Boot frm usb thumbdirve

[johnnycartoon]

I would like to noe if i can boot window xp in my usb thumbdrive cos it is wasting cd if u boot frm cd. Pls make it simple 4 me to understand cos i m a beginer onli. Thx in Advanced

[JedMeister]

It is theoretically possible but for you it will depend on your motherboard. Most newer motherboards (made within the last couple of years) can do it. Bootdisk.com have a guide to booting from USB. Have a read and see how you go. There is lots more info on the net (google is your friend)!

Regardless of that, I'd have a look in your BIOS (often you press <Delete> key at startup - check your manual to be sure) and see if there are any options to boot to USB in there. It should have some setting relating to boot devices. It will probably be set to boot first to HDD or maybe CD/DVD. There may be other settings you will have to play with, as its different for all motherboards

Even if you have those settings its still not a guarantee that it will work. I have personally experienced a board that was very fussy and would not boot to most USB sticks. I'd personally recommend using method 2 from the link I gave above and then load something on it such as Memtest86+ (read here and download USB version here. Its been a while since I last did it but if memory serves me correctly then it should be a simple case of unzipping and then running the .exe.

Then test it out! If it boots from your USB and Memtest starts ok, it works, if it just boots like normal then play with some more (likely) settings in BIOS until either it works or you give up!

Note: If your BIOS doesn't have a setting to restore defaults, make sure that you write down all the changes that you make! Best still, write down all the changes that you make regardless!

Edited August 23, 2008 by JedMeister

[usasma]

I found this tutorial: http://www.winusb.de/tutorial_en.html

and this one: http://www.ngine.de/article/id/8

Previous research that I did on the subject seemed to indicate that it just wasn't worth the hassle to me (when I could use a bootable CD for almost anything I'd want or need).

[Kelsenellenelvian]

OK with the price of a cdr under 25-50 cents you are saving a whole lot of money and man work hours by using the cd's.

What you want is horribly involved and NOT totally but nearly impossible to use in a practical enviroment.

UBCD for windows however is a great live windows cd and you can always use a cdrw!

http://www.ubcd4win.com/

I just bought some spindles of cdr's that only cost 16 cents each cd!

Edited August 23, 2008 by Kelsenellenelvian

[jaclaz]

What you want is horribly involved and NOT totally but nearly impossible to use in a practical enviroment.

Actually NO.

Booting a XP or a XP based PE from USB is a perfectly usable environment.

The UBCD4WIN you mention, which is NOT a XP, but rather a XP based PE, has an utility to be tranferred to USB stick.

On the other hand, the "USB_Multiboot" you can find here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/Install-XP-from-USB-f157.html

besides the ability to create a setup to install XP from USB, allows to add any number of PE builds to a USB stick or drive.

If the question is aimed to a full XP on USB stick, the reference thread is this one:

from which the links usasma gave derived from, but for a newbie and for those not wanting/needing to understand HOW it works, trying this:

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

is advised, it is a fully automated way that works allright in the vast majority of cases.

jaclaz

[Andromeda43]

The greatest advantage to having a bootable Flash Drive, is to boot up a system and run things, like Memtest or HD utilities that you don't want to run, or Can't Run in Windows.

It boots much faster than a CD, is physically much smaller and is much less subject to physical damage.

I have one that I use with my Windows ME Utilities and another one I use to boot into Norton's Ghost 2003, 8.3 or 11.

I also have one with "NTFS4DOS" so I can boot up a system that won't boot on its own and access any file on the NTFS hard drive, from a DOS prompt.

A good knowledge of DOS is required here.

HP puts out a nice little utility for making a Flash Drive bootable, but you must have a source for the three DOS system files for the HP Utility to use.

The utility DOES NOT supply those files. (legally, it can't! )

You can use a bootable floppy disk for the source, or you can take the files from a folder that you've already prepared on your HD. I've done it both ways.

Cheers Mates!

Andromeda43 B)

Edited August 24, 2008 by Andromeda43

[jaclaz]

HP puts out a nice little utility for making a Flash Drive bootable, but you must have a source for the three DOS system files for the HP Utility to use.

The utility DOES NOT supply those files. (legally, it can't! )

FYI, my comments on the DBRL helper:

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/liveusb.php

http://www.clonezilla.org/download/nchc/live-usb-helper/

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=4902&st=47

****, I thought it was an alternative to the HP utility, not a wrapper around it.

I hope the good Linux guys understand that they are distributing a file that (surprise - surprise ) embed also DOS 7.x system files.....

(try using 7-zip on HPUSBFW.EXE - open inside)

But, on the other hand how can they fit around two Mb (or even the 436 Kbytes of HPUSBFW.EXE) in 204 Kb?

I had a look at the .exe and it seems like it downloads on-the-fly the HP utility from:

http://h50178.www5.hp.com/local_drivers/17550/SP27608.exe

Which is even worse, it means that the tool is useless if you are offline AND that as soon as HP will change, as it often does the file location, it will become TOTALLY useless.

I expected something more from those guys.....

IMHO a very, very sneaky way to save time instead writing an actual Open Source program with no strings attached.

jaclaz

[jaclaz]

Sorry for the first four *'s I didn't think that word filter on MSFN was that strict....

jaclaz

Edited August 24, 2008 by jaclaz

[Mordac85]

fwiw, I found this nice little utility, PEtoUSB, which will transfer your PE ISO to the USB drive w/o a lot of hassle. I've been using it for a few weeks and love it. Next, I'm going to see if this would expand past PE to an ISO of my OEM media.