A portable USB is a small and lightweight storage device that connects to a computer’s USB port. In this technological age, portable USBs have become an essential tool for people from any walk of life. This provides an easy way to carry important data, including operating system backups. For example, one can create a bootable USB with the ability to install an operating system, such as Linux Mint 21.2.

In this article, we will explore two simple and effective methods to create a portable USB on Linux Mint 21.2.

• Method 1: How to Create a Portable USB with Linux Mint’s Disk Image Writer?
• Method 2: How to Create a Portable USB using BalenaEtcher?

How to Create a Portable USB on Linux Mint 21.2?

The following are two methods to create a portable USB on the Linux Mint operating system.

Method 1: How to Create a Portable USB with Linux Mint’s Disk Image Writer?

Check out the following instructions for creating a portable USB using the Linux Mint disk image writer,

Step 1: Navigate to the ISO File

First thing first, go to the path where your ISO is located. Right-click the ISO file and choose the option “Open With” > “Disk Image Writer“. The process can be seen in the below-attached screenshot:

Step 2: Select the USB Device

In the second step, choose your USB device and click the “Start Restoring” button:

Step 3: Restore USB Device

Click on the “Restore” button, as shown below, to confirm the restoring process:

Step 4: Authenticate

Enter your password and click the “Authenticate” button to proceed with the action:

Step 5: Confirmation

After a few moments, the process will be completed. You can confirm by examining the USB device:

With the above steps, you have created a portable USB device on your Linux Mint 21.2 machine.

Method 2: How to Create a Portable USB using BalenaEtcher?

In this section, we will see the practical use of BalenaEtcher to create a portable USB on Linux Mint 21.2.

Step 1: Download BalenaEtcher via “wget”

To download the “.deb” file, run the “wget” command followed by the link of BalenaEtcher:

wget https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/releases/download/v1.18.12/balena-etcher_1.18.12_amd64.deb

From the above screenshot, you can see the “balena-etcher_1.18.12_amd64.deb” has been downloaded on your Linux Mint 21.2.

Step 2: Install BalenaEtcher

Run the command from your machine such as Linux Mint to install the BalenaEtcher package:

sudo apt install ./balena-etcher_1.18.12_amd64.deb

Upon the above output, the BelenaEtcher is now available on your system.

Step 3: Launch BalenaEtcher

Launch the BalenaEtecher from the “Start Menu”, as shown below screenshot:

Step 4: Load ISO File

Load the ISO file by clicking on the “Flash from file”:

Step 5: Locate the ISO File

Navigate the ISO file path and click on the “Open” button:

Step 6: Select the Target

In the BalenaEtcher, click the second option “Select target” to set the target or destination for the ISO:

Locate the USB device and click on the “Select 1” button, as shown in the below-attached snapshot:

Step 8: Flash the File

Click the “Flash!” button to start the process of creating a portable USB with the ISO file.:

Step 9: Authentication

Enter your system password and press the “Authenticate” button.:

Step 10: Completion

When the process of creating the portable USB is completed, you will see the message as shown below:

You have successfully created a portable USB on Linux Mint 21.2.

Step 11: Test the Portable USB

To test whether the portable USB is working properly, you need to plug the USB into another machine or your machine and restart it. Wait until the message below appears on your screen:

The screen with the above message indicates that the portable USB is created and working perfectly.

Conclusion

Creating a portable USB on Linux Mint 21.2 can be done through two simple methods. These methods include Linux Mint’s Disk Image Writer and BalenaEtcher. The Disk Image Writer is a built-in software while BalenaEtcher can be downloaded from the link. Once the process is complete, you can test the functionality of a portable USB by plugging it into another machine or your personal computer. This article presented a practical demonstration to create a portable USB on Linux Mint 21.2.