I'm trying to figure out how to install Mint 21 on my Windows 11 machine, but I don't have a USB stick or a DVD at the moment. My computer is set up in Legacy BIOS mode, and I've heard that installing Mint usually requires one of those. I recently found a USB stick I thought was lost, but then when I tried using Rufus to create the installation media, it seems to have messed up the USB drive altogether because now my computer won't recognize it. Any suggestions on how to proceed?
2 Answers
Unfortunately, you really need a USB stick or DVD to install Mint 21. If your machine is set to Legacy mode, they wouldn't boot from USB by default. However, you could consider a network install, but that requires additional setup like a TFTP server. It's doable, but might be more complex than you’d want.
You might want to check out a tool called Plop Boot Manager. It's designed to help boot from USB or CD on systems that normally don't support it. Just be mindful that you may need to disable secure boot in your BIOS/UEFI for some distros to work. Good luck with the installation!
Just a heads up, thumb drives are super cheap these days, usually well under $10. If you can't buy one, try borrowing from a friend; they often have spares.