Having a Linux disto you can turn to in a pinch could be a lifesaver
When you’re putting together a PC, things aren’t always straightforward. If something goes wrong – a hardware compatibility issue, a corrupted drive, a misconfiguration – then you might suddenly find yourself without any way to research the very problem you want to fix.
If that happens, it’s always worth having a bootable USB drive to help you bypass whatever the problem might be and get back online so you can figure out what’s going on. If you want to do that, you’ll have to make one in advance, though. If you don’t have a Windows USB stick available (and especially if your PC doesn’t have an optical drive) then there’s no better time than the present to get that sorted out.
What You Need
Before you start, you need to get a USB stick. Most Linux installations will fit in around 2GB, and it shouldn’t be hard to find one of that size lying around. If you need to buy one, we recommend you don’t go too large otherwise you’ll find that space is wasted. It literally costs a couple of pounds for a 2GB drive from most outlets!
You should also choose a version of Linux to install. We think Ubuntu Desktop is a good choice, but the same basic instructions should work for most versions as long as you’re downloading the same type of disc image (an .iso file). You can get Ubuntu Desktop from www.ubuntu.com/download, and like most Linux versions it’s completely free if you want it to be.
Make sure you download the correct version for your system, though. If you’ve got a PC with less than 2GB RAM, get the 32-bit version. But if you’re hoping to use it in a new PC the 64-bit version is the one you most likely need.
Although there are many ways to transfer Linux disc images onto a USB drive, the easiest way within Windows is to use the Universal USB Installer, which you can download from the ‘Pen Drive Linux’ site at tinyurl.com/y6elvmw
Preparing The USB Drive
To use the Universal USB tool, you need to be running Windows XP or later, and the drive needs to be formatted using any version of a standard Windows file system – FAT16, FAT32 or NTFS. If you’re not sure what file format the drive uses and/or wish to reformat the drive, plug it into your PC, locate it in Windows Explorer then right click on the drive and select ‘Format’ from the context menu.
Leave the file system on its default setting (FAT) and the allocation unit size of 2048 bytes. You can choose a volume label here if you like (it’s best to choose something helpful like ’linux_boot’).
Finally, deselect ‘Quick format’ and then hit ‘Start’. This will reformat the drive into the selected file system and erase the entire contents of the drive, so make sure you don’t have anything important on there!
Installing Linux
Run the universal download installer. You’ll be presented with a choice of Linux distributions. If you’ve been following our instructions you’ll have downloaded the Ubuntu Desktop 64-bit edition so select ‘Ubuntu’ from the list.
Now click ‘browse’ and locate the place where you downloaded the Ubuntu .iso file. If the file was in an archive (for example a RAR or ZIP) you may have to extract it first, and if the file was not in .iso format you may need to convert it into that format.
Finally, select the drive from the list. There is an option to erase the contents of that drive in this tool, but shouldn’t be necessary if you’ve been following our instructions. The drop down will only show removable drives, so double-check that you’re choosing the right drive letter from the disk – this is why it helps to have chosen a useful volume name when you formatted it.
If you have additional space on your drive, you can optionally use the “set a persistent file size for storing changes” option to create an editable area so you can download new Linux software to the USB stick. If you don’t do this, your downloads will be discarded and your changes forgotten when you reboot, but if you’re not planning to make this your primary OS that shouldn’t be a huge problem!
Finally, hit create and the process will run. At the end, you’ll have a working Linux drive.
Running Linux
To run your copy of Linux, all you have to do is place your drive in the USB port when you boot your PC. Most new motherboards will check the USB ports for bootable drives before using the built-in storage, so it shouldn’t require any intervention.
If the boot doesn’t work, you may need to manually check your motherboard BIOS’s boot order. Refer to the manual for details of how to change this!
Once installed, Ubuntu should be more or less capable of getting you online immediately. If you have wireless hardware installed you’ll need to enter the Wireless Key before you can get online (click the wireless icon in the top right to see available networks). Ubuntu ships with Firefox pre-installed, so you should have little trouble making sense of how to get online and start researching whatever problem is afflicting your PC!
Remember that if you want to save your changes you’ll need to have allocated space for them – so if you didn’t, make a physical note of any websites or files you might need to refer to again later. With any luck, though, you’ll only need to access Linux once before your problems are fixed.