Bootable Pen Drive

[ans2006]

Hi everyone,
Anyone knows how to create bootable pendrives??

Taking this further, can we install full Win XP on the pendrive and boot on it??

[mjc]

http://www.weethet.nl/english/hardware_bootfromusbstick.php

another set of general instructions

http://www.hddsaver.com/content/18/index.html

Second part...yes and no...

Not without 'hacking' several setup files to trick Windows into thinking it is on a non-removable drive. Basically the way Windows normally works is that it resets the USB bus part way through loading...get the picture...the 'hack' tricks Windows into skipping that part.

http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176

[azzey]

I was on the verge of replying about an hour ago then noticed he was banned... :eek:

[Paul Komski]

Fascinating link mjc. I'm sure that the main reason that MS don't want windows installable on USB drives (assuming you have the combined hardware that supports this) is to militate against one installation being used on multiple PCs but I don't see that as a real worry since each time you moved to another PC you would almost certainly trigger a reactivation.

It's not beyond the realms of fantasy that MS has influenced the mobo makers (the OEMs for sure) to not make it easy to boot to USB hard drives. Booting to USB CDs and Floppies has long been straightforward and even though hard drives differ in that they have partition tables one would have thought that by now they should be capable of creating BIOSes that can deal with that just like a normal hard drive.

[HomeSA]

Awesome links. Wish I could Google mjc's PC docs & links :) :) :)

banned :confused: