HOWTO: I have no floppy drive, how do I boot from USB Memory

[PaulDriver]

You should see something similar to

Code: Select all

device_start 0 [sectors]
device_size 256000 [sectors], 12
device_geometry 15/255/63 [cylin
bios_drive HDD
fat_start 63 [sectors]
fat_size 255937 [sectors]
fat_bit 16
fat_sectorpercluster 4
write 10240 [sectors], 5 [MB]

I'm using makebootfat.exe -v -o usb -b winb98.ima -m mbrfat.bin .\flashkey where ./flashkey is a directory where I have my MSDOS files.

[wasnr]

words, can't express my gratitude for this Howto USB-boot post.

YA! ADVICE THAT FRIGGIN' FINALLY WORKS!

thankyou PaulDriver.

now world domination is within my grasp.

[PaulDriver]

One USB port at a time eh?

[mila]

Yes thanks for these instructions. I finally got mine to work. Seems the .img file I was using was bad. The HP utility is really quick and easy, but not being able to make a usb bootable drive that is assigned anything other than C: is a major limitation. Glad to have this step by step guide on how to use makefatboot.

[Zenu]

I'm getting error report: Error 5 writing the device. Trying that method 2 on Vista, with Sandisk 2gb usb stick. Commandline i used was: makebootfat.exe -v -o usb -b winb98se.ima -m mbrfat.bin f:\ . My image is on the root of f drive.

Full output is:
device_start 0 [sectors]
device_size 4013713 [sectors], 1959 [MB]
device_geometry 249/255/63 [cylinders/heads/sectors]
bios_drive HDD
Error 5 writing the device.



plz, give advices as what is wrong here -.-. I have turned off user controlling so it doesn't whine about the need of admin privileges anymore.


ps. other error i get is
Invalid code start 3E in the boot sector (for fat32 it must be atleast 5A).

[PaulDriver]

Your gonna force me to re-install Vista, aren't you.

It's sitting on the shelf, waiting patiently for Vista Service Pack 1 to release before I bother attempting to use it on a production machine, heck or even a gaming rig. DeusEx kept crashing on me under Vista (I'm blaming nVidia, doesn't everyone?). If a configuration won't run DeusEx, then I'm not using it

hmmm, where was that Vista dualboot guide...

Zenu, do me a favor 'por favor'. While I look at getting Vista running again, will you please check that your BIOS is current, and let me know if the HP utility works.

Thanks,

Paul.

[Zenu]

Heh. Well I were suprised that the HP tool seemt to run without errors because I thought it had been outdated already. I will now try to boot with usb stick I just formatted with HP tool. The problem with the other tool might had been that I possibly forgot to add the image file to VFD virtual floppy or I did something else wrong, not sure . My bios ain't the newest and that's the reason I'm going thru all this trouble because currently Asus doesn't have tools for flashing from Vista. Mobo is Asus P5W DH Deluxe and bios version 1310 or close to that.

ps. Booting from USB stick didn't work, all the three files were in the stick, but nothing happens when I try to boot from it. I can select it from bios and put it on the boot device list and its there as "removeable device". I'll have to start looking for help to that problem now, nothing comes easy it seems -.-. Even the Asus Ezflash freezes itself ezily when I try to use it ;F

pss. I retried makebootfat now again and I did still get the same error reports, before formatting it gave me that "invalid code.." thing and after formatting "error 21..", last time it was the otherway around imo ..

[Zenu]

You are done partitioning and formatting your USB Memory Device. Transfer what ever additional data you need to the device (Award Flash and a BIOS Image for example), edit the config.sys and autoexec.bat is necessary and reboot your machine.

Could you explain that please. Why would I need to edit config.sys in my USB stick or window's autoexec.bat? That "is" is probably a typo and should be "if". For some reason I can't seem to be able to boot from usb, I have all those three files in there but it doesn't load them in boot. Hmmh.

[PaulDriver]

Yeah, that's a typeo, thanks.

It now reads

You are done partitioning and formatting your USB Memory Device. Transfer what ever additional data you need to the device (Award Flash and a BIOS Image for example), edit the config.sys and autoexec.bat if necessary and reboot your machine.

If you set your USB drive up in ZIP drive emulation (will boot as A if the BIOS supports it, otherwise it will boot as C) you would want to change your autoexec.bat, config.sys or other startup sequences on the USB drive to handle the fact that to boot location may change.

Paul.

Also,I've checked my utilities under Server 2003 and Vista and they worked for me. I'm thinking it's a BIOS issue, The BIOSTAR motherboard my mum uses will not boot right using any method other then USB floppy (2.88 MB storage)

[PaulDriver]

Wow, I got stickied!!

I've duplicated the issues people have with >1gb memory devices and makefatboot. I'm currently working on a workaround.

It's got to do with the bit size of the MSDOS boot image fat, I need to make one that's 16bit instead of the 12bit on the floppy images, but makebootfat is having issues.

I'm also attempting to write my own FOSS utility to replace makebootfat and the HP Utility, as well as providing partitioning and some other goodies, all with a GUI front end.



P.D.