USB Stick Booting?

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by kennyboy, Feb 3, 2007.

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  1. kennyboy

    kennyboy Registered Member

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    My Bios does not seem to support USB in any form. Machine is 4 years old so maybe can understand that. Is it possible to boot from my USB 1Gb stick in any other way?
    I have Googled this and searched the forums, but have only found this option if the BIOS supports USB. Doesnt help that my USB is only 1.1 anyway. Any work-around?
    Many thanks for any help.
     
  2. Ice_Czar

    Ice_Czar Registered Member

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    AFAIK not short of a BIOS hack and that would depend on if the hardware was up to it anyway, there used to be quite alot of BIOS hacking going on at one point to enable registers for overclocking or branding BIOS screens.

    firmware (BIOS) is the lowest level of software interfacing with the hardware and is solely responsible for booting order and recognized bootable buses (SCSI\PCI, IDE, SATA, USB, Firewire, FDD)

    looks like your stuck with live CDs
    of course a machine booted to a live CD say Knoppix
    could see your USB and its aps at that point, might even be able to run them depending on what they are
    one whole of a hell lot easier than BIOS hacking, which always carries a serious potential of turning your computer into a doorstop till you replace\reflash the EEPROM to a working state after youve screwed the pooche
     
  3. kennyboy

    kennyboy Registered Member

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    Hello Ice. Many thanks for that. Most helpful. I was wondering if there was a way of doing it in MSDos or FreeDos or something but its probably beyond me anyway. certainly this Bios hacking sounds very difficult. I will try and look into a Live CD. Is there any other Live Cd that you could recommend for me to try as well as Knoppix?
    Am surprised that HP dont offer a bios flash upgrade to support USB seeing as the machine is barely 4 years old. Maybe its a bit like me.....over the hill....:'(
    Many thanks again for your interest.
     
  4. Ice_Czar

    Ice_Czar Registered Member

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    Knoppix is a fully functional OS environment and can mount NTFS drives
    but running Win32 aps wouldnt fly

    however there are some possibilities with BartPE you might investigate
    http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

    little hard to say without knowing whats in your USB :p
     
  5. kennyboy

    kennyboy Registered Member

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    lol. I was hoping to boot Bart from the USB.....:doubt: amongst other things, so that I can help my friends when they have a problem. Thought it would be easier than carrying cd's.
    Many thanks again.
     
  6. Ice_Czar

    Ice_Czar Registered Member

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    well if its about impressing friends :p

    http://s-t-d.org/
    http://s-t-d.org/screenshots.html
    another CD to haul around ;)


    if its about a portable boot device, not everyone else will be in your boat of course
    you should be able to make if not test your bootable USB
     
  7. kennyboy

    kennyboy Registered Member

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    lol. Much too old to impress anyone now but thanks anyway. As I am probably the most PC literate oldie here I do get called upon. (Thats how desperate they are...lol)
    Unbelievably, no-one here seems to have a usb enabled machine to boot from, so although I have built the Bart USB stick, I cant actually use it to help them. It works when I mount it in Windows so must have done something right...:D . Never mind. It was a nice thought.
    Thanks again for your help.
     
  8. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

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    Hello,
    I have several usb enabled machines. Works just fine.
    Mrk
     
  9. Ice_Czar

    Ice_Czar Registered Member

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    I just found something


    http://www.slax.org/download.php
    SLAX Boot CD v 5.1.8
    SLAX Boot CD is used to boot SLAX from USB devices on computers which can't boot from USB directly. It can be also used to boot SLAX from ISO file on disk.

    and its a modular OS (same page)
    SLAX KillBill Edition v 5.1.8.1
    SLAX KB is a pocket operating system with the ability to run many Windows applications natively in Linux. It contains KDE, wine, dosbox and qemu.

    plus http://www.slax.org/modules.php


    http://www.mrbass.org/linux/slax/
     
  10. kennyboy

    kennyboy Registered Member

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    Having a look at Slax now.
    Many Thanks again. Appreciate it.
     
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