Bootable USB Device

I am trying to find a way to make a Bootable Flash Drive for my PC. I have the available option in the setup to change the boot sequence to a USB Device, but how do I format it to do so.

I tried a process from SearchWinComputing.com where you use a MKBT utility and create .bin file. You also create a regular bootable floppy, and copy all files over to the flash drive. After doing so, and following all the procedure, it gave me an I/O error.

Any suggestions? I have an old Partition Magic program called ImageDrive and we are trying to steer from the floppies because they are so wishy washy, and most of our laptops don't have floppy drives.



Thanks,


Ian

 

If you choose usb as your first boot device in the bios, and you have the device plugged in, it should boot to that device provided the device does contain software that the computer can boot to, like damn small linux. There shouldn't be a need to format it any certain way.

 

That's the thing...essentially I need to make a Windows Boot Disk, but you cannot format a USB device to do so. I have tried making a bootable floppy, and copy all of the system files over, but that doesn't work. That is one things keeping floppies from being completely obselete.


There was a program that I downloaded that basically transfers a file over from the floppy to the USB to make the USB drive act like a floppy, but it game me an input/output error.


I may not have had all of the hidden files transferred over or something...i dunno.

 

i guess i need to ask, what exactly are you trying to boot on this usb device?

 

Well, whenever you make a boot disk, once it runs through all of its cycles, it will wind up at the command prompt. Well, the imaging program is on a floppy. If you are using a machine that is whacked out, you may not be able to get to the boot options, and boot to the command prompt. So...essentially, we use one disk to boot to the command prompt, and then another floppy to boot to the imaging program, and then from there, choose the image that is on the partition of the hard drive.

What we want to do, just for mobility and ease of use, have a bootable flash drive with the boot sequences and programs that we want, and then we don't have to worry about the floppies degrading and crapping out one day. We can load the imaging program from the USB and image the machine as normal.


PHEW!



Ian