====== Linux ======

Linux offers another way to use your computer. From the perspective of use in the Help Center, it can be used in troubleshooting activities. If a PC with Windows will not boot or exhibits strange behavior, it may be possible to boot Linux. Why would you do that? The ability to boot Linux from a USB device might demonstrate that the hardware (except the hard drive) of the PC is OK. If Linux will boot, from a usb thumb drive, you can use programs (Gsmartcontrol, file manager, ddrescue ) to interrogate the condition of the hard drive in the PC.

Having a USB device that contains Linux requires some preparation. There are multiple ways to construct a bootable thumb drive that contains Linux. [[https://www.pendrivelinux.com/|Pendrivelinux.com]] offers methods of building a thumb drive that can boot multiple instances of Linux and other utilities from one thumb drive. Using the [[https://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/|Yumi]] programs from PendriveLinux you can construct a USB stick that contains installable instances of Windows and Linux. Yumi allows for the allocation of persistent storage for a bootable instance of Linux. [[https://rufus.ie|Rufus]] is another of the tools that can be used to burn an "iso with persistence" to a thumb drive.  [[https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html|Ventoy]] is similar but not the same as Yumi.  Ventoy provides the ability to have a USB with multiple "iso files" and boot from any of the iso's on the USB.   You create a Ventoy USB and then copy ISO files to the USB.   My opinion...   Ventoy USB's are easier to use and maintain compared to Yumi based USB's.

This item at [[https://www.tecmint.com/install-linux-os-on-usb-drive/|TecMint]] identifies how to build/construct an instance of Linux on a thumb drive that offers persistence. Basically it is a live Linux on a stick that functions like a hard drive installation. You can do this with a thumb drive. Some versions of linux will easily fit on an 8 gigabyte thumb drive. If you buy a thumb drive, make sure it is a USB 3.0 drive. USB 3.0 is noticeably faster than previous versions.