Yes you can install to USB but will need two drives, one to use as the installer and one as the destination. The destination USB drive will need to be 16GB. I leaned down the install a bit so it just MIIIGHT fit on an 8GB now. My miner on the current build has been up about 48hrs, its showing 7.4GB used, but packages sometimes are inflated during install, so not sure if an 8GB would cut it, even with no swap. Feel free to try though As for the installer USB drive, 4GB will be enough.