How to make an USB stick bootable / Which files + more do I need?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sven Claasen
  • Start date Start date
S

Sven Claasen

I have a bootable (!) CD-ROM with a couple of MS-DOS programs on it.
Now I want to move all the stuff to an USB stick.

However as far as I know not only the visible files are necessary to boot from a CD-ROM but
something like a boot entry in the CD MBR or something like that.

How do I make an USB stick bootable? Yes, from the motherboards (BIOS) view a boot from
USB stick is possible in general.

Sven
 
Make a windows 98 boot floppy or an xp boot disk. Be sure to show
system / hiddem files. Copy the floppy contents to your usb disk in
windows...works for me ! I used win98se boot floppy...be sure to set
the system bios usb device to "auto" detect usb boot...

Regards,
 
I have a bootable (!) CD-ROM with a couple of MS-DOS programs on it.
Now I want to move all the stuff to an USB stick.

However as far as I know not only the visible files are necessary
to boot from a CD-ROM but something like a boot entry in the
CD MBR or something like that.

How do I make an USB stick bootable? Yes, from the motherboards
(BIOS) view a boot from USB stick is possible in general.

Sven
Click to expand...

There are recipes all over the place. Your favorite search engine
should turn up some more.

"Bootable DOS in USB Flash memory"
http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=352906

Be very careful with the HP utility, if you decide to
use it. Or at least, you may want to do some research into
any formatting tool you happen upon. There is always a
danger it will format the wrong device.

For example, see the warning half way down this web page:

http://fuzzymunchkin.dyndns.org:8080/tdot/usbkeyfob/index.php

"I think you should know that the HP formatting util that
rebuilds the mbr on the fob is buggy and dangerous. I loaded
it, pointed it to my attached fob, and clicked format. It
jumped drive letters to an attached drive and wiped out the
fat tables in an instant. I believe it automatically jumps to
whatever is the first USB device drive letter. I was able to
restore the data thanks to a powerful utility I keep on hand
for such disasters, but others might not be so lucky. I'm don't
blame you for this happening one bit. I just suggest you add
a warning to your instructions to have no other usb attached
storage devices other than the fob for this step."

Paul
 
I have a bootable (!) CD-ROM with a couple of MS-DOS programs on it.
Now I want to move all the stuff to an USB stick.

However as far as I know not only the visible files are necessary to boot from a CD-ROM but
something like a boot entry in the CD MBR or something like that.

How do I make an USB stick bootable? Yes, from the motherboards (BIOS) view a boot from
USB stick is possible in general.

Sven
Click to expand...

There are plenty of recipes out there for USB flash devices.
This is just the first one I looked at:

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=352906

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1676&page=2

Utility for preparing USB flash:
http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/hpcpqdt/us/download/21284.html

Warning about (perhaps an earlier version of) the HP utility:
http://fuzzymunchkin.dyndns.org:8080/tdot/usbkeyfob/index.php

"I think you should know that the HP formatting util that rebuilds
the mbr on the fob is buggy and dangerous. I loaded it, pointed
it to my attached fob, and clicked format. It jumped drive
letters to an attached drive and wiped out the fat tables in an
instant. I believe it automatically jumps to whatever is the
first USB device drive letter. I was able to restore the data
thanks to a powerful utility I keep on hand for such disasters,
but others might not be so lucky. I'm don't blame you for this
happening one bit. I just suggest you add a warning to your
instructions to have no other usb attached storage devices other
than the fob for this step."

Terms I ran into: "MBR", "FAT", "active partition", "system files"

HTH,
Paul
 
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