Boot from USB stick?

[kennyboy]

My Bios does not seem to support USB in any form. Machine is 4 years old so maybe can understand that. Is it possible to boot from my USB 1Gb stick in any other way?
I have Googled this and searched the forums, but have only found this option if the BIOS supports USB. Doesnt help that my USB is only 1.1 anyway. Any work-around?
Many thanks for any help.

[raspberry1331]

i dont think its possible. whats more, i think booting would take ages with your USB being only 1.1. what kind of stuff do you want to boot from an USB stick?

[lightshow]

http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keat...ia-usb-key.asp

there is a torrent out there with the proper files on it.

[MediaSlayer]

i boot movix from usb all the time.

if your bios supports it, you have to not only change the boot order in the bios to favor usb boot, you must not have any loadable boot sectors that the bios can find at boot time in your cd drive, floppy drive, or any hard disks other than the usb(my bios calls a usb pen drive a hard drive, and i have to put the usb drive on top or the hard drive will be booted first).

in other words, if you have the usb pen drive plugged in, and you turn on your computer to boot, your computer might boot from the hard disk if that hard disk has windows on it(if it's totally blank that problem won't be an issue) instead of your pen drive, depending on how you have boot sequence set up as explained in the previous paragraph.

[kennyboy]

@rasberry Would actually like to boot BartPE and OPHcrack too. Ophcrack just to test it as it doesnt work on my system from cd.

@MediaSlayer Thats the problem. I dont have ANY option of USB in the BIOS. I do understand that some Bios's only recognise USB as either HD's or floppies for some reason.
sad that I dont have the option to find out.
Amazed that HP dont have a BIOS upgrade to take account of USB in this age. Machine is only 4years old.

@lightshow. As you can see from the above, Windows on a USB stick wouldnt be the answer. Its other progs that I want to run.

many Thanks for the help anyway.

[MediaSlayer]

one last thing, if there is a selectable option in the bios that says "try other boot devices", give that a try. when your computer posts, with any luck it may look at your usb drive when it's looking for boot sectors. i would disconnect any unneeded ide devices, especially cd-roms, to give the bios fewer places to look at boot time.

there is another way to do it, where you put a custom written master boot sector on a device that you know you can boot from, like floppy for instance, and that master boot sector points to the boot sector in your usb drive, but i don't write computer code to I can't help u there. also, i don't know if the bios has to support usb boot in that scenario.

good luck

[raspberry1331]

the bios must support booting from usb. when you plug in your usb key, go into the boot menu, and check if there is an extra item among the default ones: for me the bios shows an extra HD.

let me know if it shows up in the menu: if yes, you can boot from usb, and i will try to give u more help.

btw, bart PE can be booted from CD, i dont see the point in booting it from USB (it is also slower than booting it from a CD). I haven't heard about the other thing.

[kennyboy]

@ MediaSlayer. This BIOS is obviously quite a basic one. There is nothing there to indicate other boot options. The only mention anywhere of USB is 'Legacy support" which is already enabled anyway. No idea what that is anyway. I dont feel confident to get into Bios hacking, but thanks anyway.

@raspberry. You know I never thought to boot into the bios with the USB dongle installed with a view to seeing another HD. Anyway, I tried it but there was only my one HD showing, and nothing new. Pity that because I had high hopes when I read your suggestion. Guess the Bios is too old, a bit like me. Worth a try, and thanks to all for your help.

[raspberry1331]

you shouldn't feel bad, booting from usb is nothing special: what can be done from usb, can be done from a rewritable CD/DVD as well, and its quicker. i'm pretty sure that you will be able to use that second program from a CD, too, just play around a bit.