Installing Ubuntu to 1gb Pendrive SAFELY

[VistaDude2221]

Hi. Before you read any further be ready to devote at least 45 minutes of time on this because I have a lot to say.

We recently (we, being my mom and dad) baught a new computer. They took my old one. Heres my problem. I LOVE ubuntu/compiz-fusion and all that good stuff. But, the last time i overwrote windows with ubuntu, mom went apesh(guitar schreech). :(
So, we reinstalled xp i dont know how many times, untill we decided to get a new one. This one is running Vista Home Premium64 bit. Here are my specs.

Intel Pentium Dual Core
4.00 Gb of RAM
500 Gig hard drive
nVidia 7100 geforce
All other ensential stuff.

Suprisingly, Vista is running AWESOME on this setup, but thats another story. :lolflag:

Back on topic, heres the deal. I got a 1gb thumb drive that i want to throw either feistey or gutsy on. (no hardy cuz its 4 gigs now :( ) I have Vista installed. I got a boot cd. Those things are all fine.

Here are the tghings that are not.

1. If i accendentaly select my main hdd, I'm dead.
2. Ubuntu does not like my wierless internet card.
3. I cannot get the nVidia drivers cuz i dont have internet on ubuntu.

I need a TOTALY full proof way, detailed down to the very pixel on my screen where to click, on how to install ubuntu to my thumbdrive. I need to somehow get drivers for my nvidia card and wierless internet card. I need to have vista on my main.

Dual booting is out of the question because in the long run of troubleshooting boot loaders, (Vista home premium glitch) i'm horrible.

Also, is it possible to save packages, compiz, ect., to my main hdd in a folder called ubuntu?

P.S. 32 bit or 64? :confused:

[VistaDude2221]

Anyone? I know the forums here are filled up almost instantaniously with 500 new posts every day, but I need help with this!!! :guitar:

[artsci2]

I'm a newbie with a similar history of Ubuntu vista conflicts.

I have finnally gone to just disconnecting the Hard drive and installing Ubuntu on the pen drive with the HD still disconnected. After the pen drive is loaded you can then reconect the HD. To boot ubuntu watch the computer at startup. It will say something like "press F12 to choose boot device." When you do that the bios will give you a list of devices to choose from. There's sometimes a sub menu "hard drives" that will contain the USB drive and the windows drive. Just selct and pres return to boot from the selected device.

[C.S.Cameron]

you are asking a lot from a 1G flash drive as a full Ubuntu install is at least 2G.
You might be able to fit a persistent install using the step by step instructions at pendrivelinux.com.
I understand you can make a session persistent by pressing F6 at login, and thus save packages, compiz, ect.
You can also install liveusb within the Live CD to automate the process, see pendrivelinux.co for a method to make this 8.04.1 install persistent.