laptop internal HD crashes, won't restart, need help making a linux bootable thumb drive

[lefrenzy]

Hey guys,

I am a total newbie when it comes to Linux. I've installed it once maybe 10 years ago. Anyway, my Dell Studio XPS 13 has crashed on me. The internal HD is royally screwed, and Windows 7 refuses to load up, even in safe-mode. I also tried "repair mode" and "debug" mode. Debug mode ran for a little while after finally freezing.

Anyway, I need help choosing a Linux distribution, and how to install it on a flash drive, and make that thumb drive bootable, so I can hope to load up my laptop, plug in an external HD, and save any data from the internal HD that I can.

HELP!

Dell support should be able to help you. (tic) Ubuntu probably has the most publicity and that is the distro Dell likes to use. I would back up everything you can and get mswindows running. then download and install wubi within mswindows or use a virtual machine. Use it till you become a bit more comfortable with linux. Duel boot machines are not a good idea unless you really know what you are doing. Especially because of all the changes to linux and mswindows that are going on now. A can of worms.

You can get unetbootin for both mswindows and linux. They have directions that are pretty simple. Four clicks or so and you are done. Easy way to make a bootable usb.