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Dual purpose USB

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GoFigureItOut

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I have a 32 GB USB drive that contains portable apps from portableapps.com I also want to make it into a boot drive. I want to install Antergos on my laptop, but retain the portable apps. Is that possible? Or do I have to format the USB stick to make it bootable with just the OS on it?
 
Toothless

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You can either do one or the other, as trying to do what you're explaining would be to partition the drive, but only one partition would be accessible. Best just to get another drive since a 16GB can be found for like, $12.
 
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Kursah

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Look into Easy2Boot. I have Hiren's, Falcon4, some A/V bootable scanners, Debian 9, Ubuntu 15, Ubuntu Server 14.04, Windows 7. 8.1 and 10 pro x64 all on a single 32Gb USB with this tool.

What you can do is get it bootable, then add a folder for portable apps and be off to the races. Though if you want to keep your setup now without changing, then get a different USB stick for OS duty. I would setup the bootable part, then with the remaining space add the portable apps you want to deploy. I've done that in a dedicated directory, added drivers, BIOS updates, etc.

:toast:
 
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Uplink10

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Toothless said:
You can either do one or the other, as trying to do what you're explaining would be to partition the drive, but only one partition would be accessible. Best just to get another drive since a 16GB can be found for like, $12.
Click to expand...
You can make more than one partition on USB drive just not with Windows Disk Management because it does not support this. I am pretty sure even the "best, cool, ultimate" Windows 10 does not support it.

Use Linux Live and GParted which supports it. Than use YUMI or Rufus and select a partition and install .iso on it.
 
xvi

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Kursah said:
Look into Easy2Boot.
Click to expand...
I use YUMI myself, but same basic principle.

I concur with Toothless though. A second flash drive can be picked up for crazy cheap and would simplify things greatly.
 
Kursah

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I tried to use YUMI for all my ISO's, it wouldn't work well with a couple of the ones I required. It's easier to use, but Easy2Boot for me was better overall. Also boots uber fast, not sure what it does differently. Easy2Boot comes with a good menu structure, and while the website, downloads and instructions are kinda vague...it's so worth the effort for all you can do. I can't really recommend anything else when someone wants to run many ISO's from diagnostics, cleaning, new OS, etc . all on one. I will admit I've been using Easy2Boot for about a year and haven't tried Yumi since then, so it might be more capable than when I last tried. Or maybe I wasn't doing something right...which could very well be the case! :D But I figured out Easy2Boot and it works great! Do the first format and staging, then you just drag ISO's into the correct folder and you're off... easy peasy.

:toast:

If I'm going single ISO I use Rufus all day long though. :D
 
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Drone

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GoFigureItOut said:
I have a 32 GB USB drive that contains portable apps from portableapps.com I also want to make it into a boot drive. I want to install Antergos on my laptop, but retain the portable apps. Is that possible? Or do I have to format the USB stick to make it bootable with just the OS on it?
Click to expand...
You can store any data on a bootable usb drive. Just create a new folder for that. But of course before making usb stick bootable you'll have to format it. Obviously you'll need to move your data elsewhere, make usb bootable, then put data back.
 
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