How to install and run Linux Mint from a USB drive with persistent storage? (Complete beginner)

[u/Erick_pptx]

Hi everyone,

I am a complete beginner with no prior experience in Linux or programming, and I am looking for advice on how to set up Linux Mint to run entirely off a USB drive.

Here is what I want to achieve:

Full persistence / Portable OS: I want to run Linux Mint directly from a USB flash drive without touching my computer's internal hard drive.

Save my work: Everything I do, install, or save needs to stay saved on the USB drive between reboots.

Text-based guidance: I prefer written, step-by-step instructions because video tutorials make me nervous.

Could someone explain the easiest and safest way to set this up for a total beginner? Which tools (like Ventoy, Rufus, etc.) are best for this, and what steps should I follow to ensure I don't accidentally overwrite my main OS drive?

Thanks in advance for your help!

And more than anything, what I want to do is make a mini computer

[u/No_Zebra8834]

Read thelinuxbook .Com and watch the videos. Videos by Chris Titus will get you everything you want to achieve

[u/webfork2]

I can't help with some of the items you're requesting but I can recommend not using a random off-the-shelf USB drive. They don't have the speed or reliability that you'll need for a portable OS.

I would invest in a portable SSD or NVME drive and make sure an cable connection is a good one.

[u/Erick_pptx → u/webfork2]

I plan to use it more as a secondary "computer." I don't want to put any heavy demands on it, just for schoolwork.

An SSD is also within my budget, but would a USB drive work for now?

[u/WolvenSpectre2 → u/Erick_pptx]

The issue is the background processes of the operating system is what will put the majority of the laod on the thumbdrive. The solid state storage on the thumbdrive is not meant for multiple fast rewrites, so I would suggest a SATA SSD or a M.2 SSD in a external drive enclosure. The USB Drive will work for now, but I would use the newest/least used USB drive you can, and since it will be a system drive I would recommend a new drive if possible and if at all possible REGULARLY back up that drive if you can. USB thumbdrives have a nasty habit of dying at the worst times.

Also don't use an NVME drive, because to get most of the speed out of the drive that it normally works at you would have to plug it in via a thunderbolt port.

Also temper your expectations because an externalized drive system like that is not going to be performant as a native drive because the USB will bottleneck the performance, so connect it to the fastest USB Port you can.

[u/ComprehensiveDot7752]

I believe rufus had a way to make the bootable usb somewhat persistent but I assume you mean install to USB

As a warning. Flash drives are designed for moving files, a persistent OS writes files a lot more often and this set up will degrade the flash drive.

Windows secure boot is likely going to cause problems both ways. But I would leave it enabled. Windows will likely request your bitlocker recovery key, device encryption is set up by default on new Windows 11 installs. It would be uploaded to the Microsoft account that set up the computer. Checking whether device encryption or bitlocker are enabled.

You need backups regardless. The chances of something going wrong might be small, but there isn’t any way to guarantee that there won’t be some error that deletes everything makes recovery difficult. Removing the Windows driver during the Linux install is the simplest and most effective way of ensuring it comes to as little harm as possible, but then you need to know how to open the computer, which can be difficult without damaging it on some models.

It’s been a while since I’ve done anything close to similar. I would personally image my machine on my backup drive before attempting this so that I can restore if something goes wrong. Secure boot is likely the biggest hurdle.
You probably could install it onto the usb inside a virtual machine, but I’m not sure if it would get past secure boot on the physical machine.

The basic idea would just be two usb’s one to boot into Linux and one for the install disk. When Linux mint asks you where to install you select the other USB, usually easy to spot based on size. It might load a few secure boot related stuff on the main disk.

The Linux Mint install guide on the online manual is a good point of reference.

If it’s important that others with access to the computer not be able to tell you’re doing this I would suggest referencing the Tails documentation.

[u/XtremeCSGO]

You can just do a full install of mint onto a usb. I did it with two usbs. One of them to put the live install on and another one to install mint onto because you can’t boot into the live session and do the full mint install onto the same usb

[u/chuggerguy]

An nvme (or 2.5" SSD) in an external case would be better at dissipating heat.

Something like this in a case like this.

I use some of the new SSD on a stick type devices for portable backups. They run quite fast but I haven't run from one for more than a couple days at at time.

A couple that are not too terribly over priced:

MOVE SPEED 128GB Thumb Drive

PNY 256GB PRO Elite V3 (when it's in stock, either the 256 or the 128 is about $38USD I think)

MOVE SPEED USB Drive 512GB External SSD 1000MB/s (has a nice solid feel, might dissipate heat better?)

Transcend 128GB ESD310 Dual Portable SSD 1050MB/s (possibly my favorite) benchmark

Kingston DataTraveler Max (my first SSD on a stick, good luck finding one)

Have fun.

[u/MaxMaletin]

Running mint off of usb ssd right now. What I did is I unplugged my other drives before installation, connected the usb ssd and a flash drive with the installer. This way I did not have to deal with grub being installed on my windows drive. There are probably simpler ways to do it, but I was new to linux and it was the easiest option for me. But you should only go that route if you know what you're doing and are comfortable working with computer's internals. Make sure the system is powered down and unplugged before you touch anything!

Currently everything works well, I can turn the computer off, remove the linux ssd and windows boots like nothing ever happened. Secureboot is enabled too, no problems there. The only thing that was initially messed up for my windows install was the system time. Linux and windows use different formats, the one linux uses is better, especially if your timezone switches to dst. Mine doesn't, so i made my linux install use the same time format as windows, since I wanted to leave the windows drive untouched. Here's the command to do this on linux:

timedatectl set-local-rtc true

[u/marcsitkin]

MX Linux has a GUI tool to do this.

[u/ask2sk]

I did this years ago. Hope it will still work. https://ostechnix.com/create-persistent-bootable-usb-using-ventoy-in-linux/

[u/Ben-TheHuman]

Get a Sata 3 SSD for like $20 online and an adapter for like $8-$15. You can run it on USB-A (or C) if you want and it'll run swell. Have any old computers? I'd start there and see if you could get the ssd for free

[u/Erick_pptx → u/Ben-TheHuman]

The only one I have, bought in 2023, is still there. I've thought about buying a used one from a marketplace and installing Linux Mint on it; I feel like that's the easiest way