I’ve put openSUSE several times in USB flash drives. I’ve used the old method with dd … and the new one with dd_rescue …, shown in SDB:Live USB stick - openSUSE
This way a partition is created (sdb1 or sdc1 or …), with the Linux file system (ID: 83).
One of the problems of this system is that all the data of the pendrive is deleted.
Another problem is that sometimes openSUSE doesn’t load completely and I cannot use it.
And another of the problems is that even if I create another partition (for example to make the Live USB persistent and “remember” the configuration of my computer) and I put some of my photos, songs, films there when I plug the pendrive in a computer running Windows XP I cannot access the data. (What about Vista and 7?)
Other Linux distros can be put in pendrives using the FAT file system (for example W95 FAT32 (LBA), ID: c). This way my personal data or files (photos, documents, …) can be opened from a computer running Windows XP (and the personal data is not erased when putting the Linux in the pendrive).
So I would like to know how to create a Live USB drive with personal files that are avaiable for many Operating Systems, including Windows XP.
Perhaps the solution is to put openSUSE in a FAT file system, or put it in Linux file system but create another partition with FAT file system (for this openSUSE should avoid the 1st partition, sdX1, that should be for the personal data, so Windows XP can access it).
> Perhaps the solution is to put openSUSE in a FAT file system, or put it
> in Linux file system but create another partition with FAT file system
> (for this openSUSE should avoid the 1st partition, sdX1, that should be
> for the personal data, so Windows XP can access it).
That’s the way I’d do it. One partition for the system, one for the
data. That way the system still has filesystem rights management on it;
*nix filesystem rights don’t really apply to W32 filesystems.
The problem with deletion of all data on a pendrive no one can solve.
That is what will happen during any new installation on any medium with any operating system, so either use new pendrive, or the one without anything important.
The problem with partitions.
FAT32 for Linux can be used with workarounds that will slow down Linux.
Let openSUSE live in its native file system and put your data in dedicated partition.
That is common solution for data exchange.
With XP it can be NTFS or FAT32; with partition bigger then 2 GB you have to use NTFS; up to 2 GB anything you like.