How do you make a USB flash drive bootable?

LincLinc OwnerDetroit Icrontian
edited June 2011 in Science & Tech
Thrax show us how in eight easy steps (well, maybe ten).
There are many tutorials out there, some to greater success than others, but Icrontic is here to give you the definitive answer

Comments

  • edited February 2009
    On page 2 of your instructions for making a bootable USB it says "Save the floppy image to a convenient location,"
    I must be missing something here - how do save the floppy image? Where previous to that instruction is the mention of such an image? Thanks for your time - Dennis
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited February 2009
    "Floppy images that we’ll be putting to disk come in one of two ways. Firstly, As .IMG, .IMA or .FLP files."

    You download them. Several common ones are linked at the end of the article.
  • edited February 2009
    Thanks for the quick reply !! I bet someone could make out well selling preconfigured bootable flash drives. I noticed globally, some seem to be for sale in China, but after a very brief search, I haven't found any in the U.S. yet. Thanks again. - Dennis
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited February 2009
    No problem, Dennis. :) Thanks for stopping by!
  • edited June 2009
    The value of persistence:

    When I first ran the boot utility against a flash drive with stuff already on it, it wouldn't let me create a "Floppy Image", only the HP firmware flash device.

    So after doing that, I went through these steps one more time, and it let me re-format the drive with the Floppy Image the second time without a hitch.

    Not sure why it balked in the first place, but just FYI if someone is following these instructions and gets flummoxed like I did.
  • edited August 2009
    Hi, I'm also trying to boot DFT from a USB drive.
    However no matter how I create it, I always get the "Non System-Disk..." error. The sticks boots fine but the image just won't boot. Also the "bootable" images from the Hitachi download site refuse to boot and return the error.
    Any suggestion?

    Thanks
    Mark
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited August 2009
    It sounds like the DFT images are messed up. You could try using Seagate's SeaTools application instead. SeaTools is a very similar utility that works on all sorts of drives. :)
  • M
    edited August 2009
    But, if i use the tool on my 120GB external drive, only 1.44MB remains... So i can't use the utility to create a bootsector and keep the 120GB for images.
    Is there a solution for that? (With this utilty.)
  • RyderRyder Kalamazoo, Mi Icrontian
    edited August 2009
    No, this is not for external USB hard drives, this is for flash based USB sticks.
  • M
    edited October 2009
    Well... USB sticks can be very large too. 16GB is common now. So, then 15,999 (rounded) will get lost in the process... :S
    I know there are other utlities/methods, which don't require a partition of just 1,44MB... Just can't remember where/how i did that :(.

    And, flashdrive or USB-drive - i don't know why there should be any difference when using modern tools... It's just a different drive letter. Technically, it shouldn't be a problem - by far, most PC's can boot now, from ANY USB-device.
    Well, i think i just have to continue my search - i KNOW it exists :).
  • Roy
    edited January 2010
    I really dont get it :P i've been reading sow many diffrent ways now and none have worked.. an i do not have a floppy drive! :O
  • don
    edited January 2010
    I am also looking to have a usb-drive that looks like a floppy, but is much greater in size. There are floppy images that are greater than 1.44, see here http://bootcd.narod.ru/images_e.htm, but these all include Free-DOS...I want to make a DOS6.22 or IBM DOS version. Anyone know how to create a custom size bootable floppy image, not a bootable image of a hard-drive, it must look like a floppy.
  • edited March 2010
    Thanks for this tip, It was great headache for me before read your post. but you solved my problem, thanks again.
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited June 2011
    The link for 'Virtual Floppy Disk' is borkeded. :(
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited June 2011
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited June 2011
    This article might need yet more updating or revisiting.

    The HP app wont install, it has to be extracted.

    It seems to have its own option for creating a virtual floppy disk, so VFD not needed anymore?

    Either way your 'real' steps at the end don't include a reference to VFD, so why did I download it?

    The image I need, DBAN, is an ISO now which this method doesn't seem to handle... It only looks for .img
  • edited September 2011
    <strong>Post Of The Day: 6 Sep 2011...</strong>

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  • edited September 2011
    <strong>Post Of The Day: 9 Sep 2011...</strong>

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  • edited September 2011
    <strong>Post Of The Day: 9 Sep 2011...</strong>

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  • i have a G2 usb kingston can i make it bootable with motherboard gigabyte GM41
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