Bootable flash drive

Any USB drive should be bootable as long as your system can boot from USB (and you put an operating system on it).
 
Generally you just need to format it, install a bootloader, and then install your OS. There's hundreds of guides on Google if you do a quick search.

Note that without dedicated controllers (like what SSD's have), Flash memory is susceptible to severe degradation from repeated and frequent small writes.
 
well i was trying to make a win 7 install usb drive. i have done twenty times before on different drives, but this drive it will not work on. and it isnt the pc because ive tried it on severl different pcs. it is the usb device it self that just doesnt allow booting from.

these are the steps i took to make the device.

1 format the drive ntfs
2 extract the image to the usb device (used winrar, just like every other time ive done it)
3 in command prompt (as administrator) select the drive (X: )
4 cd boot
5 bootsect /nt60 X:

ive done that do many times i have the steps memorized. for some reason on this drive it will not boot.
 
I've had this problem before on some old 1GB kingston drives

try: (I take no credit for this write up)
1. Insert your USB (4GB+ preferable) stick to the system and backup all the data from the USB as we are going to format the USB to make it as bootable.

2. Open elevated Command Prompt. To do this, type in CMD in Start menu search field and hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter. Alternatively, navigate to Start > All programs >Accessories > right click on Command Prompt and select run as administrator.

3. When the Command Prompt opens, enter the following command:

DISKPART and hit enter.

LIST DISK and hit enter.

Once you enter the LIST DISK command, it will show the disk number of your USB drive. In the below image my USB drive disk no is Disk 1.

4. In this step you need to enter all the below commands one by one and hit enter. As these commands are self explanatory, you can easily guess what these commands do.

SELECT DISK 1 (Replace DISK 1 with your disk number)

CLEAN

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

SELECT PARTITION 1

ACTIVE

FORMAT FS=NTFS

(Format process may take few seconds)
ASSIGN

EXIT

Don’t close the command prompt as we need to execute one more command at the next step. Just minimize it.

5. Insert your Windows DVD in the optical drive and note down the drive letter of the optical drive and USB media. Here I use “D” as my optical (DVD) drive letter and “H” as my USB drive letter.

6. Go back to command prompt and execute the following commands:

D:CD BOOT and hit enter. Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.

CD BOOT and hit enter to see the below message.
D:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt60 h:

(Where “H” is your USB drive letter)

7. Copy Windows DVD contents to USB.

You are done with your bootable USB. You can now use this bootable USB as bootable DVD on any computer that comes with USB boot feature (most of the current motherboards support this feature).

Note that this bootable USB guide will not work if you are trying to make a bootable USB on XP computer.
Click to expand...

For me and my 1gb Kingston, I couldn't get the disk to be recognised to select "DISK X" and create its partition. My Toshiba 8gb and Lexar 16gb worked just fine with this config...yours is much simpler though.
 
00PS said:
I've had this problem before on some old 1GB kingston drives

try: (I take no credit for this write up)


For me and my 1gb Kingston, I couldn't get the disk to be recognised to select "DISK X" and create its partition. My Toshiba 8gb and Lexar 16gb worked just fine with this config...yours is much simpler though.
Click to expand...

i will try that right after this microsoft tool finishes.
 
One key problem that I can see problems booting is a USB stick does not have to have a partition table on it. The procedure your are doing probably assumes that there is a partition table with 1 partition inside that. They usually do not come partitioned.
 
Hmm maybe I'll have to give that a shot on my what seemed to be nonbootable flashdrive.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
00PS said:
Hmm maybe I'll have to give that a shot on my what seemed to be nonbootable flashdrive.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
Click to expand...

i tried several times to boot from that flash drive with no luck. first try with that tool and it worked. im still not sure what it did that i didnt do, but whatever.
 
I have used that when sysrescuecd installer quit making bootable USB sticks. And yes this relates to my previous post. This software created a partition on the USB stick and that made the boot work. However at one point it did boot without a partition. Also note that my bios sees the bootable USB in the hard drives list once it had a partition. Before that it was in the removables.
 
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