* This guide favors NEW USB drives due to how cheap a good drive generally issmall capacity drives are. If you want to reuse an old drive (or have no choice), this isthen those will also okaywork. However, I recommend buying a new drive to make things as simple as possible. |
* I have removed all information from this guide that targets DVD burning. Many new laptops (and some desktops) do notno longer include optical drives. If your laptop was purchased used, there is a very good chance the previous owner doesn't know if the optical drive works because it was never used. |
* This guide favors NEW USB drives due to how cheap a good drive generally is. If you want to reuse an old drive (or have no choice), this is also okay. However, I recommend buying a new drive to make things as simple as possible. |
* I have removed all information from this guide that targets DVD burning. Many new laptops (and some desktops) do not include optical drives. If your laptop was purchased used, there is a very good chance the previous owner doesn't know if the optical drive works because it was never used. |
* Many laptop owners end up neglecting the optical drive if it fails. This is because they are rarely used these days. If the internal drive has failed, your options are to use a USB stick or external optical drive. |
* USB drives can be formatted multiple times and have multiple distros written to it over the life of the USB drive. Many USB drives last longer then DVD's before they fail as well. DVD media is generally going to be single use only. |
++ '''READ ME IF YOUR SYSTEM HAS TROUBLE BOOTING FROM USB DIRECTLY.''' ++ |
If your system that has trouble booting from USB media directly, you can use a boot manager on CD to mitigate the problem. I have included a link to such a boot manager in the guide. |
The guide can be found here: |
| * This guide favors NEW USB drives due to how cheap small capacity drives are. If you want to reuse an old drive, then those will also work. |
| * I have removed all information from this guide that targets DVD burning. Many new laptops (and some desktops) no longer include optical drives. |
| * In a lot of cases, the optical drives that come with used equipment is likely already broken in some way. It isn't uncommon for the previous owner to neglect a failed optical drive. In regards to laptops this is even more common then it is on desktops. |
| * In the case of a USB drive, they can be reformatted and reused multiple times before the flash memory wears out. DVD media is typically single use. |
| ++ '''IF YOUR SYSTEM HAS TROUBLE BOOTING FROM USB DIRECTLY:''' ++ |
| '''Note:''' This problem typically only comes up for users with very old hardware (or systems with buggy USB boot implementations). It does NOT affect the majority of readers. |
| If your system that has trouble booting from USB media directly, a CD boot ma manager can be used as a workaround. These guides cover how to use the boot manager option: |