Booting with USB memory stick

Fluffy · 09-17-2003, 09:31 AM

Hi all,

I've been looking around the internet for quite a while trying to figure out if someone else has allready tried booting his mini-itx pc from a USB memory stick.

This interests me because I would like to use an USB mem stick instead of a hard drive...it sure makes less noise and is much faster (no moving parts).

Here's some info:
- BIOS on my EPIA 800 is set so it boots from USB-ZIP and it does read the USB stick that includes command.com but says invalid boot device...
- USB is an IBM USB2.0 256MB stick.
- Would like to boot in windows 98 (fits more then well on 256MB)

Things I wonder about:
- Could it be the USB2.0 stick not being compatible with EPIA800 USB slot?
- What files have to be on my mem stick so I can boot in plain DOS mode?

If anyone can help me on this or has done this before, please let me know!

Seraph · 09-17-2003, 10:10 AM

I an not sure about the drivers and what not but CF card or MS or SD cards have a life span as well. They can only be loaded so many times. So keep that in mind.

Defiler · 09-17-2003, 11:49 AM

a search on "boot AND compact AND flash" gave these results...

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/show...+compact+flash

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/show...+compact+flash

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/show...+compact+flash

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/show...+compact+flash

amungst others...

"search is your friend..."

VWTronics · 09-17-2003, 12:12 PM

Try this one...

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=10215

brrman · 09-17-2003, 02:30 PM

I an not sure about the drivers and what not but CF card or MS or SD cards have a life span as well. They can only be loaded so many times. So keep that in mind.

Individual flash memory cells have a limited lifespan. That's the bad news. The good news is that their lifespan is measured in the hundreds of thousands or even millions of erase/write cycles. CompactFlash cards are designed to automatically and transparently map out memory cells that go bad, or in some cases when they reach a predefined limit, i.e. 300,000 erase/write cycles (note that this figure is just an example; manufacturers may use a different figure). Cards should continue to function long after a few cells have expired, since even the busiest flash memory card won't start turning off a significant number of memory cells until after many years of service.

Confused · 09-17-2003, 05:34 PM

I've got a nice IBM 256mb stick (cool transparant casing!) that comes with software to use it in NT4 (only one i know of!) and to set it as bootable.

May see if I can find a small (<50mb) linux distro to boot to and see how well it works...if it works well...i may have to "lose" it!

Garry

Fluffy · 09-17-2003, 05:40 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Confused

I've got a nice IBM 256mb stick (cool transparant casing!) that comes with software to use it in NT4 (only one i know of!) and to set it as bootable.
May see if I can find a small (<50mb) linux distro to boot to and see how well it works...if it works well...i may have to "lose" it!

Garry

I have the same memory stick. If you get it too work please let me know! All other links above are kind of useless to me because they mention CF cards which I do not use at all...My questions are still pretty much unanswered but I certainly appreciate you people out there giving my usefull tips

greenglo · 09-30-2003, 02:19 AM

You could always copy the files from your startup disc to your usb drive. Then if it really does look at your usb before everything else it should go into the usb drive as if it were a startup disc. I've been meaning to try this, you could fit alot of disc utilities etc. on a really cheap 32mb bootable usb flash/pen drive.

frodobaggins · 09-30-2003, 04:33 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Fluffy

and is much faster

not hardly

frodobaggins · 09-30-2003, 11:57 PM

just copying the files over will not allow it to boot, you need to have a bootsector to tell it what to load

ScYThE · 10-01-2003, 01:26 AM

You cannot just copy the files, but you can boot off of memory sticks. Your bios has to support it n stuff though. My stick emulates a usb zip drive when it boots from it. Pain in the but to do it though, and I get it to look like a floopy, no more. Havent been able to get hd emulation off it yet, or get my kernel to boot off it yet. oh well, the quest goes on.

greenglo · 10-01-2003, 03:38 PM

Yes I agree 100% you gotta use the software that comes with your "bootable" usb drive to make it bootable, but after that you can play around with the startup files that it places there by default. I believe most right now will place ME startup files, so you'd have to fiddle to get a 2K or NT Os to work.

krystar · 10-01-2003, 05:47 PM

remember that command.com isn't the only file needed to boot. even in the old DOS days, you still need IO.SYS (readonly, system, hidden) MSDOS.SYS (readonly, system, hidden) nowadays you also need NTLDR and some other crap depending on what OS yer running.