This guide assumes you are using the Arch Linux LiveCD, and only have one hard drive, or are using a VM. Please verify /dev/sdb is your USB key before performing any operations. 1) create partitions 1. 128MB EFI (fat32) 2. Linux 3. Swap 2) Format partitions 1. mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdb1 2. mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb2 3. mkswap /dev/sdb3 3) Mount Partitions 1. mount /dev/sdb2 /mnt 2. mkdir -p /mnt/boot/EFI 3. mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/boot/EFI 4. swapon /dev/sdb3 4) Restore tarball 1. tar -Jvpxf /backup/file.tar.xz -C /mnt 5) Chroot and update mount points 1. genfstab -U -p /mnt > /mnt/etc/fstab 2. arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash 3. grub-mkconfig >> /boot/grub/grub.cfg 4. exit 6) Unmount partitions 1. umount -R /mnt 2. swapoff /dev/sdb3