Got an older box here; Best way to get it folding off USB?

[AsunaNegi]

I've got it laying around, but I want to know the best way to get it folding off a USB drive. I suppose I could run a small Linux distro and then run the linux client, but I've been trying to get this working: http://reilly.homeip.net/folding/ to no avail.

What's the best way to get an old box folding?

[AsunaNegi]

No one? Seriously? Well, I guess I'll just boot linux off the USB then.

[Ethre]

I don't know hardly any about this, but what exactly is happening?

I assume you are booting fine with the cd, so are you having issues getting the client to run after boot?

[AsunaNegi]

I can't get my computer to boot at all. I only get "Invalid or Damaged Boot Partition" when I try it. This goes for a normal linux distro, as well. Damn Small Linux doesn't work either.

[TazExtreme3]

check out PenDriveLinux.com (http://www.pendrivelinux.com/), Also PEtoUSB (http://gocoding.com/page.php?al=petousb) if you would rather run windows. There's also WinPE 2.0 (http://windowsconnected.com/blogs/joshs_blog/archive/2007/02/05/creating-a-bootable-winpe-2-0-usb-key.aspx) for Windows Vista. And then there's diskless folding (http://reilly.homeip.net/folding/diskless.html) as you mentioned. You'll need a dedicated boot server for this, You also have to make sure that the client is pxe bootable, then you just have to follow the guide to the t and make sure you put in information relevant to your network into tftpd32.
So as you can see you have many options, You just have to figure out which option is right for you.

[TazExtreme3]

I can't get my computer to boot at all. I only get "Invalid or Damaged Boot Partition" when I try it. This goes for a normal linux distro, as well. Damn Small Linux doesn't work either. Put in a windows 2000/xp cd if you have one, and go to the recovery console and type "fixboot" to rewrite the boot sectors, also run "fixmbr" to rewrite the Master Boot Record. Then try to reinstall whatever OS that you are trying to install.

[harlam357]

How old is your old box? Specs please.

notfred's USB Stick Folding is bar-none, down-and-dirty, quick, easy, and just about the fastest way to get a box up and Folding. It's decently bullet proof - (which in fact means it isn't bullet proof, but close ;))

Just follow the instructions on the page you link'd to: http://reilly.homeip.net/folding/

Post back here if you have any more questions... I've used his USB stick setup several times, so I'm pretty familiar with it now. :)

[AsunaNegi]

I'll try this stuff again in the morning.

This box is an emachines T3065. It's the Athlon XP 3000+ you see in my sig. It appears to be bootable off USB.


Thanks for the promised help, I'll be back tomorrow.

[Jenifer]

The 'fixboot' suggestion above sounds like it might work. If you have multiple OSes and none of them work on the stick, then my first guess is that there's something wrong with the stick, possibly physically. If DSLinux won't even work for you, that seems to speak ill for the stick... DSLinux's pendrive installation should set the partition information correctly.

However, in order to eliminate the possibility of it being the box that you're trying to boot it on, try to boot it on another, more recent box.

Is the stick itself old, or is it brand new? At this stage of the game, I'd try another stick even before I bothered messing with fixboot stuff just to get a working installation so I know what works and what doesn't.