how to boot operating system from pen drive?

Replies

• 

  saurabh2486

  go to cmos setup's boot menu and select boot from pen drive in ur hard disk list and there is also one version pf windows xp available for usb booting so u can get it
• 

  as_nawin

  you can't boot USB drive such easier there is long procedures for that if you able you follow this.....
  This tutorial will help you in creating a bootable USB drive of Windows Vista which you can use to install Vista in any system. It might become very useful when you don't have access to DVD drive.
  
  1. First format your USB drive in NTFS file system. You can do it by attaching your USB drive to your system and then format it from My Computer window.
  
  2. Now open Command Prompt window from Start menu. Right-click on Command Prompt entry in start menu and select "Run as administrator" option.
  
  3. Now type diskpart in Command Prompt window and press Enter. It'll launch DiskPart program:
  
  4. Now provide following command:
  
  list volume
  
  It'll show a list of all drives in your system. Look for your USB drive entry. As in the below screenshot, the USB drive is "G" which you can determine from its "Type" entry.
  
  Now you have to select the USB drive volume by providing select volume no. command. Since in our case volume no. of USB drive is "Volume 4", the command would be:
  
  select volume 4
  
  Now we have to make this drive active. So provide active command:
  
  active
  
  Now exit from DiskPart using exit command.
  
  
  5. Now we need to create Boot sector on USB drive. We'll use "bootsect.exe" utility for this task. You can find this utility in Windows Vista setup disk. It'll be present in "Boot" directory.
  
  Now provide following command in Command Prompt:
  
  bootsect /nt60 G:
  
  Here G is drive letter of USB drive. Replace it with the correct drive letter if your system has some other letter for USB drive.
  
  6. At last, copy all files/folders from Vista Setup DVD to your USB drive and you have done.
  
  Now you can boot using your USB drive and can install Windows Vista in any system.
• 

  Manish Goyal

  Good info...#-Link-Snipped-#
  but please put the link also from where you get this tutorial
  thanks
• 

  as_nawin

  i forgot where i got this, long back i saved this info in word file in my pc...
  like wise usually i will save most informations in notpad's..
  or if you want more visit my blogspot and comment me
  nawinsundar.blogspot.com
• 

  accoolaryan

  Thanks it's quite useful.
  But do you know how to create bootable pen drive for xp?
• 

  as_nawin

  This tutorial will teach you how to create a bootable windows XP/ubuntu(any linux) pen drive and install XP/ubuntu(any linux) using this bootable pen drive.
  Why would anyone want to install Windows XP from a pen drive??
  
  May be their CD drive isn’t working properly like mine, or
  They don’t want to waste money on a CD
  More over installation from a flash drive is faster compared to a CD.
  Before we go on with the tutorial here’s what you’ll need
  
  1 USB flash drive, 1GB or larger
  1 Windows XP installation disc
  Assorted files that I’ll describe as we go along.
  Note: Your BIOS should support usb boot, some older computers may not support USB boot.
  Preparing the flash drive
  First up, we need to prepare the flash drive.
  
  Download and unzip #-Link-Snipped-# which should contain 2 folders: 1 titled Bootsect, and the other USB_prep8.
  Navigate to the USB_prep8 folder and click on usb_prep8.cmd. This will bring up a Windows console window.
  Making a bootable USB
  Press any key to continue and a PeToUSB window will open.
  
  Image for step 2,3 & 4, click to enlarge
  Make sure your flash drive is selected, and click start to format your flash drive.
  When the format is complete, click OK, but do not close the PeToUSB window or the Windows Console.
  Open a new console window by typing “cmd” into the run box in the Windows Start Menu.
  
  opening Command Prompt
  Find your Bootsect folder (if you’re not used to DOS commands, you can type “dir” to list directories and files, type “cd foldername” to navigate to a folder name – called foldername in this example, and if there’s a long folder name you can save time by typing the “cd” and just the first few letters and then hitting the Tab key to fill in the rest of the name).
  Changing directory on a command prompt
  Once you’re in the Bootsect folder, type “bootsect.exe /nt52 g:” if “g” is the letter assigned to your flash drive. If it’s E, then change the letter to e. If it’s Z, make it z. Get it?
  When this is done, you should see a message letting you know that the bootcode was updated, and you can close this console window (but not the other console window).
  Close the PeToUSb Window, but make sure not to close the remaining console window yet
  You should now see a list of 8 options in the console.
  Select one and find the drive with your Windows installation disc.
  
  Making a bootable USB
  Select 2 and pick a random drive letter (but not one that’s already on your PC, since this will be a virtual drive used for copying your files).
  Select 3 and enter the drive letter for your USB flash drive.
  Select 4 and follow the rest of the on-screen directions and you should be all set.
  The process should take about 15-20 minutes. When it’s done, you should have a bootable USB stick that you can use to install Windows XP the same way you would if you had a CD/DVD drive.
  A few notes here. First of all, there’s a chance you may get down to step 15 and the program will tell you that it can’t create the virtual drive. This may happen if you’ve already gone through the whole process and are trying to do it again to fix problems. The solution seems to be rebooting your computer and trying again. Or at least that’s what worked for me.
  Second, if you use NLite to shrink/slipstream/otherwise modify your Windows XP installation file, make sure you do not remove “manual installation files,” or your USB stick will be pretty much useless.
  
  Once your usb drive is ready, go to your bios and set USB to first position in boot order. Now plug the usb and restart.
  
  Make sure you back up your important documents and files, firefox bookmarks, and drivers if you lost your drivers cd.
  
  This post explains you how to backup your drivers easily
• 

  Kishan Gupta

  A more easy software for creating xp bootable is [FONT="]WinSetupFromUSB.
  You can download it [/FONT]#-Link-Snipped-#