here’s a great guide to using those usb flash drives to make a boot up disk. very cool and handy to always carry with you
17 thoughts on “Boot From A Usb Flash Drive”
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Lol. I must say, I do quite admire the text-transform: lowercase; in your stylesheet. Bound to raise a few eyebrows. :-)
Anyways, I was just reading through this article. It’s really quite a good one. I’m thinking of getting me one of these fandangled devices, just so that I can employ myself a roaming linux system. Might have to deviate slightly from those instructions though. Where do you keep finding these new things?
>_< WHERE HAVE MY CAPITALS GOT TO? :-)
That’s no hack, it’s a feature of the BIOS for most new motherboards. Getting the old ones to see a usb memstic as a bootable device would be a cool hack.
Catux-USB is a distribution created by CaTuX, an association of GNU/Linux’s users from the central area of Catalonia.
This distribution is not just one more, but it has a distinguishing feature: it can be executed from any Pendrive (or any USB storage device, even the low capacity ones.
Once it has been executed and the hardware detected, you will have a totally normal distribution, based on Debian through Knoppix and ready to do all the apt-get you want.
More information here: http://www.catux.org/catux-usb/index.php?idioma=en
ok this is cool and all but how do i do the same thing with with usb (lexar jump drive) and a sony ps2? they sell a commercial product that does this, so im sure someone knows…
Awesome. I’m checking that out right now. Thanks for the insight.
you can also find a ready-to-boot 128mb linux usb flash drive here: http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/index.html . Damn Small Linux is yet another special brew of Knoppix/Debian.
costing about $49, it’s only about $30 or so more expensive than a non-bootable drive of similar size. …heh.
anyone know how to make a usb drive autorun as soon as you plug it into a computer. I know that there are commercial products that do it like: http://www.mybackupbuddy.co.uk/flashsafe/pages/standard.asp
but can it be done manually?
Cheers :)
Just create an autorun.inf like you would a CD, it should work. Anyway, I think this article is great, planning on doing it in the future.
So what is this gadget usuful for? If I have one in my pocket, can I use it as a “key” for my PC?
So what is this gadget usuful for? If I have one in my pocket, can I use it as a “key” for my PC?
I have a laptop with a dysfunctional cd/dvd/floppy drive with a “no operating system found”error.
I want to know if or where can i get a fix + have it installed on my usb pen drive which is only 256mb’s….i have winxppro installed on it.
Recommendation:would it be best to install a fully operational OS such as linux/debian lite etc since there files in size are good? If i was rich i would be buying me a dream :)
This is truely a good site
Yes, you can use a flash drive as a key for your PC. Just download an encryption program like AxCrypt and whenever you encrypt something for which you want the drive as a key, tell the encryption software to store a decryption key file on the flash drive. That way, whenever you go to use the file, it will only open if your flash drive is plugged in.
Great page! I just bought a USB stick with knoppix preinstalled from http://www.linuxonastik.com Its really neat. I got the 2GB Lexar and I love it. I tried installing it myself on a 2gig and could not get it to work. But these guys have done it!
Here’s another site you might try if you are feeling lazy. The INSERT flavour of linux on a USB drive. I got it since INSERT is the definitive small rescue linux for bypassing the admin password, virus scanning, or just a quick boot. Cheaper than the DSL version above. Works great for me on most new computers, but not some of my dinosaur machines.
http://linuxusb.nfshost.com/
Says they ship to the U.S. only, but I sent an email and they got it to me for a little extra shipping (U.K.)
Hi I have a MSI u90x but the problem is that this dont have a cd rom so how can install windows XP by USB???
hi
:)