Bootable USB Stick?!?

[Tihi]

make usb bootable without formatting

How to detect is an USB-Stick Bootable or not?
I have two Sticks and try to make both bootable with the same procedure. Frst can boot and second not! What is wrong? Are all Sticks 'bootable', if not, can be prepared?

Tihi 8)

 

[eltonjohn]

make usb bootable without format

A bottable USB STICK .What a NICE TRIP !
But the USB subsystem is loadead by the windows or linux ..
As far as i know( in computers what i used to know is not valid anymore!)
Bios don't reconize USB devices ..once agian as far as i know!

Cheers ..
is just a matter of time!

 

[manitooo]

bottable usb

except for boot device !!!

but I don't have any clue to transform a USB key in a bootable device (in the meaning of USB of course)

 

[manitooo]

bootable usb without format

BTW, Tihi, how did you manage do make your first one bootable ?

 

[Tihi]

bootble usb

How to make USB-Stick bootable:

from Win98 DOS-Prompt type "SYS {USBDriveLetter}:" or
"FORMAT {USBDriveLetter} /U /S"

**broken link removed**

Sorry, German article!!!

Or, You can boot from DOS Floppy with USB support and make the same:
**broken link removed**



Tihi 8)

 

[nerd77]

how to duplicate usb stick

Short abstract from the german article:

copy the necessary bootfiles to the stick:
from windows 95 or 98, use SYS command to transfer the files to the stick (needs the stick to be acessible as virtual drive under windows)

configure the BIOS to accept the stick as boot device. AMI and Phoenix BIOS seem to be uncritical, but Award BIOS makes trouble.

In the assumption that the stick has not too much memory, the operating system of the stick was suggested as MS-DOS (means: NO WINDOWS) the rest of the article deals with some usefull DOS (text) based tools like former "Norton Commander" file explorer tool for fast and easy file access.

 

[manitooo]

duplicate bootable usb

does anyone knows the command like for sys but with a NT plateforme (NT/2000/XP) ?

THX

 

[Escorial]

win2k usb boot

does anyone knows the command like for sys but with a NT plateforme (NT/2000/XP) ?

THX

My computer -> Removable USB Drive-> Format
Select fat file system and check Create MS-DOS startup disk option.

 

[manitooo]

duplicate usb stick

sorry, I was meaning :

"how to make it bootable without formatting it, like when using 'sys' command from old W95/98 " ?

 

[wolf69]

bootabe usb

Escorial, when formatting USB dongle in win2k or winxp there is no ms-dos startup disk option.
Anyway with linux that's a no difficult thing, but sure the bios must be able to see usb dongle at startup (it should see dongle as a floppy disk), linux kernel must support usb dongles.
Suppose to have a boot disk (as ones norton ghost can generate or "backup" utility can).
In linux put your dongle on and your floppy too and simply do:
dd if=/dev/fd0 of=/home/username/image
then
dd if=/home/username/image of=/dev/sda1
(if sda1 is your dongle)
So you get a usb with an image of a bootable floppy inside, the bios see it as a floppy and boots.
Bye!

 

[xvibe]

bootable usb dongle

Your motherboard must have support for bootble USB devices to read from it. Unless you boot from a diskette with a driver for USB.
I have one USB stick and my motherboard supports boot from USB devices. To boot from it I must use a software from the manufacturer.

 

[Escorial]

boot from usb dongle

2 wolf69: Yes, you are right. I didn't tried it, simply said based on standart procedure for floppy. Here some advices for creating bootable usb stick:

There are 3 primary conditions that must be met on a ThumbDrive to enable bootability.
a. Master Boot Record (MBR)
b. Active Partition
c. System Files
Aside from enabling support on ThumbDrive side, the host side (Computer, notebook with USB
port) must satisfy the following condition
a. BIOS that supports booting from external USB mass storage device. E.g. Phoenix BIOS
version 4 release 6.
Setting up the BIOS
On some BIOS, the boot order will directly affect whether a device is seen by fdisk. To be
sure, plug in the ThumbDrive to the USB port, boot up your computer and access the BIOS to
change the boot order of the computer such that the ThumbDrive is checked before the hard
disk. After rebooting, run fdisk to create the primary partition on the ThumbDrive (refer to
Setting up the ThumbDrive)
Setting up the ThumbDrive
1. Creating a MBR on the ThumbDrive
Boot a computer to DOS environment with a DOS boot disk. Run ?fdisk? and create a partition
for the ThumbDrive. Be sure to confirm the target disk within fdisk (option 5) so that you do
not accidentally change the partition of the computer hard disk. If you do not see ?option 5? or
the ThumbDrive available within fdisk, refer to Setting up the BIOS to enable the support.
2. Set the partition Active.
Within ?fdisk? environment set the newly created partition to active.
3. Transferring System Files
Under DOS environment, run ?sys drive letter:? to transfer the system files to the ThumbDrive.
Alternatively, run ?format drive letter: /s? to format and transfer the system files to the
ThumbDrive.
Under Windows 98 environment, run format utility and select ?system files? under format
option.
The system files cannot be transferred within Windows ME, Windows 2000 and Windows XP
environment.
(taken from here: https://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/Q_20872552.html)

They say that it is not possible to transfer system files from Xp, and you'll need to take this files from other OS'es (e.g. Win98), or from here: https://www.bootdisk.com/ :?

 

[Roscoe]

create bootable usb without formatting

I spend o lot of time with USB-Sticks and make them bootabele. The reason is: only 50% of them are able to boot. I think a lot of the sticks have the MBR locked.

But i found a very good tool to make USB Sticks bootabe or duplicate them.

Look here https://www.prime-expert.com/flashboot/

Roscoe

 

[manitooo]

usb dongle boot function

here is what I found :

Software to make a USb stick bootable with FreeDos or Syslinux

AdvanceBoot(free)
http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/boot-readme.html

An HP tool to format and write into the mbr to get your USB stick bootable
**broken link removed**

A subject with some information gathered to get a bootable BartPE on USB stick.. (talking about how to make you stick bootable)
**broken link removed**

Manitooo