[RESOLVED] Bootable USB Drive
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Thread: [RESOLVED] Bootable USB Drive

  1. #1
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    Resolved [RESOLVED] Bootable USB Drive

    Ok I know it's possible to do this and there's heaps of resources on the internet, but what letter does it get recognised as ?

    eg If a machine has no floppy and you boot it using a bootable USB drive is letter A: ?

    Because if not, and you need to install SATA drivers by pressing F6 during setup, it asks for them on A: and with no floppy that's a bit hard ?

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    I found this cool link and tried it out on my OLD Creative MP3 player.

    It went throuhg the process of formatting as floppy emulation etc.

    But when I tried to boot with it, it didn't detect it as and emulated floppy.

    Maybe the MP3 player can't be used and it has to be a dedicated USB key.
    Last edited by Nix; October 27th, 2006 at 12:48 AM.

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    Since it is says it is a floppy emulation then I guess that means it is seen as A: much like a bootable CD that does floppy emulation.

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    Just a couple of thoughts ...

    Is your motherboard BIOS capable of being set to boot from a USB device?

    If your using a floppy drive A: emulation, is your BIOS's Floppy Drive A: set as a 3-1/2" 1.44MB and Enabled?

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    Quote Originally Posted by SpywareDr
    Just a couple of thoughts ...

    Is your motherboard BIOS capable of being set to boot from a USB device?

    If your using a floppy drive A: emulation, is your BIOS's Floppy Drive A: set as a 3-1/2" 1.44MB and Enabled?
    Tried it on a machine at work that has a floppy drive in it.

    It is capable to boot from USB device.

    I didn't check but presumambly since it has a floppy drive in it, then the BIOS setting is correct.

    I'm more inclined to think that my MP3 player is not designed to be used as a boot device.

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    Is the MP3 player assigned a drive letter (in My Computer)?

    Is any part of this article helpful?
    Langa Letter: XP On Your Thumb Drive
    Fred Langa offers a step-by-step and illustrated guide on how to boot XP from an ordinary USB drive.
    http://www.informationweek.com/windo...leID=177102101

  7. #7
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    Well it seems that it might have had something to do with the machine already having a floppy drive.

    I tried it on my new machine I got last Wednesday that has no floppy drive and it booted up from my USB MP3 player with no problem.

    I found two different utilities on HP site.

    One set the USB drive as C:.

    Another set it up as A:, but limited the size to 1.44Mb which was a bit of a waste of my 1.5Gb MP3 player.

    The final one was using MKBT which worked like a gem and basically allows you to modify the files on the "A:" drive just like a floppy as opposed to a bootable CD Rom running floppy emulation where all the files are protected.

    Needless to say if I try booting my work PC it gets and error as there is a real floppy present and the BIOS doesn't have an option to disable it.

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    Well swap the existing floppy in the BIOS to B then and BE SURE to enable both A and B in BIOS.

    See if that works. Should it seems to me.

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    I'll try it.

    I was more interested in egtting the USB to boot as a floppy because my new Dell sysetm didn't come with a floppy as we chose an internal media card reader instead.

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    There is no option to sawp the A: to B: in the BIOS.

    When I ahev some time I'll disconnect the physical floppy in my work machine and see if it makes a difference.

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