T30 USB stick boot possible? How to?

[AEN007]

20Nov2008
Greetings.
Maybe someone has some (successful) experience
with booting a T30 from a USB stick?
I have tried to format a USB device (mp3 player)
to boot PartedMagic (formerly Gparted) -
so far without success.
I would like to be able to run utilities
such as PartedMagic or BartPE or UBCD4Win
from a USB stick, so I could run the utilities
on harddrives in the UltraBay2000.
I have examined the T30 BIOS settings as well.
Maybe someone could/might respond
& help me successfully load PartedMagic
from a USB boot on a T30?
Any replies/insights appreciated.
Thank you.
Regards,
AEN
Æ

[underclocker]

If the T30 is like other, older model ThinkPads, you have to do the following;

1) with the machine off, insert a bootable USB memory stick in a USB port on the machine
2) turn on machine
3) press F1 to go into the BIOS setup
3) under startup, hard drives/boot devices, you should see the memory stick as an option, you have to move it up to be the first boot hard disk
4) F10 to save settings, exit and reboot

It should boot from the USB memory stick.

Unfortunately, to boot from the memory stick after a boot up without it inserted, you have to go through the whole process again.

This is the way it is on older ThinkPads. (The bright side is that you can boot from USB memory sticks.)

With newer ThinkPads, pressing F12 at boot up produces a list of bootable devices - much more convenient!

[Benoone]

Google Hiren's BootCD 9.6 - It's an ISO. File or burn the ISO.

Hiren's web site "sorta" tells you how to put the ISO files on a stick (the "HowTo" does work but is loaded with potholes) but most important, provides a link to the USB format program. Get that USB format program.

I got the above to work on my Asus CPU but not on my T42p - The cursor just hung at top left.

An aside... No one explains that part of the usb trick is to format it with system files [exactly just like a bootable floppy using the same floppy files] You only need io.sys, msdos.sys and command.com and you can get those from anywhere on the net including msdos3+ or whatever. The format program does FAT, FAT32 and NTFS. If done right, this will boot and give you at least a good command prompt... there is no need for you to build the whole stick during boot testing.

After you do a basic format (as above), If the bios does not see your stick you are screwed. Try FAT, FAT32, other system files, etc. or try another stick? I got 512k and 1gb sticks to work so far.

Then, for my T42p, I went F1, STARTUP, BOOT, SET PRIORITY ORDER and "moved" my +USB Hdd up to the top of the list. Then on boot, F12 showed my Kingston USB at the top of the list but reboot just hung the cursor.

(I have no idea how your T30 will ID your USB device so try all of them listed.)

Solved the hang problem by getting a fresh copy of a W98SE boot disk and used those three files during the USB format. I used W98 cause that is the basis for his CD and I have no idea why his supplied system files worked on the Asus but not the TP.

Went back and copied all the files on the ISO over to the USB (except the system files) and now it loads in about five seconds on all my machines.

My only problem is, it displays a Windows splash screen during booting which... I can live with.

My two problems were: (1) not having good system files that the T42p liked, (2) not having the +USB HDD moved to the top of my boot list in the bios.

Now, it boots perfect and this Hirens collection is slick on a stick

I hope this helps

Benoone

Admin note: Hiren's Boot CD is considered "warez" and this site does not permit linking to it. A quote from the Wiki article:

Due to the inclusion of pirated copyrighted works, Hiren's Boot CD is legally considered "warez" and pirated intellectual property; downloading and/or possessing the CD has various legal implications according to the persons global location such as violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the USA.

[AEN007]

27Nov2008
Greetings.
Thanks for the replies.
My T30 has the newer F12 boot location option; however,
the T30 always only gives four locations-
HDD, CD, removable devices & IBA 4.1.07 slot 0240.
My BIOS has USB legacy support ENABLED,
which is required to do USB booting.
I'm not sure but it seems that neither
the removable devices nor the IBA 4.1.07 option
are USB boot options. Might someone confirm that?

So far I have only followed the instructions
that PartedMagic gives for making a USB stick bootable.
http://wiki.partedmagic.com/index.php/C ... _the_media
The instructions say-
"To be able to boot from the LiveUSB, a boot loader
for Linux operating from a FAT filesystem is required...
the Open Source project SYSLINUX will answer to this requirement."
As I posted at the PM forum, initially WinXP would not let me
set the mp3 player 110mb "disk" as "Active";
so I booted PartedMagic 1.9 via my UBCD4W multiboot CD.
PM recognized the mp3 "drive", but would not let me
change the flags, so I deleted the FAT16 partition &
created a FAT32 partition. PM then let me set the "boot" flag.
As I stated above, my T30 still only gives the 4 options above.

Possibly I need to try the USB format program Benoone mentions?
Does anyone have any experience with PartedMagic?
I am of course posting in the PM forum.
It seems PM requires the Linux boot loader & not a Windows boot.
In any case it seems my T30 is not giving any USB boot option.
Next week I might be able to hook up an external USB CD.
I suppose the T30 should give me the option to boot off that?
Any replies/insights appreciated.
Thank you.
Regards,
AEN
Æ

[AEN007]

3Dec2008
Greetings.
So I hooked up my old external USB CDRW drive
to a T30 USB1.1 port, did an F12 boot, selected removable devices
& was able to boot my PE CDs.
So now I know that my T30 will USB boot.
Maybe I need to try to USB boot from a real USB stick
instead of from a USB boot formatted mp3 player ...
Thank you.
Regards,
AEN
Æ

[olex126]

AEN007, I believe the problem you are encountering is related strictly to the USB device, not the T30.

I took a small Verbatim (1Gb) USB device with Verbatim preloaded software and plugged it into my T30. In Disk Manager, the USB device is partitioned as two drives, the first of which is a tiny 4 MB drive which identifies itself as a CD drive, and is formatted CDFS, correct for a CD drive. The second drive identifies itself as a 992 Mb disk drive.

All attempts to change the format of the first partition (CDFS) from within WinXP fail, since the drive is marked as Read-Only, and cannot be changed.

Looks like it's time to dig into the DOS or Linux "brute force" toolbox and find a method of re-partitioning the USB stick, so that the startup files can be placed on it, allowing the T30 to be able to see it as a boot device.

Will let you know how things progress.

Regards.

Dave

[AEN007]

7Aug2009
Greetings.
I have now resolved some (not exactly) "subtleties"
of T30 USB stick booting and managed to boot UBCDos from a USB stick
(which is not so useful because I have found almost no use for UBCDos -
except for integrating with PartedMagic, which is now irrelevant because);
I have also managed to boot PartedMagic 4.3 from a USB stick.

I am now trying to find the SIMPLEST way to boot BartPE & UBCD4Win from a USB stick.
Others have already done this, so I know it can be done;
but I would like to find the simplest way to do so.

Anyone have any helpful replies/insights on these specific issues?
Thank you.
Regards,
AEN
Æ

[ajkula66]

You're not going to like my reply...

T30 shall not boot off of a USB stick, not in my experience anyway. Period.

[AEN007]

14December2009

Greetings.

For the record it is ABSOLUTELY POSSIBLE to boot a T30 from a USB stick.
I have now done it many times.
The BIOS setting to do so is not intuitively obvious ...

I have also made lots of progress in PE USB booting.
Booting PEs for a USB is SO MUCH better than CD booting ...

Regards,
AEN
Æ

[JBUK]

For the record it is ABSOLUTELY POSSIBLE to boot a T30 from a USB stick.
I have now done it many times.
The BIOS setting to do so is not intuitively obvious ...

Do you mean you have been able to boot to DOS from a USB key ?
If so please share your success with us. I was always under the impression that it was not possible at all.

[AEN007]

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21702

If the T30 is like other, older model ThinkPads, you have to do the following;

1) with the machine off, insert a bootable USB memory stick in a USB port on the machine
2) turn on machine
3) press F1 to go into the BIOS setup
3) under startup, hard drives/boot devices, you should see the memory stick as an option, you have to move it up to be the first boot hard disk
4) F10 to save settings, exit and reboot

It should boot from the USB memory stick.

Unfortunately, to boot from the memory stick after a boot up without it inserted, you have to go through the whole process again.

This is the way it is on older ThinkPads. (The bright side is that you can boot from USB memory sticks.)

With newer ThinkPads, pressing F12 at boot up produces a list of bootable devices - much more convenient!

[olddog]

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but I have the same problem, albeit on an X30, which I imagine is not very different from a T30.

I have tried to boot Linux from a USB stick and got nowhere, despite doing exactly what AEN007 says. The USB stick works happily in other, slightly later, Thinkpads.

What are my options? Would a Firewire disk work? Or a PCMCIA card? Has anybody tried this or other methods to boot an X30/T30?

Please flood me with suggestions!

I suppose one possibility, now I come to think of it, would be to take the the HDD out, put it in a T42, install Linux, and then put it back into the X30. But perhaps there's a simpler way.

[ajkula66]

What are my options? Would a Firewire disk work? Or a PCMCIA card? Has anybody tried this or other methods to boot an X30/T30?

Please flood me with suggestions!

An X3 series ultrabase shouldn't be hard to find for pennies nowadays...boot from the CD/DVD, issue resolved.

[olddog]

What are my options? Would a Firewire disk work? Or a PCMCIA card? Has anybody tried this or other methods to boot an X30/T30?

Please flood me with suggestions!

An X3 series ultrabase shouldn't be hard to find for pennies nowadays...boot from the CD/DVD, issue resolved.

Many thanks for that. I wish I had heard of an Ultrabase before buying my dock!

Now to consult Ebay.

[olddog]

Sadly, it seems that it is not so easy to buy an X3 Ultrabase, at least in the UK . There hasn't been one for sale on Ebay UK for a long time - none is shown in completed listings, so I wonder if it was even sold in this market.

Those for sale in the USA are reasonably priced - until you see the postage charge, which is usually more than an X30 is worth.

Ah well.

[ajkula66]

An external USB CD/DVD drive would be another option...

Good luck.

[olddog]

Life is strange. Having had no luck finding an X3 Ultrabase I simply searched for Ultrabase, and found a man selling seven of them. With a DVD unit. Manufacturer refurbished, apparently, whatever that means. Seems a bit unlikely.

Now to sell the Series 3 Ultrabase that I purchased in error thinking it was an X3. Luckily there are a great many of them, and I didn't pay much.

[Camdo]

Just to clarify: it is definitely possible to boot from a USB port using an IBM Notebook Thinkpad T30.

Procedure is as follows:
1. Insert a bootable USB device into the USB port. (I used a USB Flash Stick)
2. Enter the computer's BIOS (Press F1 upon bootup).
3. Select Startup, press Enter
4. Select Boot, press Enter
5. A list of drives will be presented, use [Ctrl + Enter] to expand the list.
6. Select the USB device and use F5 or F6 to move it to the top of the Hard Drive list.
7. Make sure USB BIOS Support is Enabled in the Config > USB section.
8. F10 Save and Exit.
Now upon computer bootup, a message will appear "Press any key to boot from USB device".

The BIOS will hold the setting until a single bootup without the USB device plugged into the USB port. If that happens then you will have to enter the BIOS again and set the settings.