Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

Register Log in
  • Congratulations strongm on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

bootable USB flash drive

Status
Not open for further replies.
Tearose

Tearose

IS-IT--Management
Jan 12, 2005
241
US
I'm trying to make my 1GB flash drive bootable in case a hard drive becomes unbootable, so I can try to rescue files from it. I used instructions I found elsewhere to put boot files onto it, and I think I'm close to what I want, but don't know if I have too many files or am missing something I need. The first couple times I tried to boot with it, it said I was missing <Windowsroot>\System32\hal.dll and ntoskrnl.dll. I created a Windows folder and put a system32 folder in it and copied those two files to it. Now it gets past that part, and says it can't start Windows... I don't know that I want to start windows. I think a command prompt would probably suffice. What do I need to add (or subtract) so I can use it to look at what's on the hard drive (assuming that the HDD can still be read)?
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
That was one of the resources I used. However, some of the links there are out of date. I couldn't get to the page where it said I could download the necessary DOS boot files. If I know which files were needed to boot to a command prompt, I could compare what I have and add or delete the files as necessary. I thought about their ultimate boot CD, but don't know whether that would work from a USB flash drive as well.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
some flashdrive makers offer this software on their website, have you checked there?

i have a Lexar and they have a nice set of utilities including boot and secure partitions.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Mine is SimpleTech, which doesn't seem to have such things on their website. I looked at Lexar's site, but wasn't sure what I should try there. Can you give me a link to the utilities you mentioned? Thanks
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
the utilities are for the Jump Drive Secure.
however, i do not know that they will work on other manufacturer's flashdrives.

i also have a PenDrive by Psion the have boot utilities
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thanks for the links. eyec, you were right that the pendrive bootdisk won't load on mine.

Steve- I downloaded a DOS bootdisk program from there. I had to install it on a floppy, which did make a bootable floppy. I copied over the new files to my flash drive, and tried to boot from it. No luck- it says to remove other disks and restart. I tried putting back the files that I'd previously had on the flash, and it would try to load windows and get stuck because I don't have windows on the flash. I tried various arrangements of the previous files- loading some but not others. Each try, I got one of the error messages I'd seen before.

It just seems like this should be easy. My computer list USB devise in the Boot Menu, it's easy to format the flash drive to make it bootable, but it seems very difficult to find exactly what files I need to get it to boot to a command prompt.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Hi Tearose ive found another good guide to usb booting, it also says that HP have a usb boot drive application that seems to work on ALL usbs' so it may work on yours, here is the link for the hp application

and here is the link as to how to do it


If you dont ask you wont get :)
Steve Poole
Technical Analyst
Cinram UK ltd
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Steve,
These last 2 links are what I had already done when I wrote the first post. But thanks.
Jill
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

techguy46
  • Locked
  • Question
Ghost USB stick.
Replies
2
Views
149
LoPath
LoPath
goombawaho
  • Locked
  • Question
Switch printer between USB and WiFi
Replies
0
Views
118
goombawaho
goombawaho
crackinttosh
  • Locked
  • Question
Legacy SyDOS Puma 105 - looking for DOS drivers
Replies
2
Views
949
goombawaho
goombawaho
lb63640
  • Locked
  • Question
Win 8.1 64 bit now hates the external USB drive attached to it
Replies
1
Views
155
goombawaho
goombawaho
Serendipiter
  • Locked
  • Question
BluRay/DVD drive Problem
Replies
3
Views
97
Serendipiter
Serendipiter

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top