I’ve been in between computers lately, working on an old Win98 machine with 98 MB of RAM. In my attempt to make that machine a little faster while shopping for a new PC, I tried out a few distributions of Linux, one of which is a portable Linux called Slax. I ran it off a CD but you can run it off a flash drive just as well. Instructions on how to do that can be found here: Linux on a Stick.

On the Slax site, they have tons of “modules” which are compressed software files and a huge selction of games (134 of them to be precise). Slax is a a pretty neat distribution as you can have any operating system on your PC and still have Linux by booting from CD or flash drive.

Boy, does this look complicated! Good luck to you if you want to attempt making your flash drive bootable!

From Information Week. Langa Letter: A Must-Have Repair And Recovery Tool

Here’s another how-to article:

www.weethet.nl/english/hardware_bootfromusbstick.php

And once your flash drive is bootable, here are two great sites that have tons of useful diagnostic tools and file recovery programs that you can load onto your flash drive :

Ultimate Boot CD

Dirk Loss Windows Tools – more than 600 diagnostic and file recovery tools

Here is a great site called Linux on a Stick!. It gives very clear instructions on how to install Linux on your flash drive and make it bootable. Although this isn’t a quick and simple installation, this site thouroughly explains everything step by step and insists that anyone can learn how to do it. Putting Linux onto your flash drive involves reformatting it, so you may want to try this on an old or spare flash drive. The tutorial gives clear instructions for a variety of portable versions of Linux, such as Slax, DSL, Feather and Runt.