Boot From Flash Drive

[Karl Burrows]

I have a bunch of old 2, 8 and 16MB SmartMedia cards around and am building
a few new XP Pro systems without a floppy drive and using an internal card
reader instead. Some of the motherboards still require a boot disk for BIOS
upgrades. Instead of wasting CDR's, can I configure an XP system to boot
from a flash drive? Right now each type of flash memory card is showing as
a drive in my system. Can I not go into the BIOS and tell it to boot from
this hard drive? Any other ways to tell Windows to boot from a flash drive?

Thanks!

 

[jeffrey]

Hi,

From what I know of, the motherboard must support the ability to boot from
the external source you want to use. I know some of the new motherboards
allow you to boot from external devices like USB drive. So if the
motherboard doesn`t support this option, then your limited to CD Drive,
Floppy Drive or internall HDD.

Jeff

 

[Edward W. Thompson]

You cannot boot WINXP from an external drive.

 

[Sleepless in Seattle]

http://www.marlow.dk/site.php/tech/usbkeys

 

[Karl Burrows]

I am just trying to get it to boot for things like BIOS updates, not
actually boot to XP on a flash card. I just want to replace what would
normally require a floppy to use flash media.

Thanks!

You cannot boot WINXP from an external drive.

 

[jeffrey]

Hi,

As long as your motherboard supports booting from external devices, then you
can boot from a USB flash drive.

Jeff

 

[Edward W. Thompson]

You cannot boot to WINXP from an external drive, the software does not allow
it. You can boot into dos from an external drive.

 

[Edward W. Thompson]

Simply format the drive FAT32 and load a DOS OS. You can download a
suitable 'file set' from www.bootdisk.com

 

[jeffrey]

Hi,

The OP is not trying to Boot the XP O/S from the USB device, but wants to
use the USB as a boot disk, for example, instead of having a Win98 boot
floppy, it would be a Win98 boot USB memory stick. If you read what the OP
stated, the OP asked if its possible to boot using an USB flash card
instead of a floppy. In my replies, I stated as long as the motherboard
supports booting from external devices it will do it. I had to create boot
CD`s for the PC`s I maintain, cause they do not have FDD`s. I haven`t
thought of it before, but might make my 128 MB USB memstick into a boot
disk, since the systems I support can boot from an external device.

Jeff

 

[Karl Burrows]

You hit it on the head! That is exactly what I want to do. I have an Asus
motherboard (P4C800E Deluxe) and to boot from CD you have to hit F8 twice
and hope you catch it at the right times to get to a boot screen and in
addition, have the stupid MS wireless keyboard that has the function key, so
I have to hit three things in sequence at the right time to get to a boot
prompt. If I just create a boot flash card, then I can set it in the first
to boot and just put it in the reader when I need to load BIOS updates, etc.
I don't like setting the CD-ROM as the first boot device because I am always
leaving CD's in the drive and then I have to go through the process or
telling it to ignore the CD-ROM.

Thanks!!

Hi,

The OP is not trying to Boot the XP O/S from the USB device, but wants to
use the USB as a boot disk, for example, instead of having a Win98 boot
floppy, it would be a Win98 boot USB memory stick. If you read what the OP
stated, the OP asked if its possible to boot using an USB flash card
instead of a floppy. In my replies, I stated as long as the motherboard
supports booting from external devices it will do it. I had to create boot
CD`s for the PC`s I maintain, cause they do not have FDD`s. I haven`t
thought of it before, but might make my 128 MB USB memstick into a boot
disk, since the systems I support can boot from an external device.

Jeff