Tutorials/Playing and saving Minecraft on a thumb drive

This tutorial explains how to run Minecraft on a Thumb/Flash/USB drive. It is useful if you want to keep your game data (worlds, resource packs, server list...) when switching computers.

What you will need

 * A Flash/Thumb drive with at least 256MB of space.
 * A computer that runs Windows/Any Linux distribution

Preparations
As minecraft requires more than the single one file it obviously installed, we will collect all the files needed to run and sort them onto the thumb drive for easy access. Please note that if you do not do this right it could crash Minecraft.


 * Plug in your thumb drive and open it
 * Create a folder, name it Minecraft portable (or whatever you want) and double click it
 * In that folder, create two new folders and name them bin and data
 * Note: they must have those EXACT names since we're going to use them in the following steps.
 * There are now three folders on the thumb drive, bin and data, both within Minecraft portable.

The client
Now to get and copy the client/launcher to the thumb drive:


 * Locate your minecraft client
 * You need the .exe file, not the shortcut. If you're not sure, there should be a little arrow in the bottom-left corner. If it's there, it means its the shortcut.
 * If you have a shortcut on your desktop/start menu, you can right click it, click "Properties" and click "Open File Location".
 * Copy said .exe and paste it into the bin folder

The data files
The Minecraft data files are still missing, here's how to find them:


 * Press +
 * type %APPDATA%
 * hit ENTER
 * Locate your .minecraft folder and copy it
 * Copy said folder and paste it into the data folder
 * Note: any texture packs or other stuff you might have are usually already included here.

Linux
For GNU/Linux, your life is made alot simpler. In this example, I assume minecraft is installed in ~/games/.minecraft (mine is, for better organization, and for the sake of simplicity in the process)

I assume your usb is /dev/sdb1

Run the following in the terminal (make sure you are root, or use sudo):

umount /dev/sdb1 mkdir /media/minecraft mount /dev/sdb1 /media/minecraft mkdir /media/minecraft/games # If there is a folder called games in you usb, skip this step cp -rn ~/games/.minecraft /media/minecraft/ # This might take a while cd umount /dev/sdb1 rm /media/minecraft # Double check to make sure that your usb in not mounted!

After that, if you want to play minecraft, just type the following in the terminal (I still assume the usb is /dev/sdb1) (again, you need superuser privileges)

umount /dev/sdb1 mkdir ~/games # skip if there is a folder called games in your home dir mount /dev/sdb1 ~/games # You would not be able to play any games that are saved in the ~/games dir

Execute your minecraft launcher and you will be good!

Mac

 * what you'll need:
 * flash drive (like 300 mb should do)
 * minecraft


 * procedure:
 * locate your minecraft files. Go to users/(your user)/library/application support/minecraft
 * note: on some newer macs your library folder may be hidden. In this case it is different for everyone. Try googling it.
 * copy that minecraft folder in your application support folder.
 * plug in your flash drive and make 2 folders in it:
 * "data" and "launcher"
 * paste your minecraft folder into the "data" folder in the flash drive.
 * drag your launcher into the "launcher" folder
 * eject then remove your flash drive
 * insert your flash drive into another mac
 * open the launcher folder and move the minecraft launcher into your applications folder.
 * double click the launcher to open it. Then after minecraft loads exit it.
 * again go to users/your user/library/application support
 * in "application support" delete the minecraft folder.
 * drag the minecraft folder in your data folder on your flash drive to the desktop.
 * then drag it from your desktop into application support.
 * run minecraft again.

There you go :D

Tutorial by iko. minecraft username: iko_davalos

Setting up
Now that all the data files are there, we need to tell windows how to handle them on the thumb drive and for that, we will create a batch file.


 * Press +
 * type notepad
 * hit ENTER
 * Here is the code, copy and paste it into notepad:

SET APPDATA=%CD%\data bin\minecraft.exe


 * For whatever reason, if you use a Jar, put this:

SET APPDATA=%CD%\data bin\minecraft.jar


 * Now click File, Save as ...
 * Locate your Minecraft portable folder (not bin or data)
 * As Filename use "Launcher.bat"
 * Note: yes, including the "" - else you will get Launcher.bat.txt and it will not work.

All done
That's it, all should work perfectly. Every time just before minecraft launches there may appear a window for a short time but that's expected, it's just the batch file working. A simple double click on the newly created Launcher.bat will start minecraft and you can play as usual.

Keep in mind however, should you ever want to use a theme pack or other addon/plugin: when the respective instructions tell you to copy files you will need to use the .minecraft folder on your thumb drive. However, said themes/addons will then of course be integrated in your portable version. Note: This also works in dropbox

Source
If you have any trouble or just don't understand, the original source can be found in this thread.

Cryshal's Alternative Method
What you need:
 * A flash drive. (I'd suggest around 2GB, but varies depending on how many worlds/texture packs you have)
 * Windows


 * First, create a folder named, say, "Flash MC". Then, go on over to get jPortablewhich lets you run Java right on your flash drive, without it being installed on the computer.


 * You will want to install that onto your flash drive in a directory like \Flash MC\jPortable.


 * Then, go to Minecraft Profile Manager's thread, and download it.
 * Put it into your Portable MC folder. Follow the instructions. (Put minecraft.exe into the same folder that it is in)
 * You should now be able to launch MPM, make a profile and download all the needed Minecraft files to play.

Note
I hope this helps you!
 * MPM runs using the Microsoft .NET framework, meaning it will not work on computers that aren't running Windows.
 * Computers that are running windows should work just fine, unless they haven't been using Microsoft update.