Create a Linux Live USB on an OTG USB from an Android device

Question

I recently attempted to install Windows 8 on my laptop along side an Ubuntu installation. At the time I couldn't find a large enough USB drive to use as a bootable USB for windows so I created two partitions along side my current Ubuntu installation: one for the contents of the Windows .iso file and one for the actual installation.

Using grub4dos I was able to load the Windows Setup .exe but during the installation I accidentally clicked the wrong option - which reformatted the entire hard drive. Including the files which it was trying to install. Obviously this failed but now I'm left with the predicament that I do not have any OS on the laptop.

I have since found my larger USB drive (32GB) which I could copy my installation files to. However I hadn't have any other PC. The USB is an OTG USB which means I can connect it to my phone. Is there anyway which I could create a live USB of Linux or windows installation media onto this USB from my phone. My only other option is that I also have a RPI2 currently running openelec but I could possibly use an alternative OS on that if I could create from from my Android phone.

Solution

You can use DriveDroid on your smartphone and use it as a live usb installer.

DriveDroid Home Page

DriveDroid is an Android application that allows you to boot your PC from ISO/IMG files stored on your phone. This is ideal for trying Linux distributions or always having a rescue-system on the go... without the need to burn different CDs or USB pendrives.

DriveDroid also includes a convenient download menu where you can download USB-images of a number of operating systems from your phone. You can also create USB-images which allows you to have a blank USB-drive where you can store files in. Blank images also allow you to use tools on your PC to burn images to the drive and create a bootable USB disk that way.

Comments

[Zina]

I would go to a friend and create a live bootable usb drive there.

[Nate]

Yeah that's what I have had to do, was hoping to get it done last night but had no luck. I've borrowed a friends old win 7 laptop and I'm just in the process of creating a windows install USB, think I'll try dual booting the normal way this time lol.

[Nate]

Thanks for the response. I did come across that but it requires a rooted device which I am yet to do. All sorted now though anyway.