Creating a 1GB Bootable USB Flash Drive

[Urban Reflex]

On my old system, whenever I needed to play around with the BIOS, or anything like that, I would just use my trusty Windows ME start-up disk to boot into DOS. However, my new system does not have a floppy disk drive so I am in need of a replacement.

I've created a bootable USB flash drive using HP's drive key boot utility and the image of my old ME start-up disk. It works fine, no problems at all. However, I am limited to the 1.44MB partition that the HP utility creates, and this is all but useless if I want to flash the BIOS on my motherboard as I need about 3MB for the flashing utility alone.

What I want is a USB flash drive that boots like a Windows start-up disk but with a lot more space than a floppy drive's 1.44MB. Preferably I'd like the whole 1GB of the drive available so I can copy things easily and without hassle.

How can I achieve this guys?

 

[.walls]

two ways i use... one is google for "hpflash1.exe" and "HPUSBFW_BOOTFILES.zip". This will create a bootable usb drive (no matter what size or brand)

The other is using linux tools. (fdisk to make the partitin, ms-sys to write the boot sector)

 

[Doohickey]

Have you tried using the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool to format your usb stick? I don't understand why the one you're using only creates a 1.44MB partition!

Download here
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/downloads/index.cfm?categoryid=1504&itemId=64963

 

[RaidenGB]

some info on here about makein a bootable USB http://www.bootdisk.com/

 

[uv]

check out the BartPE info on the msfn.org forums

 

[swinnie]

check out the BartPE info on the msfn.org forums

BartPE is a brilliant Boot Disk Utility, can be made bootable on a USB Drive as well, and if you have a copy of Norton Ghost 8 lying around you can integrate that to make it a boot disk for imaging as well.

 

[Urban Reflex]

I've tried everything you guys suggested. The HP tools only give me a 1.44MB disk, and when I reformat that with the HP Storage Format utility it doesn't boot at all.

Also, I probably should have been more specific, I'm not looking to boot into a Windows environment, I'm looking for something that'll allow me to boot to DOS and use fdisk / awdflash / etc without any problems.

I've tried several other programs as well, PeToUSB (excellent for wiping the MBR), FlashBoot, BootDisk2BootFlash (or whatever it's called) and nothing works. It seems to me that the easiest way to accomplish this is to use the HP Flash Boot utility to create a 1.44MB drive and the enlarge the partition without formatting. Is this possible? There's nothing in the boot sector that would still only limit the drive to 1.44MB is there?

 

[d.chatten]

If you have a .IMG file of your Windows ME floppy you can use UltraISO to write the image to a USB flash drive and it works perfectly, the demo version will allow you to do this, see screenshot below.

LINK > UltraISO

 

[ns400r]

Using an image of a floppy will give you a USB drive of the same capacity. Find a different image file that isn't based on a 1.44 floppy disk.

 

[.walls]

I've tried everything you guys suggested. The HP tools only give me a 1.44MB disk, and when I reformat that with the HP Storage Format utility it doesn't boot at all.

Also, I probably should have been more specific, I'm not looking to boot into a Windows environment, I'm looking for something that'll allow me to boot to DOS and use fdisk / awdflash / etc without any problems.

That's what I use mine for. I use the items I mentioned above with no probs - I have a 1gb bootable usb, a 2 gb bootable and an 8 gb bootable.

Are you sure you got the ones I mentioned?

At one point, the 1gb usb had four partitions on it, one to boot from dos, one to boot from knoppix, one to boot from ERD Commander and one to boot from DBAN - all using GRUB as a boot loader.

::EDIT:: The verion I have of hpflash1.exe extracts and installs three files - one called HPUSBF.EXE, one called HPUSBFW.EXE and EULA.doc. It's version 2.00.006 A (6 Feb 04). I've just read that the newest one doesn't work as well.

If anyone is willing to host, I can upload the contents of the archive (it doesn't need to be installed) + the boot files.

 

[ns400r]

This - http://www.hiren.info/download/freeware/usb_format.zip
and this - http://selfdestruct.net/misc/usbboot/HPUSBFW_BOOTFILES.zip
Makes a large bootable USB drive.

 

[Urban Reflex]

This - http://www.hiren.info/download/freeware/usb_format.zip
and this - http://selfdestruct.net/misc/usbboot/HPUSBFW_BOOTFILES.zip
Makes a large bootable USB drive.

When I do it this way, I get the full USB capacity with 320kb used, but no visible files on the drive. I tried pasting the files from the "HPUSBFW..." zip onto the drive and it asked me if I wanted to replace some files so they are evidently on there. Either way, my machine doesn't actually pick up the drive as being bootable.

::EDIT:: The verion I have of hpflash1.exe extracts and installs three files - one called HPUSBF.EXE, one called HPUSBFW.EXE and EULA.doc. It's version 2.00.006 A (6 Feb 04). I've just read that the newest one doesn't work as well.

If anyone is willing to host, I can upload the contents of the archive (it doesn't need to be installed) + the boot files.

I'm using the latest version of the program. My email address is urban_reflex[AT]very"hot"emailingwebsite.com if you can email them to me, I'll then be able to upload them for anyone else that needs them.

 

[ns400r]

I've just made a 1GB USB bootable drive using my method above. Also shows no files but it DOES boot when configured correctly in my BIOS. I can copy files to the drive but I've not booted with it after adding the files. I've no reason not to believe that they won't be there though.

 

[.walls]

Stuck them together in a .rar and emailed. Really is easy using this tool: it's all done foryou, pretty much.

 

[bledd]

walls, can you send it on to me too, can't be bothered to read up on it

 

[wesley]

i'm not sure if it's related to this thread but i got Corsair voyager 4GB

somewhere i read on the internet, this range will cannot make it bootable. which i didnt believed so i tried some USB linux on my corsair. shocking it's true i simply cant boot from usb at all.

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/09/17/testing-your-system-for-usb-boot-compatibility/

do the test to see if its your USB pen drive will boot up or not.

i got a spare 512mb usb drive and works for Slax on usb, not the corsair

 

[Lil old me]

i'm not sure if it's related to this thread but i got Corsair voyager 4GB

somewhere i read on the internet, this range will cannot make it bootable. which i didnt believed so i tried some USB linux on my corsair. shocking it's true i simply cant boot from usb at all.

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/09/17/testing-your-system-for-usb-boot-compatibility/

do the test to see if its your USB pen drive will boot up or not.

i got a spare 512mb usb drive and works for Slax on usb, not the corsair

Could be to do with the file system?

 

[Urban Reflex]

Okay, thanks walls, I got it to work. It doesn't boot automatically like if I use the HP Boot Utility, but if I press F8 during start up to access the boot menu I can select the drive from there and it works fine. I've uploaded the files here:

http://urbanreflex.uriptical.com/HP_Boot_USB.rar

 

[uv]

If you're looking for a multi-utility boot disk, then try hirens boot cd. I can't link, as the disk image contains some none-freeware utilities afaik, but there's a tutorial on hirens site of how to stick it onto a thumb drive. Second most useful thumb drive I own now

First is my Vista USB bootable installer.. I have no need for a cd/dvd drive anymore

 

[bledd]

well that boots up quickly! (the hp one)