I have a fully working USB stick with Mint 8 and all my preferences loaded.
Can I make copies of this usb stick and will they still be bootable like the original?
Michael
Copying USB boot device - Solved many thanks
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There are no such things as "stupid" questions. However if you think your question is a bit stupid, then this is the right place for you to post it. Stick to easy to-the-point questions that you feel people can answer fast. For long and complicated questions use the other forums in the support section.
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
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miguels
Copying USB boot device - Solved many thanks
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
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vincent
Re: Copying USB boot device
Yes, but preferably don't just copy and paste the files from one USB to another; you should use a lower level tool to accomplish this more safely.
In a terminal: (Example only)
/dev/sdb is where the files are coming from and /dev/sdc is where the files are being copied to. Make sure you substitute sdb and sdc for the right values. If you aren't sure:
Be careful with dd. If you choose the wrong output location and for example, copy the files to your hard drive using dd, it'll overwrite everything on your HDD without any warnings. You have been warned. 
In a terminal:
Code: Select all
sudo dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sdc/dev/sdb is where the files are coming from and /dev/sdc is where the files are being copied to. Make sure you substitute sdb and sdc for the right values. If you aren't sure:
Code: Select all
sudo fdisk -l
Re: Copying USB boot device
You can create usb live to another stick and copy paste/replace the casper-rw file from the original to the new stick. all your changes are saved to that file (casper-rw). You can use lilli's (www.linuxliveusb.com) from windows or if from linux, there's tools to create usb live that is installable from synaptic or unetbootin (if using unetbootin, you need to do some changes to syslinux.cfg file so that it will have persistent feature). Or, you can choose to follow the steps by vincent above.
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mick55
Re: Copying USB boot device
As in all things Linux there are many ways to accomplish what you want.
The methods above are completely valid and work perfectly.
Another very simple method is to open Gparted and copy one drive
to the other via the copy/paste method.
It works surprisingly well and quickly.
Make sure both USB drives are plugged in and unmounted.
The drive to be copied to should have an unformatted partition.
If the partition is formatted the paste command will not work because
the drive is seen as being occupied with data.
The drives do not have to be the same type or size.
I recently did a copy/paste of my Arch install from a 7GB partition
on a 500GB IDE drive to an 8GB USB drive and then to an 80GB SATA drive.
The method chosen is entirely up to you.
I hope you see all these choices as freedom and not confusion.
cheers
mick
The methods above are completely valid and work perfectly.
Another very simple method is to open Gparted and copy one drive
to the other via the copy/paste method.
It works surprisingly well and quickly.
Make sure both USB drives are plugged in and unmounted.
The drive to be copied to should have an unformatted partition.
If the partition is formatted the paste command will not work because
the drive is seen as being occupied with data.
The drives do not have to be the same type or size.
I recently did a copy/paste of my Arch install from a 7GB partition
on a 500GB IDE drive to an 8GB USB drive and then to an 80GB SATA drive.
The method chosen is entirely up to you.
I hope you see all these choices as freedom and not confusion.
cheers
mick