Interesting question and I recently did this to a 64GB SanDisk Cruzer Spark, though in a much different way than a Live USB of Linux Lite.
A full installation of Linux Lite would be better because Linux will run in the exact same fashion that it does off of your internal hard drive in your PC and it will also not nag you to install Linux Lite every time you boot from the flash drive. It will boot into Linux Lite to the login screen without any interruption. It is also easier to modify the partitions of the Linux install easier than you can if it was in Live USB mode.
You can use VirtualBox and a live ISO image, and attach the physical flash drive to the Virtual Machine as a hard drive to install Linux Lite to. A flash drive with a full Linux desktop and not in Live USB mode.
Here is how I did it:
1. Install VirtualBox and create a new virtual machine.
2. Select
"Ubuntu Linux" (32-bit or 64-bit doesn't matter) and give it a name (
"Live ISO mode" is the name I used). Click next. Leave the memory RAM setting at default and click next again.
3. On the virtual hard drive screen click on
"Do not create a virtual hard disk file".
Once the virtual machine has been created do these preparation steps:
1. Click
"Settings" and go to the
"Storage" section on the left side.
2. Click on the CD Icon that says
"Empty" and click on the second CD icon on the very right side next to the drop down IDE menu. Find your ISO file of Linux Lite (
"Choose Virtual Optical Disk File").
3. Go to the
"USB" settings section on the left side and enable
"USB 2.0 (EHCI) Controller".
4. On the very right side of the window there are 4 blue icons. Click the blue icon with the green + plus on it. In the drop down menu find your flash drive. It can be many different names depending on your make and model of flash drive.
5. Click OK on very bottom of the Settings window to confirm your changes.
The fun part:
1. Boot your Linux Lite virtual machine. It is just like booting a Live USB on a real PC. Select install Linux Lite.
2. Go through all the installation steps (Language, Keyboard, Username, Password, etc.).
3. When asked to
"unmount" the flash drive, click Yes if the dialog appears. Ignore this step if it doesn't appear.
4. Click on "Something else, you can create or resize partitions yourself" option. Here you can setup an EXT4 system partition for the system, Swap space and an NTFS partition that you can access.
5. Install Linux Lite!
This video has good instructions too but using a physical machine but similar process (A warning though: Disconnect or remove your internal hard drive before doing this like the video said to ensure no data loss or mistakes can happen):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMMzobK1Clk