boot from "USB Device"

[Timothy Daniels]

Virtually all of Dell's current PCs include "USB Device"
as a bootable device type in their BIOSs' Boot Sequence
of device types. Here is the setup specs for Dell's XPS 420
desktop:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps420/en/OM/HTML/appendix.htm#wp1054035

Check out the Option Settings under the "Boot Sequence"
section. It refers to "USB Device" as a "memory device",
not a "storage device". And when I explicitly asked Dell's
Tech Support whether that would include USB hard drives,
the answer was "No". Would someone here tell why the
Dell PCs can boot from USB flash drives and not from
USB hard drives?

*TimDaniels*

 

[Franc Zabkar]

Virtually all of Dell's current PCs include "USB Device"
as a bootable device type in their BIOSs' Boot Sequence
of device types. Here is the setup specs for Dell's XPS 420
desktop:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps420/en/OM/HTML/appendix.htm#wp1054035

Check out the Option Settings under the "Boot Sequence"
section. It refers to "USB Device" as a "memory device",
not a "storage device". And when I explicitly asked Dell's
Tech Support whether that would include USB hard drives,
the answer was "No". Would someone here tell why the
Dell PCs can boot from USB flash drives and not from
USB hard drives?

*TimDaniels*

Could it be that the drive has to be formatted as a "super floppy", ie
no partition table, just a boot sector?

Try Fdisk-ing and reformating your flash drive. I suspect it will fail
to boot after you do this.

- Franc Zabkar

 

[Arno Wagner]

Could it be that the drive has to be formatted as a "super floppy", ie
no partition table, just a boot sector?

Try Fdisk-ing and reformating your flash drive. I suspect it will fail
to boot after you do this.

Probably. Apart from that, USB disk and USB flash uses the
same command set, i.e. if one is bootable, then so is the other.

Arno

 

[Ben Myers]

As I stated earlier, it all depends on the drivers one finds on the USB boot
medium. A USB floppy boots OK because the BIOS knows how to handle it. A USB
stick or hard drive will only boot OK if it has the right drivers for the right
operating system on the boot medium in addition to the boot sector and and
whatever OS files are needed... Ben Myers

 

[S.Lewis]

As I stated earlier, it all depends on the drivers one finds on the USB
boot
medium. A USB floppy boots OK because the BIOS knows how to handle it.
A USB
stick or hard drive will only boot OK if it has the right drivers for the
right
operating system on the boot medium in addition to the boot sector and and
whatever OS files are needed... Ben Myers

The only way I manually was able to get a USB flash drive to become bootable
w/o using a utility was to partition/format it as a FAT16 partition and then
sys the flash drive being sure to include msdos.sys.

Worked like a charm.

I have not make extreme attempts to make an external HDD bootable, but would
like to do so if I had the time.....


Stew

 

[Eric Gisin]

A boot floppy is assigned BIOS unit 00h, and hard disk (partitionable) is unit 80h.
These numbers are coded into the MBR (80) and OS boot sector (00 or 80).
To find out which, boot DOS from non-USB and check the drive is assigned A/B or C+.
If Dell has USB floppy support, it will not work if the disk has an MBR.

Also, there are at least three classes of USB storage device,
and the BIOS probably only implements some of them (floppy most common).

 

[Timothy Daniels]

The only way I manually was able to get a USB flash drive
to become bootable w/o using a utility was to partition/format
it as a FAT16 partition and then sys the flash drive being sure
to include msdos.sys.

Worked like a charm.

What does it mean to "sys the flash drive"?

*TimDaniels*

 

[Rod Speed]

What does it mean to "sys the flash drive"?

The sys dos command puts the basic dos boot files on the drive.

 

[S.Lewis]

The sys dos command puts the basic dos boot files on the drive.

Yep. And the way I did it was kind of clumsy. I actually had to disable all
other bootable drives/network in BIOS, then boot to a modified Win95 floppy.

Under those conditions, the system recognized the flash drive volume (256mb)
just as it would a fixed drive. FDISK, format, sys.

Not positive, but I believe I then re-enabled all the other drives in BIOS,
but could still choose to F12 and boot from the flash drive. (Dimension
8300)

 

[Eric Gisin]

It is easier to get bootpart and run it under 2K/XP to build a DOS boot sector.

Beside the other reasons I gave for USB boot being difficult,
the CHS geometry in the MBR and boot sector have to match those of the BIOS,
which is not likely on most USB flash devices I've looked at.

 

[Taken]

It is easier to get bootpart and run it under 2K/XP to build a DOS boot
sector.

Beside the other reasons I gave for USB boot being difficult,
the CHS geometry in the MBR and boot sector have to match those of the
BIOS,
which is not likely on most USB flash devices I've looked at.

Could you please explain further why Canadian flash devices are unlikely to
have a cheese geometry in their moobers which match those in their
biospheres? And I have a nice pair of Canadian boots which aren't in the
least bit difficult.

 

[Tony Harding]

Could you please explain further why Canadian flash devices are unlikely to
have a cheese geometry in their moobers which match those in their
biospheres? And I have a nice pair of Canadian boots which aren't in the
least bit difficult.

I give up! This thread has evolved (drifted?) completely beyond my ken.

 

[Ben Myers]

I didn't see anything posted by Ken... Ben Myers

I give up! This thread has evolved (drifted?) completely beyond my ken.

 

[Taken]

I didn't see anything posted by Ken... Ben Myers

A shame, I hear Ken knows a thing or two about cheese geometries.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Eric Gisin wrote in news:[email protected]

It is easier to get bootpart and run it under 2K/XP to build a DOS boot
sector.

Beside the other reasons I gave for USB boot being difficult,
the CHS geometry in the MBR and boot sector have to match those of the BIOS,
which is not likely on most USB flash devices I've looked at.

How much easier can it get when the SYS command takes care of all that.

 

[Eric Gisin]

Eric Gisin wrote in news:[email protected]

How much easier can it get when the SYS command takes care of all that.

Assuming there is no MBR, or the MBR was created with fdisk.

 

[Ben Myers]

And posting as "Taken", maybe you are Ken? As in Ta Ken?

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Eric Gisin wrote in news:[email protected]

"Folkert Rienstra" wrote in message news:[email protected]...

Assuming there is no MBR,

In which case you create one using Fdisk, (which you already
happen to have if you have access to the SYS command).

or the MBR was created with fdisk.

In which case you just Format and SYS.

 

[Tony Harding]

And posting as "Taken", maybe you are Ken? As in Ta Ken?

<belatedly> Ouch!