USB boot drive not working in two computers (Solved!)

[Jim0000]

[quote author=Jim0000 link=topic=8820.msg58799#msg58799 date=1658831770]
I am planning on getting Linux Lite 64 bit operating system onto a HP Mini 210-1036VU laptop computer.

As it happens I have one of these laptops.  Mine came with Windows XP, a 160MB spinning rust hard drive and I don't recall how much RAM (512MB??) but got upgraded to Windows 7 Pro 32bit, a 128GB SSD and 2GB of RAM at some point in it's life; it still runs Windows because I use it for some Windows only software for reflashing car ECUs and it doesn't get used for anything else.

Your query aroused my curiosity though

I used Rufus on another Windows machine to write the Lite 6.0 ISO to an 8GB Lexar USB 2 flash drive, using Rufus' default settings and was pleasantly surprised that I was able to boot that USB to the Lite Live desktop - especially as I wasn't sure that the HP's ancient Atom CPU was even 64bit capable.  I saw an error message reporting a BIOS bug or compatibility issue but as that Lexar USB drive has an activity LED that was still flashing I let it go and after about 3 or 4 minutes the desktop eventually appeared.  I was able to open a terminal window and run "inxi -F" to look at the system info so the system was up and appeared to be viable, but as I have no intention of touching the Windows installation on this machine I left it at that and shut the Lite Live desktop down.

Windows 7 performs quite well on this machine, so I expect that Lite would too, however I have to caution that I wouldn't install Lite (or any other 64bit OS) without the 2GB RAM upgrade - if you only have 512MB of RAM you would be very well advised to stick with a 32bit OS (you might try MX 21.1 which is available in 32bit versions), and I would probably stick with 32bit OSes even with 1GB of RAM.  Upgrading the original hard drive with a 2.5" SSD would also be very highly recommended!

Going back to using Rufus: it defaults to using "ISO mode" rather than "DD mode" (see Rufus FAQ) which is what I used.  This produces a different data layout on the USB drive and unfortunately I'm not aware of (and haven't searched for) any Linux tool that uses the same strategy (standard Linux approach is to use DD mode).  I have encountered some older hardware (older Lenovo laptops with Insyde UEFI firmware in particular) that will only boot a USB drive with Lite flashed using Rufus ISO mode; Lite flashed to USB using DD mode (by any tool including Rufus and the recommended Etcher) fails on such hardware.  I don't know whether using Rufus' DD mode option would work with the HP Mini as my curiosity has been satisfied without going to the lengths of testing that...
:imsorry

Hopefully this at least leaves you knowing that your objective should be reachable, though as I didn't attempt to actually install Lite I can't be certain how that will pan out; at least my HP Mini has a standard BIOS rather than UEFI so I think the chances are pretty good.

Good luck!
[/quote]

Thanks for that encouraging post.
I will study the details about "Rufus" later tonight when I get home. I am a bit rushed at the moment.
I do already have a 2 Cb RAM stick to fit to it and I am keen to upgrade the drive to a SSD. i will search out suppliers and prices etc.
More later.........

Jim.