Dual boot HDD/USB

Hiya all.
My laptop is unable to boot from USB.
Is there a way to add a software "loader" to achieve this??

Thanx in advance.
NjoY

 

Have you tried by chance to change your "boot order" in cmos?? I'm guessing that you installed windows onto the usb drive or using a boot disk?? need to know details.

 

hi,

which o/s are you trying to boot from usb ?

try looking in your bios for any usb settings that will enable you to boot from usb,
a lot of older motherboards don't support this option, so a live cd maybe your option

 

I had finally gone to Ubuntu forums, w/same problem a while ago, and after a few false trys, I got hold of the Unetbootin app, which had everything I needed, and have loaded Ubuntu 8.04 several times w/that app: I think their website has moved, but u can put in the keyword unetbootin, as it was only app that totally helped me, or go to the ubuntuforums, and just search for usb and boot, or some such: I'll look around, see if I still have that exact site, as it walked me right thru what you are asking, and now have ubuntu loaded on a necklace USB, so that when my friends finally get sick of all the Windows crap, they have an alternative...

 

its here

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

but i don't think it will help the o/p as he can't boot from usb

 

Oh, yeah, I see what you are saying, and re-read the post, and remembered that...I know I had to go into bios, and change some stuff around for my old Dell laptop to recognize usb as a hard drive, and then go to boot sequence...and to change that, or it computer won't "see" it that way...but maybe he already tried that...thanks..

 

Hiya all.
Sorry for delay, having a rough week.

Im trying to boot a linux distro on my usb stick from my laptop.
It boots fine on my other pc i can choose usb in cmos boot order.

I was thinking of something like lilo,grub or even xp's boot.ini (tried boot.ini but not got it to work yet.

Im gonna try unetboot.
Thanx for all ya replies.

 

One of the things you can check is to see if you have legacy emulation enabled. Many people experience issues with legacy enabled when attempting to boot from USB drives.

I'm not one to blatantly preach any particular type of bootloader software because everyone seems to find a certain flavor that's more to their liking, but I've had great success using OSL2000, it has a nag screen that you have to wait to press OK on when booting but after fumbling with grub/supergrub/lilo etc over and over when testing out different flavors of Linux and (of course) screwing up the bootloader in the process, it bailed me out on more than one occasion.

 

In Ubuntu 8.10 there is option to create a USB boot disk.

System> Administration> Create a USB startup disk.

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