If you don't want to carry a 2.5" USB disk drive, you might like to try using an M2 SSD in an external USB case (approx 3.75" x 1.5" x 0.25") & more reliable than a pendrive.

With regards to setting up disks, I just use fdisk on the command line.

Good to know that you have had good experiences with generic 128GB pendrives, as I have just ordered 3x to try out with/on my thin client desktops.

If they've not been used in nearly 3 years, I'd just delete them - or copy/move them to external media, if you are unsure.

Creating a Ventoy pendrive is easy, just click on the version of your computer, then copy/paste distros to the pendrive....

Not all distros work under Ventoy, but it has been tested with a few hundred Linux distros.

It's a handy tool for trying 'live' distros in particular....

Chimera/chimaera - I just knew that O/S would cause problems!

You only need your actual/personal data, so use a 'live' Linux pendrive to copy it to a USB drive, (formatted as NTFS would probably be best, for re use/re installing by/to Windows partition.

I've used both RaspiOS & Devuan ARM on my Raspberry Pi computers, they work well - I've yet to run any BSD successfully on them, it seems to be a more complex installation process - I'll get around to it one day though, as some do use BSD on RPi.

Pretty much gave up snapping when everything went digital.....

There was skill in judging the light/aperture/Fstop - & then there was the darkroom....

Those were the good old days......

Edit: I do have a 'modern' hybrid & a 'modern' compact, but they rarely get used, for one thing they are so small, I can barely hold/use them!

All that this means is that a lot of knowledgeable computer users will either build their own or buy pre used equipment free from this crap, so a Windows machine will be like buying a ChromeOS/Android machine, & therefore just have a smaller market potential - computer manufacturers will see their profits fall exponetially.

I have a stock of useable MBR thin clients, & a few UEFI, that can be used in MBR mode too, so I'll be alright......

Also I am using BSD & Haiku on some of these machines, so even if the Corporates take over Linux, I'll be fine....

You seem to be replacing the content each time you 'cp' to the file 'b'.

In the UK, August is the 'silly season' in the press....I'm guessing it must be February on here!

Now, can we go back to discussing Devuan...thankyou.

I'd be interested in trying an ARM release on my Raspberry Pi 4.

Refractainstaller is just that, it installs the distro, (originally just Refracta), as that was what it was written for - the fact that other distros choose to use it as well is proof that it works for its intended purpose.

It's simple enough, just install to your system partition, & then add your old /home partition to /etc/fstab.