How to install Debian from a USB drive?
If you're on Linux, the easiest way is to simply do (as per the docs):
cat debian.iso > /dev/sdX; sync
Where X is your drive letter, you can find out the correct letter by checking the output of dmesg right after connecting your USB device. For example for me (and probably many) it would be /dev/sdb
This will wipe everything from your USB drive, so be careful!
UPDATE:
For completeness, I should also mention Rufus for Windows.
Download UNetbootin, which allows one to create bootable USB installation media for almost any Linux and BSD distribution out of the box.
Just run it, select Debian, choose the usb drive and wait while it downloads the .iso and transfers it to your usb. After that it's bootable and the install works like from a CD.
- Open Debian Download page and download the right cd / dvd for your pc. Most likely, if you have a modern computer, you'll want amd64 version. I'd suggest to choose cd because today you'll probably have a broadband connection and you'll be able to download other needed packages later very quickly.
If you use Linux terminal you can use dd to prepare your usb stick (iso filename in this command is just an example, you'll have to use your downloaded iso name and path:
dd if=/your/path/debian-7.5.0-i386-netinst.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M
sync
See Debian official instructions here.
Edit: added sync, to flush device writes before ejecting the usb device.
- Modern Debian versions include a partitioning tool and wizard, the process should be fairly easy, as pointed out in all the guides, here's one.