Bootable USB sticks.

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Bootable USB sticks.
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Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15387
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 13 11:16 am Post subject: Bootable USB sticks.
I'm trying to get an old laptop working without a CD drive, so I am wanting to make a bootable USB stick with the installation CD on it. I've tried a couple of programmes which are supposed to do this, but they do not seem to recognise the stick for some reason. Any suggestions?

oldish chris

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 4148
Location: Comfortably Wet Southport

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 13 3:31 pm Post subject:
the last time I did this, I found it only worked if the source was on a CD. The process was: download iso file, create bootable CD, plug in USB drive, create bootable USB.

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15387
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 13 4:29 pm Post subject:

oldish chris wrote:

the last time I did this, I found it only worked if the source was on a CD. The process was: download iso file, create bootable CD, plug in USB drive, create bootable USB.

Curious.
The software I tried wouldn't recognise a CD, only an iso image.

It looks like one of the things I tried did something because this laptop seemed to try to boot from the stick earlier, so I'm currently trying to copy the CD onto it.
Unfortunately the advice google came up with was to use xcopy and I had no idea it was this slow... it's been at it for hours now.

oldish chris

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 4148
Location: Comfortably Wet Southport

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 13 5:29 pm Post subject:
filling in the gaps: The OS that I am currently using is Ubuntu Linux (Xubuntu 12.04 to be precise). I downloaded a 32 bit version via Torrent. I then used the default CD Burner (Xfburn IIRC). Then, from the Applications Menu: System: Startup Disk Creator.

Nature'sgrafter

Joined: 22 Feb 2012
Posts: 527
Location: Sanday , Orkney

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 13 9:03 pm Post subject:

This guide works 100% for Vista & Windows 7 unlike most of the guides out there. I have seen many
sites/blogs that have “Install Vista from USB guide” but either with incomplete steps or not working
guide. I have also seen some guides that don’t’ use proper commands in this guide. After spending many
hours I have come up with this 100% working guide.
advantage is that by using USB drive you will be able to install Windows 7/Vista in just 15 minutes. You
can also use this bootable USB drive on friend’s computer who doesn’t have a DVD optical drive.
The method is very simple and you can use without any hassles. Needless to say that your motherboard
should support USB Boot feature to make use of the bootable USB drive.
Requirements:
*USB Flash Drive (Minimum 4GB)
*Windows 7 or Vista installation files.
Follow the below steps to create bootable Windows 7/Vista USB drive using which you can install
Windows 7/Vista easily.
1. Plug-in your USB flash drive to USB port and move all the contents from USB drive to a safe location on
your system.
2. Open Command Prompt with admin rights. Use any of the below methods to open Command Prompt
with admin rights.
*Type cmd in Start menu search box and hit Ctrl+ Shift+ Enter.
Or
*Go to Start menu > All programs > Accessories, right click on Command Prompt and select Run as
administrator.
3. You need to know about the USB drive a little bit. Type in the following commands in the command
prompt:
First type DISKPART and hit enter to see the below message.
Next type LIST DISK command and note down the Disk number (ex: Disk 1) of your USB flash drive.
4. Next type all the below commands one by one. Here I assume that your disk drive no is “Disk 1”.If you
have Disk 2 as your USB flash drive then use Disk 2.Refer the above step to confirm it.
So below are the commands you need to type and execute one by one:
SELECT DISK 1
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
FORMAT FS=NTFS
(Format process may take few seconds)
ASSIGN
EXIT
Now all is done. You can boot install windows whenever

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15387
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 13 9:07 pm Post subject:

Nature'sgrafter wrote:

This guide works 100% for Vista & Windows 7...

Thanks.
Only flaw in that plan is I broke my Windows 7 and I now only have XP or linux... actually the laptop I am trying to fix has windows 2000 on it, but I'm probably best off keeping quiet about that...

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15387
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 13 9:17 pm Post subject:
Tried it anyway and it seems that the XP version of Diskpart doesn't have a format command.

oldish chris

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 4148
Location: Comfortably Wet Southport

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 13 9:25 pm Post subject:

Hairyloon wrote:

Nature'sgrafter wrote:

This guide works 100% for Vista & Windows 7...

Its not very new then? Is it actually big enough for the more recent (i.e. 21st century) versions of Windows?

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15387
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 13 9:54 pm Post subject:

oldish chris wrote:

Its not very new then? Is it actually big enough for the more recent (i.e. 21st century) versions of Windows?

It'll take XP... that's nearly 21st century. And it's mostly for the kiddies to play with... actually, it'll probably run Cat in the Hat as it is.

oldish chris

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 4148
Location: Comfortably Wet Southport

Posted: Wed Mar 06, 13 8:31 am Post subject:
do you have any other "spare" lappies? Take the hard drive out, put it into a laptop with a decent CD Drive, install, swap back? ('Spose I should ask - do you have a life? )

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15387
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Wed Mar 06, 13 10:48 am Post subject:

oldish chris wrote:

do you have any other "spare" lappies? Take the hard drive out, put it into a laptop with a decent CD Drive, install, swap back?

I could, but for one, it is far too tedious, and for two, the other laptop would have different hardware, so it probably wouldn't work... especially as it is a different type of HD.

Quote:

('Spose I should ask - do you have a life?

)

This is on the list of jobs to do while minding daughter with the 'pox...
I'm open to better ideas.

MarkS

Joined: 01 Aug 2006
Posts: 2626

Posted: Thu Mar 07, 13 9:29 am Post subject:

1st question would be does the lappy actually support booting from usb - some don't.
Is the stick big enough? How is it formatted?
Have you got an external disk caddy?

2nd Q: does it support network boot - most do - which is how I used to install onto cd less mini laptops in the good old days.
try looking up PXE and netboot. Used to be a bit of a pain, but there are some nice easy setup programs now.

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15387
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Thu Mar 07, 13 10:03 am Post subject:

MarkS wrote:

1st question would be does the lappy actually support booting from usb - some don't.

Possibly it doesn't... Am still wanting to solve the problem at some point for another project...

Quote:

2nd Q: does it support network boot - most do - which is how I used to install onto cd less mini laptops in the good old days.

Ah, yes it does. Perhaps that is the way forward. Thanks.

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15387
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Thu Mar 07, 13 1:34 pm Post subject:

MarkS wrote:

try looking up PXE and netboot. Used to be a bit of a pain, but there are some nice easy setup programs now.

Can you recommend any?
I found a few on Google, but they've either not worked, or I've not made sense of the instructions.

nats

Joined: 12 Jun 2007
Posts: 2374
Location: Swindon but not a Swindonian

Posted: Thu Mar 07, 13 2:35 pm Post subject:
Oh I've got a procedure for this at work somewhere, but it does involve a W7 laptop, WXP just won't work because of the command missing as you noticed. It's something that should be so simple and just isn't.

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