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I am looking to create a permanent copy of Ubuntu on a USB, not just a trial version. I have succesfully created a bootable version on USB (Ubuntu 14.04.3) and even managed to install packages etc. I have even been able to apply updates (some errors are displayed about filesystems). The problem arises when I try to reboot from this USB version. It gets into a screen with "initramfs" prompt, which is essentially a dead end. Even more bothersome is that Windows 7 (on the hard disk) displays boot problems (scary blue screen), but does come back in the 2nd or 3rd attempt...phew! I am looking for a sure shot remedy - not a trial and error process. I cannot afford to have the laptop messed up. Also, it has an encrypted hard drive so I cannot make it into a dual boot. Thanks in advance.

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Universal USB Installer is by far the best, in my opinion, automated method to create a live-disk version of Ubuntu on a bootable USB Drive. It has the ability to Set a Persistent Size, which is what you want. This creates space to saves changes on the flash drive and allows you to modify Ubuntu on the USB and reboot. The changes will "persist", but you need to realize that there is a 4 GB limit with the utility, and to create a larger one, you will need to specially format a partition on the usb drive. There are tutorials online for this as well.

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/

The second post at How do I get a live-USB to use a partition for persistence? describes this in more detail.

Also, this is a duplicate of like 40 questions on askubuntu alone.

You will run into the problem that the apt-get cache will fill up quickly, so you'll want to do something like run the janitor in Ubuntu-Tweak or you'll run out of space. Also, the high number of reads/writes will eventually destroy your flash drive. If it is important that you have a persistent flash drive, it might be worth your time to back it up to a second flash drive, or ensure that you store important data on the cloud, in case the flash drive fails.

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