That's your problem. Flash drives are junk. Try a different one, but you're better off with a USB hard drive.

While I'm willing to entertain the idea that "flash drives are junk", I am curious as to why I've never had any Windows-based files become corrupt due to being written to any USB flash drive. Are there some serious integrity algorithms in Windows-based USB files?

Also, do you think this scenario would be better? If I were to burn a livecd CD-R and just use the flash as the location of the persistent data (which I would never use for anything important, knowing that USB's cannot withstand the usage.)

Which filesystem did you use? May I suggest you try ext4 for which purpose Gparted found preinstalled in Mint can be employed, if you're able to run it from Live CD/DVD.

Presuming your USB is healthy and you've tried another FS but it still causes you problems, maybe there's some incompatibility/bug with your hardware. There are many other distros specificaly tailored for older systems so fell free to ask if you need a recommendation. Just list your desired parameters: for which purpose would it be mainly used, specifications of machine(s) booting it etc.

That's a rather unusual scenario, CD/USB combo, but it should work. One big advantage of running system (or in this case main portion of it) from unwritable media is that it makes it completely immune to any potential infection across reboots. The USB part here would undermine that a little, but still better, when it comes to this, than running your whole system from it.

I have Linux Mint 17.3 64bit on one of my PCs and Linux Lite 2.8 32bit on another.

I've discovered that it's better to just go to Steam and grab THEIR installer as opposed to the repositories. Same with Wine and ATI graphics drivers, for that matter.

I use SolydXK, which is Debian stable desktop.
Its predictable and very easy to upgrade. Lots of newer software is available via backports.

Of course, it has also its price - Debian is nowhere as flexible as Gentoo and other source-based, when it comes to mixing software. But also all the difficulties and extra time are saved.

edit: massive necrolove, nate1222!

Rise from your grave!

I came over from Windows about 10 weeks ago, to Mint Cinnamon 18.1, and absolutely love it. Luckily pc was already quite good (i7, 16 ram, decent graphics card albeit a few years old), but I was amazed how much faster Cinnamon is than Windows ever was, and it never gets sluggish. So easy to set up and use, updates are very stable, plus I've been able to learn some basics about the system/terminal/installing things, especially gog games, lol. It's great to have the privacy and freedom of Linux. Kernel 4.11 and Mesa 17.0.7 are the best available so far in the updates section, which is great for art and games. although I can't get past OpenGL 3.00 with having a Radeon card yet, but look forward to future Linux developments about that. Everything runs incredibly as it is. I've avoided updating to 18.2, as the desktop manager has changed to lightdm. I like MDM, and would miss being able to freely size icons/arrange the desktop etc. And I'm amazed at the apps available; Krita appimage [as easy to use as .sh], cairo dock, smplayer, spacefm, are favourites. Can't recommend enough.

Lightdm and MDM are display managers, and have (almost) nothing to do with the desktop (beyond allowing you to choose which environment to start, if you have multiple installed). They are your login screen. Your desktop is still Cinnamon, KDE, Xfce, or MATE, depending on which one you chose.

In addition to what Maighstir already said updating to 18.2 does not change from MDM to lightdm anyway. You would have to do that manually after upgrading, only recommended for more advanced users (not to mention you aren't interested in the first place).

This seems just wrong to me with 4.6 being the latest one. Maybe post this as a problem in the general Linux thread?

I realise MDM etc are display managers, and about being able to upgrade within 18.1 without changing to lightdm. Sorry, just hadn't wanted to ramble on the forum and was thinking about answering more than explaining stuff. And thanks also to Themken for advice to post in the general Linux thread. I'll go do that now, as it would be great to be able to run the latest, for sure. :-)

If you're going to go Archlinux, you should go Manjaro. Manjaro is to Archlinux roughly what Mint is to Ubuntu. A fork that delays releases for greater stability and made to be more newbie friendly.

Where is the link that takes you to the Linux forum. I mean where do you find it. I am sure you could link me to it, but where would I go on GoG if I wanted to navigate to it myself?

That said, Mints support chat is rather unfriendly sometimes and Manjaros has a low amount of people in theirs.

Mint also confuses hide and make difficult to customize with newbie friendly. Their software manage lacks many free Linux programs and what it does have is always many versions out of date unless it's a program that hasn't seen updates in years or something.

I liked Linux Mint up until 18.1. Mint 17.3 was the last version I really liked.
Beyond Mint 17.3, I like Linux Lite 4.2.
My problem with Mint 18.1 and onward is the lack of VLC media player when installed offline. You can get the codecs from the repositories, but it should've been built into the OS. Linux Lite has VLC built in all the way up to 4.2, which is a pretty recent release, and can run all the software Ubuntu can - including gog.com and Steam's games.

My last version of Mint was 18.1 and I liked it because it came with 32bit support out of the box. Unfortunately since 18.2 that ended, I tried to ask the Mint team about it and it was a no go.

The past few months I discovered the fantastic world of Debian and how to make the entire repository offline for the Stable releases. It gave me exactly what was I looking for.

Holy thread rezzes, batman!

As for the matter of "better than", that really depends on your desires and needs. For me, I'd go stark raving mad knowing I was using a less than fresh application when a newer one was available upstream, but due to the consequences of "stability" and "long term service", I wouldn't see that version for another release or two. And before you ask, PPAs aren't a valid solution. At least the COPR and AUR are both centralized.

Linux Mint also has a pretty terrible upgrade path, in my opinion; where they recommend you don't upgrade, unless you really need/want to. When trying to upgrade a Linux for my Father's laptop, it failed in a loop, so I just installed Fedora over it. Nyeh.