Options when Installed on a USB Drive

When Tinycore is installed on a USB drive, backup is designed to minimize the amount of writing to the USB drive, which results in the USB drive lasting longer. This also applies when solid state memory is used in a computer instead of a hard drive.

When Tinycore is run without persistent home, and a file is saved, it is saved to RAM. It is only written to the USB drive, when backup is run, normally when shutting down Tinycore.

The more you have in backup, the longer it will take to start up and shut down Tinycore.

Persistent opt

If persistent opt is used on a USB drive, in most situations, it results in less writing to the usb drive. Most people change settings in opt, less often than they backup.

When setting up persistent opt in a USB drive, it is ideal to use the UUID.

To set up persistent opt, edit the bootloader configuration file, adding persistent opt.

If you have installed Tinycore using the installer, you should already have tce=UUID=“9aff3da3-474d-440d-bb6c-3240afe84ac6” (the number will be different). To set up persistent opt, copy the UUID number, like this

opt=UUID="9aff3da3-474d-440d-bb6c-3240afe84ac6" tce=UUID="9aff3da3-474d-440d-bb6c-3240afe84ac6"

Use the UUID number for your USB drive.

If you have not installed Tinycore using the installer, to find out the UUID, use

blkid -s UUID /dev/sda1

If not sda1, use the correct partition.

After setting up persistent opt, edit /opt/.filetool.lst, and remove all references to opt, so it is not included in backup.

Persistent home or Backup

Is it a good idea to have persistent home on a USB drive?

It depends on how you use the USB drive. For example:

If you run Tinycore from a USB drive, and normally change a lot of files when using it, it may be better to backup the home directory.

If you use the USB drive as a repair and rescue tool, and don't change many files when using it, it may be better to use persistent home.

Ask the question: Is less written to the USB drive by saving files each time they are changed, or by saving everything in backup each time the computer is turned off?

To set up persistent home, use the UUID, as discussed above.

For more information, see