How to create a Bootable USB Device

Elif Tymes · Nov 24, 2005

Now, you all know how to make boot disks, or boot cds, or even boot DVDs. That's great! good for you, but I have no floppy drive, and I don't want to have to burn a ccd every time I want to make a new bootdisk.

The solution? Bootable USB Keys. Heres how to do it.

First, download HP's Make Boot program. This works perfectly fine with non HP USB Devices, but be warned it DOES FORMAT THE DEVICE. Backup your data first.

Then, download these bootable files(BROKEN!)---Use these instead!

Extract the bootable files, and install the boot program. Insert your USB Key, then run the make boot program. Select the "Create a DOS Startup Disk" Checkbox. Then select the "Using DOS System Files located at:" Option button. Click the little ellipse(...) and browse to the directory you extracted the bootable files to.

Click "Start" and away you go! Easy as pie!

Elif Tymes · Nov 27, 2005

Nobody needs/uses this? Come now, posts of appreciation for my work would be appreciated

.

Know Nuttin · Nov 27, 2005

Good post.

Most of us will only cut one good big utility CD and that will work for 95% of the time we need it.

hyperasus · Nov 28, 2005

OH nice!! I get tired of having to make a new cd for every new bios that comes out. Especially since I do it on my computer and about 30 other PC's(friends/family). Now if only this wold work for those new xp installs with those dam raid drivers.......OHHH!!

how this ****es me off every time I think about it.

Now how do I make a bootable USB drive that I can use to recover NTFS files?
Has anyone every got an XP install to work on a USB thumb drive?

Nathan0490 · Nov 28, 2005

very nice quick tutorial, thanks!!

DrSpanky · Nov 28, 2005

it shouldnt be that hard to get xp on a flash drive, ive had xp down to less then 600mb
think i got it just under 400 before i deleted something i shouldnt and lost the task bar

if it wouldnt install to a flash drive you think u could install it to hdd then copy it over?

Know Nuttin · Nov 28, 2005

You'd need a program that can enable you to read NTFS partitions. I use NTFS4DOS.

If the BIOS enables the drive letter as A for the USB key, then XP should allow you to load SATA RAID drivers from it. I haven't tried it yet though.

If you copied the XP install over to the USB key, you'd need to find a way to make it boot off of the key. Again, I'm not sure if bootcfg, fixboot, or fixmbr would be allowed onto removable media but it's possible.

DrSpanky · Nov 28, 2005

Know Nuttin said:
You'd need a program that can enable you to read NTFS partitions. I use NTFS4DOS.

not if u used fat32...

Know Nuttin · Nov 28, 2005

DrSpanky said:
not if u used fat32...

I know but the response for NTFS4DOS was targeted towards hyperasus.

deathman20 · Nov 28, 2005

Ya I've used this, not this exact way but I had something in one of my CPU posts of how to make a bootable device and rid us of the evil floppy drive.

But ya trying to get the USB readable as A: I've been unsucessful with that

So the startup can't read it to get the files for the SATA drives.

Elif Tymes · Nov 29, 2005

I think that's mostly on a per BIOS basis, I'll look into it as well.

Anyways, I have a 40GB External 2.5" USB drive, and am very tempted to use this too boot off of it, and have it be my windows XP Install system. Slipstream my SATA RAID Drivers on it, and walaa

. Could put Mandriva on it, or Debian, or any other install and use it...

Mmm, and fast transfer! At least, faster than DVD.

Mr.Guvernment · Nov 29, 2005

CD-RW's

infinitevalence · Nov 29, 2005

just wondering what is the min size of the disk?

Elif Tymes · Nov 29, 2005

Can be any size for the SATA Drive. For an XP install, it has to be at least 400MB, I believe.

CDRW's require you to reformat/rewrite them. This is just plug in, drag, drop done

.

And, I don't want to spend more money on CD-RWs

Dukeman · Nov 29, 2005

Some things to note about the HP utility. It uses FreeDOS file system (so they don't step on Bill's toes). You can load MS DOS boot files but there can be versioning issues. I recommend getting the latest version of FreeDOS and putting the boot files into a folder and then drag them to the USB key drive after using the HP utility. This will improve compatibility with newer chipsets, especially for HIMEM.

I've used this utility and file sets for FreeDOS to create bootable USB utilities for FW download, BIOS update and just about anything that needs a DOS boot up. It's cool to watch DOS boot up, load HIMEM and then start your app in less than 5 seconds.

H2 · Dec 1, 2005

Nice work Elif Tymes!!!

I have struggled with this for over a year now with all the laptops shipping with no floppy drive. I use Ghost 2003 to make Images and Partition Magic 7.0 for setting up hard drives and both of them only make boot disks for floppys in the A: drive.

I made one for each program on two different USB thumbdrives, and they work!
Thanks for the links and good directions on how to do it. :clap:

Elif Tymes · Dec 5, 2005

THanks

I know this really helped me alot

BIOS flashes are now a breeze. Download BIOS, put on flash, reboot... Flash

It's so Easy!

El<(')>Maxi · Dec 7, 2005

Good stuff Elif,

Thanks

flamerail · Dec 8, 2005

Wonder if u had a 1gb flashstick if u could boot windows off it?

deathman20 · Dec 8, 2005

flamerail said:
Wonder if u had a 1gb flashstick if u could boot windows off it?

I think thats possible. I thought I saw that option when I had my USB plug in when I installed windows this past time, but I could of been mistaken too.

How to create a Bootable USB Device

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