Running mint from 1 Terabyte USB stick

[catweazel]

Data partition is NTFS because I want my Windows machine to be able to read it also (serves as second backup).

Windwoes 10 with Windows Services for Linux installed can do that without having the drive formatted as NTFS.

[pbear]

Data partition is NTFS because I want my Windows machine to be able to read it also (serves as second backup).

Windwoes 10 with Windows Services for Linux installed can do that without having the drive formatted as NTFS.

Learn sumptin' new every day. Thanks.

[pbear]

I followed pbear's tutorial and formatted the USB stick successfully with Gpart in 3 blocks: one for root, one for home and the last block were left free.

Then I installed mint on this USB stick as advised. I assigned root to the destination partition and didn't check "format" under "modify". Then I assigned grub to the disk and not to its partition, back in the main window of the installer.

I left my computer for awhile, doing other things and expected to see a full progress bar/finish dialog at my return. But nothing, the installer seems to have problems and the progress bar is still empty. The details reveal problems but I'm unable to interpret it or to copy-paste-save and post it here


Maybe my stick is defective. I'll see to buy another one

Sorry, but you don't supply enough information to understand what you did. By the way, I've never had a Mac, so I don't know what options are available. I do know the installer bug affects Macs, though, as there have been several threads about it here and on the Ubuntu Forum. You need to be careful. Indeed, I'd say make sure you understand how this works before making another attempt.

Let's start with, which option in the tutorial did you try? You realize Mac uses EFI, right? Is it even possible to boot a Mac in BIOS mode?

[lsemmens]

You've surprised me! When did 1TB flash drives become so cheap and available? SSDs are still darned expensive by comparison.

[catweazel]

You've surprised me! When did 1TB flash drives become so cheap and available? SSDs are still darned expensive by comparison.

Ten bucks on fleabay. They'd probably the fake ones everyone who bought one has been complaining about. The real ones are pushing a grand.

[CaptainKirksChair]

I think the better approach is to leave a chunk of unallocated space at the end of the drive for future expansion, or put in an extra partition just for backup images. The point I'm making is for the OP; chopping up a drive takes planning and thought. The only reason to go above around 40GB is if the machine has 32GB or more of RAM and needs to hibernate.

I'll agree with all of that. Especially the point about chopping up a drive taking planning. When I partitioned by 1TB WD Passport USB drive, I actually mapped out the partition sizes on a spreadsheet just to make sure I had what I wanted. Then I had to install the macOS first otherwise it would never have booted.

Partitioning takes a lot of thought and planning. It's similar to what carpenters say: measure twice, cut once. Good advice.

[lsemmens]

You've surprised me! When did 1TB flash drives become so cheap and available? SSDs are still darned expensive by comparison.

Ten bucks on fleabay. They'd probably the fake ones everyone who bought one has been complaining about. The real ones are pushing a grand.

For 10 bucks I might just risk it. Not today, though.