Install Linux (Ubuntu) from USB drive

Recently one of our old laptop was crashed, so I had to re-install the operating system. We lost the Windows XP CD came with it, so installed XP from another CD. New installation was not ready to accept the keys mentioned on the sticker at the bottom of the laptop. So I decided to install Ubuntu 9.04 using a USB drive. This document has detailed information about USB installation. As no Ubuntu installation was available at that time, so creating a boot USB drive from downloaded ISO file was the only option and UNetbootin did the task nicely on Dell Latitude D630. But IBM ThinkPad R51 refused to boot from the USB disk (Kingston DataTraveler 4GB), anyway I was prepared for such failures and tried with another USB drive (Sandisk Cruzer micro 2GB), which worked well. On first boot system recognized my wireless network and connected instantly along with nice sound blowing from speakers.

My experience with USB installation was pretty nice and it took just 15 minutes for the whole exercise. Ubuntu installation was much easier then Windows XP.