Live operating system installation for Universal Serial Bus devices

摘要

A method and apparatus for the installation of a live operating system includes an installation module that automatically detects available portable removable storage devices. The installation module also automatically determines available operating systems for installation on the portable removable storage devices. The determination of available operating systems can include checking for available operating systems on remote servers. The installation module provides a user interface that is populated with the available installation options including the options to select a size of a persistent overlay and the use of encryption. The installation process installs the user selected operating system on the user designated portable removable storage device and validates the installation. The installation can be performed without generating a new partition on the portable removable storage device and without reformatting the device.