Edited January 10, 2022.
Don’t Panic. This post assumes you know nothing. It takes longer to read than to do; and took far longer to write.
[This Recipe assumes that your working Puppy employs JWM-Rox. If not, some of the following may not apply or will have to be ‘translated’ to operations under its Window-and-File Manager].
[frugalpup-installer viewtopic.php?t=337 provides other techniques; some might actually be simpler, but doesn’t result in the structure as flexible as I need. The ‘recipe’ for using it is sufficiently dissimilar from that discussed here that trying to include it would likely result in confusion. See the above thread for instructions.
See here if you can boot Puppy from a USB-Key but can't create a SaveFile; or want to create another USB-Key with the SAME Puppy. You will need a 2nd USB-Key, viewtopic.php?p=51911#p51911
The purpose of this post is to provide an easy-to-follow recipe when using any Puppy to manually install any Puppy to a USB-Stick so the latter Puppy can be booted from that USB-Stick. What you will need:
(1) A USB-Key, to be prepared.
(2) The System files of the Puppy to be installed.
(3) An application to create a boot-loader.
We will be doing so in the following order: Prepare the USB-Key; obtain the Puppy System files, then copy those files into a folder on the USB-Key; then (obtaining, installing, and/or) running a boot-loader application which --finding the Puppy System files where we placed them-- will create a boot-loader on the USB-Key with either a config or menu displayed enabling you to boot into that Puppy.
If you already have the USB-Key, the Puppy System Files and the boot-loader application the entire procedure takes about 5 minutes.
Preparing the USB-Key:
(1) Boot into your current Puppy.
(2) Plug in the USB-Key on which you intent to locate your ‘new’ Puppy. A Desktop Drive Icon will appear just above the Taskbar. Note the label it was given which for the purpose of this Recipe will be referred to as sdb1.
(3) Start Menu>System>GParted partition manager. A GUI will appear. Gparted only formats drives: so for this recipe the drive you’d select is sdb. Caution: Click the corresponding ‘circle’.
(4) A ‘factory fresh’ USB-Key will look something like the panel on the Left in Gparted’s Work GUI.
From the Menu, Select Device>Create Partition Table; then --as the partition type--msdos and click “Apply”. Click OK to dismiss the warning.
What in the above Screenshot was reported as “fat32” will become “Unallocated”.
This is what I did and why:
(5) Right-Clicked the Unallocated Space, Selected New. Create the 1st Partition, approximately 150 Mbs in Size (New Size on Left), to be formatted as fat32 –chosen by clicking button to the right of “File System”, then scrolling.
After the New partition is created, select it, then click the far-right column, Flags, (see prior graphic) and put a check in the “boot” button. [UEFI computers require, other can use, fat32 formatting to hold the boot-loader and associated files. Most boot-loaders require a ‘boot’ flag.]
Continued here: viewtopic.php?p=46867#p46867