Multiboot ISO to USB Drive

**diginode** · April 13, 2008

Can ANYONE help me....

I already make a multiboot CD by magic ISO which working ok.

I put ERD2005, WINXP, WIN98 etc in single ISO.

I burn the ISO in DVD and it is working ok with all options. Now my question is that how can i put this ISO file in my 2GB flash drive which working ok?

pls help me step by step...

**wrayal** · April 14, 2008

Unfortunately, it's pretty non-trivial. There is no way to directly copy over an ISO and have it work - you'll have to do it part by part. Moreover, some are very hard to get working...luckily for you, there's already been some work in this area. You may wish to start with http://www.msfn.org/board/Install-XP-from-USB-f157.html .

So I'm afraid it's not possible to guide you step-by-step. But why not try and figure it out yourself? Keep a log here, and you may get help on individual bits..."help me do a complete project" is rarely a reasonable request! The following may also help you:

http://www.msfn.org/board/Multiple-Partiti...-OS-t69211.html

http://www.msfn.org/board/USB-Multi-Partit...ot-t110737.html

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=20089

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=18846

In fact, I plan on performing a project like this sometime in the future myself, albeit a little more ambitious (2k, 2k3, XP, Vista, 2k8, OSX & a couple of linux distros all both installable & bootable from USB, plus some apps - 32gb corsair required tho!)

Wrayal

**Angelico_Payne** · April 25, 2008

Yeah, work on that is progressing slowly, probably beacuse it is not widespread yet, and beacause DVD media is cheaper than flash disc.

For now i think only isolinux based and floppy emulation based boot images can be used. Also recently I read news that Intel based Macs can boot from USB2 drives.

Also, The Universal Serial Bus (USB) Mass Storage Working Group is preparing a specification on booting USB devices to enable booting from USB within the industry. Boot from USB has become a highly requested feature. Both USB flash drive (UFD) and USB CD-ROM drives are in a position to pave the way of new booting features on USB. This paper provides information about booting the Microsoft Windows family of operating systems from USB storage devices. It provides guidelines for BIOS vendors, IHVs, and OEMs to work together to create USB boot enabled products. (source: http://whitepapers.techrepublic.com.com/)

I think part of the problem lies in BIOS reconfiguration. Also repercussions for HDD manufacturers are pretty severe, so maybe that too is holding it back.

Anyway here are some additional links to help you, they are more focused on running live OS from USB, but will help give you better understanding of the matter :

Link1

Link2

And as always the best resource is LINK

**jaclaz** · April 25, 2008

@Angelico_Payne

You joking right?

The whitepaper, which is here:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/archive/usb-boot.mspx

is dated

Updated: August 23, 2004

In the last three and a half years, not a single advice has been given from the industry.

Luckily enough a number of manufacturers had already, well before the "whitepaper" implemented in their BIOS and hardware devices the possibility, and thank to a number of "amateurs", lots of operating systems and PE's and LiveCd's were "ported" to USB booting.

Booting a .iso image from WHATEVER HD or FD like Mass Storage device is an alltogether different matter, basically with current knowledge:

1) DOS based OS can be booted from .iso images

2) NT based OS can be booted from .iso images ONLY through RAMDISK loading

3) Most Linux based OS can be booted from .iso images, though some distro's may need modifications to be able to do so.

jaclaz

**Angelico_Payne** · April 29, 2008

Didn't know it was significant, actually I thought that was a part of the reason why it is impossible to multiboot from an USB stick/ flash memory.

I guess I was wrong.

I know that Linux is operable from USB stick via isolinux, to what degree I dont know, since I am not into Linux.

XP & Vista booting from stick, works too, but working under that operating system that is booted from usb stick, is somewhat limited in my experiance, but so far I have only tried 3 USB stick version of XP (made with BartPE method I presume), and I'm trying one Vista based USB based project atm.

And there is that still non availability of calling different boot loaders as in cdshell and eazyboot.

If only someone would make bootloader to resolve this...

**jaclaz** · April 29, 2008

... but so far I have only tried 3 USB stick version of XP (made with BartPE method I presume), and I'm trying one Vista based USB based project atm.
And there is that still non availability of calling different boot loaders as in cdshell and eazyboot.
If only someone would make bootloader to resolve this...

Actually there is some mixing of terms/notions, BartPE is NOT XP, it is a Pre-install Environment BASED on XP (or Server 2003).

Having a FULL (not PE) Windows 2K/XP/2003 from USB stick or USB HD is perfectly possible, once again after Microsoft denied that it could be :

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=14181

http://www.ngine.de/article/id/8/

http://www.usboot.org/tiki-index.php

Vista based PE's, including MS's own WinPE 2.0 and the current "amateur" VistaPE project:

http://www.vistape.net/

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showforum=51

have no problems in working from USB device.

grub4dos, which is being actively developed ALREADY can do anything you may think of, and maybe something more, BOTH on CD and USB device:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showforum=71

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showforum=66