How to Save files and changes when running via "Try Ubuntu" USB

Today, I was not able to login into windows for some reason and after I decided to reset it, now it doesn't even boot up I had burned ubuntu few days ago on my 8gb sd card cuz I wanted to try it out. But after I tried to install it, I got erroro 5 input/output Now I don't have windows nor can download ubuntu

I am using the try ubuntu feature currently but after I shut down my laptop, I have to start all again I can't even install a iso now because everytime I try to download and it's about to finish, the download just fails and have to try to reinstall again for some reason.

I wanted to ask the community that is there ANY way I can save changes I did on the try ubuntu feature or a solution for the erroro 5 input/output? I can't do anything right now, Don't even have another pc to repair my laptop.

A default live session indeed is not persistent. It is aimed to see if the computer works with your hardware. From the live session, you can launch the Ubuntu installer. You can always, also from a live session, save files to a different disk or USB stick.

Although it is possible to create a live Ubuntu USB with persistent storage, it is a little technical, and required you to have an up and running Linux system.

Persistent Install vs Full install

Ubuntu can be installed to a USB in different ways. A Live install does not save between sessions. A Persistent install extracts the OS from a compressed file and saves data to an overlay file or partition each session, and a Full install installs the complete OS to the USB just like an install to internal disk.

Comparison between Persistent and Full install USB

Advantages of a persistent install:

1. You can use the persistent pendrive to install Ubuntu to another computer.

2. A persistent install takes up less space on the pendrive.

3. You can reset the pendrive by overwriting the old casper-rw file with a new one.

4. The install to pendrive takes less time.

5. Slightly less wear on the drive.

Advantages of a Full install:

1. You can update and upgrade.

2. If you have problems or wish to modify, the solution is the same as with an internal install, (You can ask for help in the forums).

3. No ugly startup / install screen.

4. Better security, you can use full encryption

5. You can use proprietary drivers.

6. Swapfiles and partitions work and Hibernation can be enabled.

7. Many persistent installs are limited to a 4GB casper-rw and a 4GB home-rw persistence file, to get more persistence requires persistence partitions. Once casper-rw is full, the drive will not boot.

8. More efficient usage of disk space. Does not require reserved space for persistence.

9. Faster boot, no automatic disk checking or Try Ubuntu/Install Ubuntu screen.

10. You can run VBox and use virtual machines.

11. Generally faster boot than Live or Persistent USB's.

12. More stable, better for day to day use. I have run Ubuntu off a flash drive for 5 years making only LTS upgrades.

Note that once booted, both methods run at about the same speed. If the computer has lots of RAM Ubuntu should run mainly in RAM and there will not be a big difference between running off internal HDD and USB3 flash drive f.

Full Install Method

A quick and easy method to flash a Full install to USB can be found here: Easy Full Install USB that Boots both BIOS and UEFI

A more traditional methods for creating a Full install USB from scratch can be found here: How to Create a Full Install of Ubuntu 20.04 to USB Device Step by Step

Persistent install method

The following tools can be used to make a Persistent install USB: mkusb - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb, Rufus - https://rufus.ie/en/, Universal USB Installer - https://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/, Ventoy - https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html, YUMI- https://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/. and others.

Boot Ubuntu on UEFI computer without USB or CD or GRUB

If your computer boots UEFI mode here is a method to make a Persistent Frugal install to a small partition on your HDD. Your Live 8gb SD card should be all you need to get started.

• Create FAT32 partition 3GB to 11GB, depending on the need for persistence.

• Copy/Paste contents of ISO file to new partition using 'Files' or 'Archive Manager'.*

• Reboot pressing F12 and select UEFI Ubuntu.You will be offered the choice to boot Ubuntu.

• You can add a "writable" file up to 4GB and a "home-rw" file up to 4GB if you want persistence, (the ability to save data between sessions).

To create persistence file:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=casper-rw bs=1M count=512
sudo mkfs.ext4 -F casper-rw

• (Replace 512 with the "size in MB" you require, max 4000)

• For Ubuntu 20.04 and later replace casper-rw with writable

• For a home-rw file replace casper-rw with home-rw

• If you don't use persistence the Live frugal install of Ubuntu never writes to disk and can not wear the SSD out.

*If there is any problem opening the ISO file, Install 7Zip in Windows or P7zip in Linux.

This method does not work on BIOS/Legacy only Computers

I would have made my answer a comment, but it's too long. Still I like knowing that from Windows, you don't need Rufus to make a bootable thumbdrive. The example below uses Powershell.

I found the instructions at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8lWZHvi1Pw and he found the instructions at https://mikefrobbins.com/2018/01/18/use-powershell-to-create-a-bootable-usb-drive-from-a-windows-10-or-windows-server-2016-iso/

They use it to make a bootable Windows Thumbdrive, but I just replaced the windows.iso with an Ubuntu ISO and it worked the same. Basically the following will format the thumbdrive (FAT32 doesn't work if there are big files, so you may need to do NTFS or exFAT if BIOS/UEFI accepts it.)

Step 1: Format the target thumbdrive

$Results = Get-Disk |
Where-Object BusType -eq USB |
Out-GridView -Title 'Select USB Drive to Format' -OutputMode Single |
Clear-Disk -RemoveData -RemoveOEM -Confirm:$false -PassThru |
New-Partition -UseMaximumSize -IsActive -AssignDriveLetter |
Format-Volume -FileSystem NTFS

Step 2: Mount the ISO on your current system

$Volumes = (Get-Volume).Where({$_.DriveLetter}).DriveLetter
Mount-DiskImage -ImagePath C:\Users\OPTIMUS_PRIME\Downloads\PERMANENT_OS.iso
$ISO = (Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $Volumes -DifferenceObject (Get-Volume).Where({$_.DriveLetter}).DriveLetter).InputObject

Step 3: Copy verbatim the mounted ISO to the target thumdrive.

Set-Location -Path "$($ISO):\boot"
bootsect.exe /nt60 "$($Results.DriveLetter):"
Copy-Item -Path "$($ISO):\*" -Destination "$($Results.DriveLetter):" -Recurse -Verbose