Install CentOS to USB; The following tutorial covers the process of creating a CentOS USB flash drive using Windows and the LiveUSB Creator. Once installed, the CentOS Live USB will operate just like the Live CD/DVD, and you should be able to Install CentOS from USB to a hard drive as well. A persistence feature is not being utilized in this tutorial so you will not be able to save and restore your changes on subsequent boots. A little background info; CentOS is an Enterprise class Linux Distribution derived from sources freely provided to the public. This version of Linux is commonly used by many popular web hosting companies as a Linux server platform due to its extreme stability. We can use the Fedora LiveUSB Creator to put CentOS on a USB flash drive.
Distribution Home Page: centos.org
Minimum Flash Drive Capacity: 1GB
Persistent Feature: No
Prerequisites for creating a Live USB:
- Windows host PC (Tested using Windows XP)
- USB flash drive
- CentOS-###-LiveCD.iso
- liveusb-creator-x-x.zip
How to Install CentOS to USB using Windows
- Download the Fedora liveusb-creator-x-x.zip and extract to your PC
- Download the CentOS-###-LiveCD.iso
- Navigate to the liveusb-creator-x-x folder and click liveusb-creator.exe to launch the tool
- Under Use existing Live CD, browse to where you saved the CentOS-###-LiveCD.iso and select it
- Set the Target Device to point to your USB flash drive
- Click Create Live USB to begin the creation process
A simple progress bar will indicate the progress of your USB CentOS creation. Once the process has finished, simply restart your PC and set your System BIOS or Boot Menu to boot from the USB flash drive
If all goes well, you should now be booting into your own portable CentOS on USB.
Enjoy! ;)
Note: You can also use tools like Etcher to burn the ISO to USB. From Linux, you can simply use the DD command.
