USB Flash Drives bootable?

[YARDofSTUF]

Can it be done?

[Norm]

Of course it can

[YARDofSTUF]

Cool, saw that with my thumb drive plugged in, it tries to boot from it like its a floppy.

[Norm]

How much space is on your thumbdrive Yard?

Big enough to hold BartPE?

If you make it bootable with BartPE could you do me a favor and let me know if it boots faster than a CD?
I've been curious about that.

[YARDofSTUF]

How much space is on your thumbdrive Yard?

Big enough to hold BartPE?

If you make it bootable with BartPE could you do me a favor and let me know if it boots faster than a CD?
I've been curious about that.

How would I load it there? Can i use winrar to unload the iso image on it?

Thumb drive is 2GB.

[Norm]

I haven't tried it myself. Not possible with my mobo, and no funds to upgrade.
Here's a few links for you though.

Bart's way.
http://www.911cd.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=10806

Google -
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...sb&btnG=Search

Here's a thread about how to install XP itself (not BartPE) to a flash drive.
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=14181

If you search the 911cd forums I'm sure there's more on the subject.

[YARDofSTUF]

I dont think my mobo suipports this, it looks like its meant for usb floppy drives or hard drives that would still write a boot sector.

[Norm]

I think you're wrong, but can't say positively.
I think it will boot whatever device is on the USB port, and there are utilities for creating the bootsector on the Flash drive.

I think you just don't want to do all that reading

[YARDofSTUF]

For successful installing BartPE to a USB flash disk you need:

1) A USB flash disk with a capacity of 256MB or more
2) Server 2003 SP1 (or a release candidate). You can download this from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...0-8E1708C3ED46
This file is large, about 350MB!!!
Unpack the files from the service pack (this is not installing) with:
sr1sp.exe -x, lets assume you extract it to c:\server2003sp1
Copy the file c:\server2003sp1\i386\setupldr.bin to the <pebuilder>\srsp1 folder
Expand the file c:\server2003sp1\i386\ramdisk.sy_ to the <pebuilder>\srsp1 folder
expand -r c:\server2003sp1\i386\ramdisk.sy_ <pebuilder>\srsp1
You can now remove the c:\server2003sp1 folder, not needed anymore...
3) Build BartPE using pebuilder as normal, you must set the output folder to
"BartPE", you do not need to generate an ISO image for now.
4) Run "pe2usb -f <drive:>" to format and install the files to your UFD.
Formatting is only needed the first time, so next time you can run
"pe2usb <drive:>" (without -f) so update the BartPE files.

For successful booting BartPE from a USB flash disk you need:
1) A PC that is capable of booting from a USB flash disk with 256MB memory
or more.

Isnt that all I need?

It tells me to remove my disk or other media and press a key when I try to boot with that.

[Norm]

I wish I knew, but not having the minimal required hardware I don't bother looking into it.

What you posted is the Bart way?

I'm sure if you search the forum at 911cd there is another way (possibly 2)
The thing is from what I HAVE seen by browsing around those forums, some methods don't work with every flash drive, but they do work with others. Take the chance and try one.

[YARDofSTUF]

I wish I knew, but not having the minimal required hardware I don't bother looking into it.

What you posted is the Bart way?

I'm sure if you search the forum at 911cd there is another way (possibly 2)
The thing is from what I HAVE seen by browsing around those forums, some methods don't work with every flash drive, but they do work with others. Take the chance and try one.

Ya, barts, usualyl have good luck with his methods.

I'll try this again at school tomorrow, that'll give me a bunch of options between systems and flash drives.

[YARDofSTUF]

Norm, got it to work on 1 PC at school. USB 1.1 though and it blue screened after like 5 mins.

[Scott]

http://www.informationweek.com/windo...7102101&pgno=4

Nice article on it.

[YeOldeStonecat]

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/artic...93,pg,6,00.asp

[twwabw]

I use this HP tool to make the USB drive bootable. Although it says it's for UCB2.0, it works fine on legacy as well. It's a freebie, and I've used it several times.

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/fi...oad/20306.html