Flash Drive instead of through CD?

  • Thread starter Thread starter joshidm
  • Start date Start date
Is it possible to setup a server with win2k through Flash Drive instead
of through CD?

This would be entirely up to the hardware....I doubt you can boot from one
or access one in a pre-OS environment. Also, I'd love to know where you
could find a flash memory drive that big!
 
http://store.lexar.com/index.cfm?category=23&subcategory=36&productid=JDP2GB-231&bhcp=1

I agree, booting from one would be the challenge.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| This would be entirely up to the hardware....I doubt you can boot from one
| or access one in a pre-OS environment. Also, I'd love to know where you
| could find a flash memory drive that big!
|
|
 
Dave Patrick said:

Dang, that's pretty amazing. What will they come up with next? :)
I agree, booting from one would be the challenge.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| This would be entirely up to the hardware....I doubt you can boot from
one
| or access one in a pre-OS environment. Also, I'd love to know where you
| could find a flash memory drive that big!
|
|
 
Lanwench said:
This would be entirely up to the hardware....I doubt you can boot from one
or access one in a pre-OS environment. Also, I'd love to know where you
could find a flash memory drive that big!

Oh, I don't know. 512Mb flash drives are common,
1G drives are available fairly easily and I've
seen 4G drives advertised.

A standard CD is only 630Mb and the istall CD
probably doesn't use/need all of that.
 
I just bought a 5 gB mp3 player for $175 that could also be used but not at
120X

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Dang, that's pretty amazing. What will they come up with next? :)
 
WoofWoof wrote:
Oh, I don't know. 512Mb flash drives are common,
1G drives are available fairly easily and I've
seen 4G drives advertised.

A standard CD is only 630Mb and the istall CD
probably doesn't use/need all of that.

I am not a technical person, but feel that if way could be found to
boot from flash drive I will not have to lug 2kg of external(USB2) CD
drive with power supply and USB cable everytime I have to go some
distance to set up a server afresh.

Do wish hardware makers make whatever changes necessary to make this
happen.
 
In (e-mail address removed) <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
I am not a technical person, but feel that if way could be found to
boot from flash drive I will not have to lug 2kg of external(USB2) CD
drive with power supply and USB cable everytime I have to go some
distance to set up a server afresh.

Do wish hardware makers make whatever changes necessary to make this
happen.

My newer GigaByte boards (according to the manual - I have not yet tried it)
claims they can boot from USB. Out of the lot of them only the GigaByte
boards that I have seem to support that though they're the only newer boards
I've bought in a while. It wouldn't surprise me if sometime in the distant
future we bought our OS on flash memory?

Galen
--

"But there are always some lunatics about. It would be a dull world
without them."

Sherlock Holmes
 
The OS will be quite a way off. At least Windows. Flash memory has limited
writes - and as such Windows (running NTFS) will quite happily burn through
it in no time. However the ability to boot to a recovery environment or do
deployment is possible today, on the right system.



Galen said:
In (e-mail address removed) <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
Lanwench [MVP - Exchange] wrote:
This would be entirely up to the hardware....I doubt you can boot
from one or access one in a pre-OS environment. Also, I'd love to
know where you could find a flash memory drive that big!
WoofWoof wrote:
Oh, I don't know. 512Mb flash drives are common,
1G drives are available fairly easily and I've
seen 4G drives advertised.

A standard CD is only 630Mb and the istall CD
probably doesn't use/need all of that.

I am not a technical person, but feel that if way could be found to
boot from flash drive I will not have to lug 2kg of external(USB2) CD
drive with power supply and USB cable everytime I have to go some
distance to set up a server afresh.

Do wish hardware makers make whatever changes necessary to make this
happen.

My newer GigaByte boards (according to the manual - I have not yet tried
it) claims they can boot from USB. Out of the lot of them only the
GigaByte boards that I have seem to support that though they're the only
newer boards I've bought in a while. It wouldn't surprise me if sometime
in the distant future we bought our OS on flash memory?

Galen
--

"But there are always some lunatics about. It would be a dull world
without them."

Sherlock Holmes
 
Sure.
Requirements are as follows:
- A server with:
-A BIOS that supports Hi-Speed USB 2.0 at boot time
-A BIOS that supports USB Mass-Storage Class (MSC)
-Hi-Speed USB 2.0 support on the system itself
Systems like the above are not only shipping, but common today. Thing is,
most OEM's aren't pushing the initiative, yet.
You must also have a USB Flash drive with Windows PE on it. You could also
use DOS, but it would be an exercise in torture (dog-slow performance).

Once booted, you can start setup (winnt32) from within WinPE same as from
CD.

The catch-22 here is that unless you already have a license for WinPE (many
do) and you are a system builder or OEM (and thus have the formatting tool
necessary to get WinPE working), or have obtained a specially formatted UFD
from your system builder or OEM, you can't get this working.

UFD (USB Flash Drive) boot has been in development for some time, and as
with any new initiative, must slowly creep into new systems, and can't be
backported into old ones (due generally to the need for Hi-Speed USB 2.0).
Expect better support in "Windows Vista" (gag - hate that name) timeframe
PC's for this.
 
Thanks, to WM, WoofWoof and others.
Sending your input to my technical bosses. Hope they will do their bit.
 
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