Hi, Les C. wrote: > I downloaded the 3 dvd .iso files for the i386.
That's usual if you expect not to have an internet connection of decent speed after the core of Debian booted up. If you have a desktop PC connected by cable to the internet, then you will probably only need the DVD-1 ISO image. For a laptop with wireless internet connection it is often necessary to get an ISO with "non-free firmware". > after reading the website, i noticed a section that stated that you could > just just copy the iso file to the stick so formatted the stick Onto the raw stick device, not into a filesystem on stick. Only one ISO per stick is possible that way. See https://www.debian.org/CD/faq/#write-usb If you only have MS-Windows computers in reach, see at the end of the paragraph the advice to use http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/ Another suitable tool would be "Rufus" in its "DD" image mode (in contrast to its "ISO" image mode). > 32gig usb stick If you really need all 3 DVDs (and more) on one 32 GB USB stick, then consider to use the first Blu-ray sized ISO at https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/i386/jigdo-bd/ instead of DVD-1. Don't get discouraged by the small file sizes there. It will grow to 23 GB. The bulk of data will come as single software packages from Debian download servers. You will need to get for your current operating system a download tool named "jigdo-lite" from http://atterer.org/jigdo/ and follow the instructions of https://www.debian.org/CD/jigdo-cd/#how Have a nice day :) Thomas
