Create a Bootable USB Debian Live Flash Drive ▷ Effortlessly

How to create a bootable USB Debian Live flash drive from Windows by using Etcher by Balena, YUMI Multiboot USB tool, DD for Windows or the Linux DD command. The following tutorial covers the process of installing Debian to a USB drive from within Windows or Linux. Resulting in a Live bootable USB with optional persistence. Upon completion, you can also use the resulting device to Install Debian from USB to an internal hard drive.

Running Debian Live from a Bootable USB

Website: Official Debian Live Project Page
Minimum flash drive capacity: 8 GB+
Persistence Overlay Feature: Yes

Debian Live is a continuing project originally headed by Daniel Baumann. USB-HDD Images based on Gnome, KDE, lxde, Xfce or Cinnamon graphical desktops were once offered. However, this is no longer the case. With hybrid ISO files now available, we can use those instead.

For those of you already up and running from a Linux environment, a custom Debian Live ISO or USB Image can easily be created using the Live-Helper scripts.

Make a Bootable USB Debian Live with Etcher

Using Balena Etcher: Note that this install method will create a partition on your flash drive that is the same size as the ISO you use. From Windows, your drive will appear to be missing space, because Windows does not detect the rest of the space which will be utilized for the persistence overlay feature. USB flash drive restoration methods are linked at the end of this tutorial.

Warning: The contents on your flash drive will be wiped clean. Backup anything you want to save before proceeding.

Insert a 8 GB or larger USB flash drive (for Debian Live with Persistence).
Grab a Debian Gnome, Xfce, KDE or lxde ISO and save it to your desktop.
Download Etcher, run the installer to launch the program.
(1) Browse to and select your Debian-Live .ISO file.
(2) Select your USB flash drive.
(3) Click Flash to burn the ISO to your USB.
A progress bar will indicate the progress of the write. Once it has finished:
(1.) Reboot your PC.
(2.) Enter your BIOS/UEFI using a hotkey during system post.
(3.) Set your Boot Menu to boot from the USB drive, save your changes (F10).
(4.) Proceed to start your computer from the USB flash drive.

If all went well, you should now be booting from your Portable USB Debian Live flash drive. You can also use it to Install Debian from USB to a hard drive.

Create a Debian Live USB with YUMI

YUMI is a popular tool for creating multiboot USB drives. With the exFAT version, you can create a bootable Debian Live USB and enable persistence to save changes across reboots. Follow these steps to set up a Debian Live USB with persistence using YUMI (exFAT).

Download YUMI exFAT
Download the Debian Live ISO: Visit the Debian Live website and download the appropriate ISO file for your system (e.g., Gnome, KDE, Xfce, etc.).
Insert a USB Stick: Plug a USB drive with at least 8 GB of space into your computers USB port. All data on the drive will be erased, so make sure to back up any important files before proceeding.
Run YUMI: Open the YUMI executable you downloaded. The user interface will guide you through the following steps:
1. Select your USB device from the list.
2. Select Debian Live from the dropdown menu.
3. Browse to and Select your Debian ISO File
4. Enable persistence Optional: YUMI will give you an option to create a persistent partition. Specify the size of the persistence file using the slider (e.g., 4 GB or more, depending on your USB size). This file will be used to store your changes.
Click Create: Once you've set all the options, click the "Create" button to start the process. YUMI will format your USB drive, copy the ISO file over, and set up the persistent partition.
Wait for the process to complete: YUMI will take some time to copy the files and create the persistence partition. Once finished, you'll see a confirmation message.
Safely eject the USB drive: After YUMI has finished, safely eject your USB drive using the "Safely Remove Hardware" option in Windows.

Booting from YUMI Debian Live with Persistence

Reboot your computer and enter the BIOS/UEFI settings. Set your system to boot from the USB drive.
On boot, YUMI will display a boot menu. Select Debian Live with Persistence.
At the Debian splash boot screen, tap the E key to edit the boot options.
Add the word persistence to the Linux string and then Ctrl + X to boot.
Make any changes you like to the system. These changes will be saved in the persistent storage partition and restored on your next boot.

By using YUMI, you should now have a bootable Debian Live USB with persistence, enabling you to save files, configurations, and installed applications across sessions. This setup is ideal for live sessions or portable use of Debian.

If you wish to reset the USB drive or use it for other purposes later, you can refer to our USB restoration guide to restore the drive to its full capacity.

Create a Debian Live USB using DD for Windows

You can use dd on Windows by downloading a special version from chrysocome.net. This version of dd works natively on Windows without needing Cygwin or WSL. Follow the steps below to create a bootable Debian Live USB using this tool.

Download DD for Windows: Go to the chrysocome website and download the latest version of dd for Windows.
Download a Debian Live ISO: Go to the Debian Live website to download the appropriate ISO file for your system.
Find your USB device: Insert your USB flash drive and open a command prompt with Administrator privileges. Use the following command to list all connected drives:
```
dd --list
```
Look for your USB drive in the list. It will be labeled as something like \\?\Device\HarddiskX\Partition0, where X is the number of your USB device.
Write the Debian ISO to the USB: Run the following command to write the ISO file to your USB device:
```
dd if=C:\path_to\debian-live.iso of=\\?\Device\HarddiskX bs=4M --progress
```
Replace C:\path_to\debian-live.iso with the actual path of the downloaded Debian ISO file, and \\?\Device\HarddiskX with the correct device path for your USB drive (as listed in the previous step).
Wait for the process to finish: The dd command will take some time to copy the ISO to your USB drive. Do not interrupt the process. You can track the progress using the --progress flag.
Safely remove your USB drive: Once the process completes, eject your USB drive safely by right-clicking on the USB device in the system tray and selecting "Eject."

Your bootable Debian Live USB is now ready. You can restart your computer and boot from the USB drive to use Debian Live or install Debian on your system.

Create a Debian Live USB using DD on Linux

Creating a Debian Live USB installation using the Linux dd command is a straightforward process. You'll need a Debian Live ISO file and a USB drive with sufficient capacity to hold the ISO image. Be very cautious when using the dd command, as it will overwrite any existing data on your storage device. Also be sure to double check the device name to make sure you're writing to the correct device.

Here are steps to make a Bootable Debian USB via the DD command:

Insert a USB flash drive: Plug a USB drive into your computer. Ensure that you have backed up any important data on the drive, as the following steps will overwrite its contents.
Download a Debian Live ISO: Go to the official Debian website or a trusted mirror site to download the Debian Live ISO file. Make sure to choose the appropriate version for your architecture (e.g., amd64 for 64-bit systems).
Locate your USB drive: You need to identify the device name of your USB drive. You can use the lsblk or fdisk -l command to list the available storage devices and identify your USB drive. The device name is usually /dev/sdX, where 'X' is a letter representing the drive. For example, /dev/sdb.
```
fdisk -l
```
Unmount the USB drive: If the USB drive is automatically mounted when inserted, you'll need to unmount it. You can do this with the following command (replacing X with your actual device):
```
sudo umount /dev/sdX
```
Write the Debian Live ISO to USB drive: Use the dd command to write the Debian Live ISO to the USB drive. Replace /path_to/debian-live.iso with the actual path to and name of your Debian Live ISO and X with the actual name of your USB drive:
```
sudo dd if=/path_to/debian-live.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress
```
- if stands for the input file (the Debian Live ISO).
- of stands for the output file (your USB drive).
- bs=4M sets the block size to 4 megabytes. This can improve the writing speed.
- status=progress will display the progress of the dd command.
Wait for dd to finish copying: The dd command will take some time to write the ISO to your USB drive. Be patient and do not interrupt the process. Once it's finished, you'll see a message indicating the number of bytes copied.
Safely eject your USB Debian Live Drive: After the dd command completes successfully, you can safely eject the bootable USB Debian Live flash drive by issuing the sync command:
```
sync
```

Your Debian Live USB installation is now ready. You can boot your computer from this USB drive and follow the on-screen instructions to install Debian or use it as a live system.

Make USB Debian Live Persistent (for saving changes)

Debian ISO files are typically hybrid images, so when the image is extracted to the stick, it does not occupy all of the free space. You can use the remaining space as storage space and or perform the following tasks to create a persistent overlay partition on your bootable USB Debian Live flash drive. This persistence feature allows you to save and restore some of your changes on subsequent boots.

At the boot screen, tap the E key to edit boot options. Then add the word toram to the end of the linux boot string, and press Ctrl + X to boot.
Once you are up and running, Open a terminal window. I.E. ctrl+alt+x

Type the following to create a persistent partition.

sudo su (to gain root access)

fdisk /dev/sda (assuming your flash drive is sda. Use fdisk -l to check)

n(to create a new partition)

p (for primary)

enter (default to create a 3rd partition)

enter (for default first sector as start point)

+6G (for 6GB in size)

w (to write the changes)

Next, to format the partition as ext3 with a persistence volume label, type the following;
```
mkfs.ext3 -L persistence /dev/sda3
```
Finally, to create a persistence.conf file with / union so that Debian can detect and use your persistent overlay, type the following;
```
mkdir /ptmp && mount /dev/sda3 /ptmp
```
```
echo "/ union" > /ptmp/persistence.conf
```
```
umount /dev/sda3
```
Once the process has finished, reboot your Debian Live system.
At the splash boot screen, tap the E key to edit the boot options.
Add the word persistence to the Linux string and then Ctrl + X to boot.

If all goes well, you should now be booting into your bootable USB Debian Live with persistence. In order to save and restore any changes you make, you need to perform steps 7 and 8 during each boot. Another option is to edit and add a permanent default persistent boot option to your existing boot menu by editing the grub configuration file.

If you would like to return your flash drive to its previous state, you can use the step by step process in out tutorial on how to restore a USB flash drive back to full capacity.