Booting a USB Device with a T23

[BakedandPacked]

I have no sentimental attachments to old operating systems, with
one huge exception. The small business I started with some friends
years ago used a unique version of 98SE. When I decided to save the
system, I purchased a completely refurbed T23. It works like new.
Several scripts I created allowed me to move the system from an old
Gateway desktop to the ThinkPad. I've done all this very slowly,
whenever I had some spare time, which isn't very often!

I was lucky enough to find an unused Ultrabay 2000 Adapter and 30GB
PATA laptop hard drive. If I was using a modern desktop with a full size
tower my backup options would be endless. I could boot from anything
and stackup hard drives like pancakes.

I'd like to backup the system on my T23 to the 2nd hard drive installed
in the Ultrabay Adapter. With older hardware and software the only
backups I trust are performed when the operating system is dormant.
USB booting is enabled in the BIOS setup. I tried the boot menu (F12)
and selected "Removable Devices." A USB flash drive was plugged in
with Acronis True Image. (Version 10 or newer will add all the needed
files to your flash drive in about 30 seconds.) I'm not surprised it didn't
work, but it was worth a try! I used my home office desktop that's
runnning Vista Ultimate with ATI_v11 to create the bootable thumb drive.

Is there a way to created a bootable version of ATI on a flash drive for
the T23? (Don't forget, the system is 98SE.) If not a bootable flash drive,
what other options do I have? I suppose I could purchase an external USB
CD player, and run ATI from a boot CD. I think that would work. I've got
a floppy drive, CD/DVD player, and 2nd hard drive. They all fit in the Ultrabay
slot. It's easy enough to boot ATI from the CD player. Since I want to backup
to the 2nd hard drive, I can't remove the CD player and insert the drive because
the T23 has already booted. Its not going to "see" that 2nd drive.

I'm kind of at a dead end. It would be nice to resolve this problem without
buying additional hardware. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks guys.

[rkawakami]

I think that your basic problem with booting from the flash drive is that it is seen to BIOS as a hard drive and not a removable drive. With the flash drive plugged in, access the BIOS and check the boot menu. Move the flash drive ahead of the existing hard drive and see if that works. Additional information is here: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 42#p531042 If that doesn't solve the problem....

....here's what I came up with for almost all of my Thinkpad systems. Like you, I prefer to do my backups (well, images and clones, strictly speaking) outside of Windows so I use Ghost 2003. I've used the normal procedure to create a bootable Ghost floppy disk. As you have pointed out, you can't really boot the system with an Ultrabay 2000 floppy and then swap it out for the Ultrabay HD adapter. So I mount the T23 into a port replicator. The 02K8668 (A,T,R,X) port replicator has an external floppy connector on it. I believe that most, if not all, of the newer port replicators and docks have the same connector. Connect a 05K6187 external floppy housing, with a 05K8864 Ultraslimbay (600-series) floppy inside and what you basically have is a 3-spindle setup: the hard drive in the T23 HD bay, the Ultrabay 2000 HD adapter and the external floppy. I could have replicated the same thing using a USB floppy drive but I didn't have one at the time (just used what I had on hand). In any event, I boot the system using the Ghost floppy and have it clone my system's hard drive onto the one mounted in the Ultrabay adapter. I use a similar setup when loading a basic WinXP image onto a new hard drive but instead of using an Ultrabay HD adapter, I use a DVD drive. I have prepared a DVD disk set, also made by using Ghost 2003, that contains a "starter image" of WinXP. Instead of writing the image of my basic system onto another hard drive, I install an Ultrabay 2000 DVD burner and have Ghost write the image onto two or three DVD+RW disks. That way I don't have to waste a HD and when I need to update the basic system with the newest Microsoft updates, I simply record over the DVD+RW disks. What Ghost also allows you to do is put a copy of itself onto the DVD, thus making it bootable. You don't need the Ghost floppy disk when doing a restore; just boot from the first DVD and begin the operation.

[BakedandPacked]

A really terrific and thoughtful repy! Thank you rkawakami.

I'll try moving the flash drive ahead of the other drives as you
suggest. Theoretically, the seperate boot utility, which is still
part of the BIOS setup should provide a once only override of
your main BIOS settings. At least it works that way with most
of the newer desktops I've used.

Wouldn't it be nice if all simple solutions worked 99% of the time?

In a way, getting this old system moved to the T23 is a backup.
After all, I saved it from oblivion. It's running better on this ThinkPad
than it ever did on that old Gateway. Still, I wouldn't feel right if I
didn't create a proper backup.

I'll let you know how things work out.

Thanks again.

[BakedandPacked]

The first thing I tried may cause a few of you to chuckle, but I
just wanted to see if I could boot this T23 from a USB flash drive.

I've got an app called FlashBoot Wizard. If you've created a
BartPE ISO file or boot CD, FlashBoot can quickly setup a flash
drive with Bart. I've read several lengthy procedures about
putting BartPE on a flash drive manually. Some work ok,
while others cause hours of head scratching trying to figure
why it doesn't work! FlashBoot will do the whole thing with
no grief. It can also do many other things, like configuring
your flash drive as a big floppy, etc.

Now, there is a slight problem when you combine BartPE with
a T23. Can you guess what that problem might be? Your T23
will load Bart from a flash drive, but it's extremely slow. My
T23 has a 1.20Ghz processor and 768MB of RAM. (More than
enough for 98SE.) Bart tends to load slowly, even on a modern
computer with a fast processor. With this T23, well, would you
believe 75 minutes!

Anyway, I was able to make my first backup with ATI installed
as a Bart plugin.

So now I know that a USB drive will boot on this T23. (You do
have to enter the BIOS setup and change the hard drive boot
order.) Since Bart is not the way to go, I decided to try a little
trick which sometimes cures problems with flash drives. Make
sure all your files are moved off the drive and delete the partition(s).
(I don't mean convert from one file system to another.) You want
the flash drive completely unformatted. At this point your favorite
partitioning tool may not even recognize the drive. Go to the
partitioning applet in your system. It should show your flash
drive as unformatted. Do some basic formatting and then open
whatever utility you have and finish the process, like making the
boot partition active.

I created a new FAT32 partition and set it as primary - active.
Using the Acronis Media Builder (which failed on the first attempt)
I added Acronis TrueImage and DiskDirector. This time it booted
perfectly. The bootup time was about four or five minutes, which
is lightning fast for a T23!

If this procedure hadn't worked, I probably would have purchased a
cheap external CD player on eBay. The boot menu lists a CD-ROM, so
I'm sure a bootable CD is another option. The last thing I wanted was
another optical drive! I've got four computers at home, and a varying
number at my business. I can put a dozen stick drives in a little case.
They're almost industructable. What more could you want?