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Creating Bootable USB Flash Drive.

The USB Flash Drive must be configured with an active primary MS-DOS partition. It must also contain the boot files. Follow the steps below to create a bootable USB Flash Drive.
Requirements:

  • Motherboard with BIOS that supports USB boot.
  • USB Flash Drive that may be erased.
  • Bootable floppy disk or CD with Fdisk and Format commands.
Directions:
  1. Plug in the USB Flash Drive.
  2. Make the USB drive the only bootable hard drive. Method 1:
    If available, change the BIOS settings for the hard drive sequence, making sure the USB device is at the top of the list above all other hard drives. Not all BIOS Setup Utilities have this option. Method 2:
    Disable all hard drives in the BIOS. In some BIOS Setup Utilities you can disable the individual hard drives, while in others you will need to disable the controller. Method 3:
    Unplug all hard drive cables inside the case. If the cables are unplugged the computer cannot detect and boot to the hard drive.
  3. Insert the bootable floppy disk or CD into the appropriate drive.
  4. Restart the computer to the bootable floppy disk or CD.
  5. At the command prompt, type: FDisk.
  6. Delete and create a new active primary DOS partition.
  7. Use FDisk to delete all partitions from the USB Flash Drive.
    • In FDisk, press the 3 key to Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive.
    • If there is just one partition on the drive, choose 1 to delete the primary DOS partition. If there are several partitions, the extended and logical partitions must be deleted before the primary partition.
    • After choosing option 1, the screen appears with partition information and a prompt for the partition to delete. Choose which primary DOS partition to delete, and then press ENTER.
    • A prompt appears to enter the volume label of the hard drive. Enter the label exactly as it appears on the top of the screen in the partition information. If the volume label contains gibberish or lowercase letters, the partition will have to be deleted as a non-DOS partition. Try using the option to delete a non-DOS partition in FDISK. After entering the volume label, press ENTER.
    • You are prompted if it should delete the partition. Press Y for Yes, and then press ENTER.
    • The screen changes to show only the total disk space and a line near the bottom that prompts that the primary DOS partition has been deleted. Press the ESC key to return to the main menu.
  8. Use FDisk to create a primary partition on the USB Flash Drive. The drive letter will be C:, since all other hard drives were disabled in step 2.
    • In FDisk, press 1 to Create DOS partition or Logical DOS drive.
    • Press 1 to Create a Primary DOS Partition.
    • The next screen prompts if the maximum hard disk size should be made into one partition. Press the Y key, and then press ENTER.
    • The next screen prompts that the computer will now reboot. Press ENTER to continue.
  9. Exit FDisk and restart the computer.
  10. Start the computer from the bootable floppy disk or CD with the USB Flash Drive still connected.
  11. At the command prompt, run Format by typing the following command: Format c: /s. Press ENTER.
  12. At the command prompt, run FDisk by typing following command: Fdisk /mbr. Press ENTER.
  13. Restart the computer without the bootable floppy disk or CD, and attempt to boot to the USB Flash Drive. If it works, it should go to a C:\> command prompt.
  14. Change the settings made in step 2 back so that the computer operates normally again.

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1answer

Boot Up hard drive not happening

To boot from a HD you need it to contain a primary dos partition that is active. Use diskpart from the dos prompt. Type diskpart ? for help
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boot flash drive

Hi,


Download the HP Format Tool and install it. Get your boot disk or the downloadable files and copy/extract them to a folder on your HD. Make sure anything on your USB Drive is backed up because we are going to format it...

Open the HP Format Tool
Start/Programs/Hewlett-Packard Company/HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool
It should automatically select your USB Drive.
Select FAT or FAT32 Under File System.
Select Create a DOS startup disk
Select using DOS system files located at and point to the folder containing the boot disk files.
Then click Start


Or you can download Win to flash ,follow the bellow link for details,
For Windows xp
http://www.intowindows.com/bootable-usb/
Or
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-create-a-bootable-usb-drive-from-your-windows-cd/
For vista
http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2009/08/27/make-a-bootable-usb-installer-for-windows-xp-vista-7-with-wint/

Hope this helps.
Let me know if you need more information
Thanks.
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Booting from a USB Stick

Here you go:

Download the Ubuntu Live ISO (if you dont have it already) and burn it to CD
Restart your computer (booting from the Ubuntu Live CD)
Insert a 1GB or larger USB flash drive
Open a terminal window and type sudo su
Now type fdisk -l to list available drives/partitions (note which device is your flash drive Example: /dev/sdb). Throughout this tutorial, replace all instances of x with your flash drive letter. For example, if your flash drive is sdb, replace x with b.
Type umount /dev/sdx1
Type fdisk /dev/sdx 
type p to show the existing partition and d to delete it
type p again to show any remaining partitions (if partitions exist, repeat the previous step)
type n to make a new partition
type p for primary partition 
type 1 to make this the first partition
hit enter to use the default 1st cylinder
type +750M to set the partition size
type a to make this partition active
type 1 to select partition 1
type t to change the partition filesystem
type 6 to select the fat16 file system
type n to make another new partition
type p for primary partition 
type 2 to make this the second partition
hit enter to use the default cylinder
hit enter again to use the default last cylinder
type w to write the new partition table
Type umount /dev/sdx1 to unmount the partition
Type mkfs.vfat -F 16 -n usb /dev/sdx1 to format the first partition

"Alternately you can try mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n usb /dev/sdx1 (doesn't always work)"
Type umount /dev/sdx2 to ensure the partition is unmounted
Type mkfs.ext2 -b 4096 -L casper-rw /dev/sdx2 to format the second partition
Remove and Re-insert your flash drive
Back at the terminal, type sudo apt-get install syslinux mtools
Type syslinux -sf /dev/sdx1
Restart your computer, remove the CD and boot back into Windows

Using Windows to prepare and move the files to the USB Stick:
Create a folder named USB on your computer
Download UBconvert.zip using this link - http://www.pendrivelinux.com/downloads/UBconvert.zip
Now, extract the files to the USB folder
Move the Ubuntu  ISO downloaded earlier to the USB folder
Click fixu.bat from the USB folder (follow on screen instructions)
Move all files from the ubuntu directory to your memory stick
Reboot your computer and set your system BIOS to boot from USB-HDD or USB-ZIP. Also set the "Hard Disk Boot Priority" if necessary.

You should now be booting into Ubuntu Linux from your USB drive!
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