fix most issues, be it broken partition (MBR missing?) or getting rid of viruses, without losing everything since my last backup.

 

Not to mention, if you regularly have to fix other people's PCs, who obviously don't have backups, such a tool come in handy often.

Ok.  That's what I'm curious about was the purpose of each in comparison to the other.  Basically what each is used for and how that differs from the other.  

 

Thank you for clarifying that for me.  

[ProjectBox153]

41 minutes ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

DON'T use Windows from a USB. It's a pain.

Not really. I made two US drives and they follow me around everywhere. I used Windows 10 on an Intel Atom 330 via USB. I used another drive with Windows 7 on a Pentium M via USB. I'm not sure what you mean by a pain. 

[Ruffleduffle]

usb 2 or 3.1?

 

[ProjectBox153]

6 minutes ago, Ruffleduffle said:

usb 2 or 3.1?

 

Careful with 3 (or 3.1), especially with Windows. Some operating systems don't have the right drivers for USB 3.