Bootable USB Key for Txx

[Leon]

I am trying to make a USB Flash (Key) Drive bookable on my T42. I would like to be able to access my C Drive after it boots. I have been successful in creating a DOS Type boot and booting with it, but cannot access my hard drive after it boots. Does anyone have any insight into how to make a USB Flash Drive Bot table in such a way that I can access my (XP) C Drive?

[G-Man]

What brand is that? IBM's 64, 128, and 256MB memory keys are booting fine. IBM even has a boot utility for them.

Try one of these:
http://www.weethet.nl/english/hardware_ ... bstick.php
http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~shaher/Bootable_USB.html

Regards,
G-Man

[Leon]

saw both on goggle last night.... first one needs a floppy to do (don't have one), and I did the second... it BOOTS FINE, but there's not enuff "stuff" on it to be able to change to the XP hard disk after you boot... seems to be a simple DOS based boot....

p.s. I don't have an IBM Key, but I would try their S/W.. where is it?

[G-Man]

IBM Memory Key Boot Utility

Hope it helps.

Regards,
G-Man

[Leon]

Thanks G (as usual ). Unfortunately, the IBM utility is too smart, and doesn't "see" my Lexar Jump Drive. Does anyone know of any way to "trick" the TPAD into thinking this is an IBM Drive (registry key or something), or of another way to make a bookable key that can access an XP drive.

[G-Man]

I think these are what you need:

http://www.aaltonen.us/archives/000050.html
http://www.beezmo.com/OtherIssues.htm

Regards,
G-Man

[carbon_unit]

The problem comes from the fact that DOS cannot read NTFS.
Go back to getting the Lexar to boot to a DOS prompt and find an NTFS reader for DOS. Google is your friend.
That should get you heading in the right direction.

[Leon]

My T42, Google, G-Man, carbon_unit, and many others on this forum are my friend! . Didn't know about the DOS/NTFS issue.... first goggle link from a "NTFS reader for DOS." search solved the problem. Bootable AND reading my hard drive. Thanks!!

[dd]

Hi

So, which utility did you use to get your usb key bootable?

Thanks

dd

[Leon]

used this to make it bootable (Thanks HP!)

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files ... 20306.html

used this to read NTFS

http://www.ntfs.com/products.htm

make it bootable, copy over the NTFS reader, boot, and your all set!

[dd]

Hi

So, when you use the HP utility...did you use Fat , FAT32 or NTFS when formatting the key?

Do I need to tick any of the Create start up disk or anything in this process?

thanks

[Leon]

FAT32.. can't be NFS and bootable......yes, tick Create Start Up Disk, and point the search field to the same subdirectory that you extracted the HP USB Key files to,

[dd]

Doh

Excuse my ignorance



Point to directory that i "extracted the HP USB Key files to" ?

I have downloaded the HP USB Disk storage Format Tool

Should I point it to this directory (Where the SP27213.exe file is?)

?

Says no Valid DOS system files ?


Then do I copy prog that reads NTFS , options being:

Zipped Archive

Bootable Floppy Disk Image

Self-extracting Bootable Floppy Disk Creator for NTFS Reader
Bootable CD Image (ISO)

Bootable ISO Image for NTFS Reader

UNICODE.EXE

------------------------

I guess I am missing something ?

[Leon]

NOT YOUR IGNORANCE, My lack of clarity:

1) When you install the HP Format/Boot Disk Utility, it will go to it's default directory c:\programfiles\driverkey

When you run the HP Utility, and you tick the Create Dos Startup Disk box, browse to the same (c:\programfiles\driverkey) directory where it says "Using Dos System Files Located At" Then run the HP Utility until it completes.

then......

2) From the NTFS.con site, click on Zippep Archives, and download Active NTFS Reader, extract the file, and copy it to your USB drive

3)Boot the USB Drive, and run the Active NFS Reader so you can access your hard drive.

Let me know. More questions are welcome!

[dd]

Thanks

will give that a go...........

[GreenLight]

I used the HP utility to make my USB key bootable because I wanted to fix the MBR on my HD. To do that, you run the DOS program "fdisk /mbr". Unfortunately, that did not work for me because the USB key ends up being drive C: when I boot from it, and the fdisk command works on the USB key instead of the hard disk. I ended up using the recovery CDs last night on my T42, because I could not resolve the problem and get it to boot from its hard disk.

I am so glad that I store all critical information on my servers, 'cause I've had to wipe my T42 twice since getting it three weeks ago

[dd]

Leon

Was wondering if you could help.............

When you run the HP Utility, and you tick the Create Dos Startup Disk box, browse to the same (c:\programfiles\driverkey) directory where it says "Using Dos System Files Located At" Then run the HP Utility until it completes.

At this stage I get the following error message.

"There are no valid DOS sytem files at the specified location."

Which DOS files should be there?

Thanks[/quote]

[dd]

Leon

Will you come to my rescue..............yet again?

(previous post)

[Leon]

when it asks for those files, I point to the HP Install directory, in my case c:\program files\DriverKey... in that directory are the following files:

ansi, choice, command, emm386, eula, himem, hpusbf, hpusbfw, mscdex, oakcdrom, ramdrive

If you are missing any of these, or it still doesn't work, send me a private message with your email address and I will send them to you....

[CokeFever]

I have a lexar usb1.1 128mb thumb drive... I use a tool from http://www.aaltonen.us/archives/000043.html and it boots perfectly...

try it...

[Matt_]

I read through the different threads here and also these (1, 2).
First off, thank you Leon for your clear instructions. I found a .pdf file on HP's website, but their instructions appear to be very different and more complicated.
My reason for posting is that I am ready to re-order a 2373-CWU and am trying to decide between the new 512MB IBM memory key (1, 2) and the Kingston Data Traveler Elite 1 GB. The Elite seems to have every advantage over the IBM: 5 year warranty, larger storage capacity for only a little money than the IBM512MB, and a faster read/write speed.

There's just one thing that is throwing me off. It uses FreeDOS (1, 2) as "the default boot code".
I know nothing about FreeDOS and had contacted Kingston and another mesageboard and received the replies

Kingston: You will have to try the device to see if it will work for you. We basically say that our device is bootable, the rest is left to the user and their computers to see if it is compatible. Cannot comment on FreeDOS as we have not done any research on it. That again is up to you to try it out.

messageboard: FreeDOS is very similar to MSDOS and DRDOS. Any program that runs in MSDOS will work in FreeDOS.

1) I am curious why Kingston chose a different approach in using FreeDOS (rather than use MS DOS like HP did as you find out when you read the steps Leon outlined).

2) Like other people here, my interest in having a bootable USB flash drive would be to run diagnostic software, partioning programs (like PartitionMagic) and/or data backup/imaging programs like Ghost. I am wondering whether using a non-Microsoft DOS system like FreeDOS will create any problems when trying to run these programs from the USB device after having booted from it. In other words, since FreeDOS will always be a work-in-progress and since this is something that doesn't share the MS DOS sourcecode, there are and will be differences. But are these differences going to create potential problems or impose limitations while using the DataTraveler Elite as a bootable device versus if the Elite had MS DOS system files instead of FreeDOS system files ?

3) Since this Kingston flash drive is a DiskOnKey, it sounds like I could use this HP utility without any problem. But in bringing my focus back around to the IBM memory key again, is there anything particularly special about IBM's boot utility that makes it any better or significantly different in terms of function from the other boot utilities out there
so much so that it would be worth buying the IBM memory key and losing out on the advantages of the Kingston flash drive that I mentioned earlier (warranty, larger capacity, faster read/write) ?

(4 This last question is less important. But I was wondering out of curiousity what the purpose of a boot utility is. IBM, HP, and Kingston all have one for their devices. If a)the BIOS supports booting from a USB flash drive and if b)the flash drive has some DOS system files on it, then what is the boot utility doing/taking care of that (a) and (b) aren't ?)

Thank you in advance for your time and help

[kevinh]

Just to throw something out there as an idea of WHAT to put on the USB stick once you figure out HOW, you might consider:

http://www.windowsubcd.com/

This produces a bootable CD that boots Windows XP Pro right from the CD, with lots of recovery tools. You could then access your fixed drives and repair what's wrong. It's about 300MB, so you would need a 512MB USB stick. But if you can use a bootable floppy or CD to make the bootable USB stick, you should be able to use this. And you don't need to worry about how to access NTFS partitions, since you'd be running Windows XP.

Kevin

[bevross]

[is it] worth buying the IBM memory key and losing out on the advantages of the Kingston flash drive ...

Matt: I got the new Kingston Data Traveler II Plus over the Elite because -- it's just about as fast but more compact. Having a smaller footprint has gotten me into spaces (USB ports) I couldn't have otherwise. I see no advantage in paying a premium for a bootable flash drive UNLESS you don't have access to a system with a floppy on it. It is supremely easy to make your flash drive bootable, presuming you have a machine with a floppy drive. Any old system with floppy & USB will do. See, 1st use the HP utility to make the USB bootable. This only puts about 3 files on the USB drive (command.com, IO.sys, MSDOS.sys). At a point in the process it'll ask for DOS files. Those you can get, for example at http://www.bootdisk.com but, you'll need the system with the floppy drive to create disks from bootdisk.com. Then , once you have the floppy boot disk, you'll also need to copy the files to the USB. I made a separate folder on the USB drive for the DOS utilities & added a path statement in autoexec.bat: path=c:\;c:\DOSfiles\ (if you use it for boot then the flash drive becomes C:). Well, if I didn't have access to a system with floppy & USB then I suppose I'd go for buying a preformated bootable USB drive.

[Leon]

can you then access the xp (ntfs) file system after you boot?

[bapatterson]

Ok. I formatted my USB Flash Drive using the HP utility. I had to use DOS files from a Win 98 Boot Disk that I have kept since I couldn't find those files otherwise for use by the HP utility.

I then copied the NTFS file reader to the flash drive.

It all works. Boots to the DOS prompt under Win 98 and then I can load the NTFS file reader. So far, so good.

But here is the problem. In order to boot from the flash drive, I have to remove my hard drive. If I press the F12 key to obtain a boot list at start-up, the USB drive is not an option and the computer will boot from the hard drive by default. Once I remove the hard drive, the computer will boot from the flash drive since I placed it in my boot list in the BIOS, but that apparently doesn't affect the F12 boot list.

Since the hard drive is not installed when I boot from the flash drive, I cannot read from it since it doesn't exist.

How can I tell my T40 to boot from the Flash Drive instead of the default C: hard drive?

[w0qj]

did you try using the NTFS boot floppy disk from:
http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm