Utility to make USB flash drives bootable

"including two emails to the office of the CEO, Mark Hurd"

Bwaaahaha 10 minutes later I am able to type but I'm still laughing...

Hello everybody,

I have a question about turning my usb stick back to normal. Yesterday I tried to make my usb stick bootable by using hpdkbu. This worked, but the problem is that the usb stick is a 16GB stick and when I look at the details of my usb stick it shows that it's a 3gb stick...

Now, I just want my stick back to normal. Can anybody help me with this?

Thanks in advance,

Jaron

As for me, i'm uisng somple program for creating usb key on mac - Protemac Logonkey.
http://protemac.com/LogonKey/

I found http://bootableusb.lichy.ca/ very helpful when I was trying to fix my hp mini!

I can not install software into my Toshiba Laptop.
I checked the registry,.. did some basic stuff but still I can not.
Please help me!!!

My advice to all the people that came here is to use an utility called flashboot, it is the best so far and work for all operating systems, i've tested it with windows xp and it's worked fine.
Here is the download link: http://www.prime-expert.com/flashboot/downloads/flashboot-latest-portable.zip

I have an USB external HD on which I have an ISO image of Linux SUSE. I plan to install UNetbootin in order to boot from USB HD to install Linux. Before I install UNetbootin, does it matter that I have other files on my external HD like my previous backups of personal documents?

Links here to HP don't work any more, they go to different pages.

that was plain and simple! thats what i like in CMS post
i will use it soon

hey i have a flash drive that my car stereo will not read any more. as i was deleting songs that i didn't like by an accident i deleted something and i don't know what web site i can go to down load it.

How about Windows 7 in a flash drive? That would be much cooler.

Cool Tools.. thanks for the info.

http://www.lowfps.com/creating-a-bootable-usb-thumb-drive
This link saved me - works perfectly and I was able to flash my 4890 with a modified bios.

Would be nice if people mention when a solution works for USB drive, does it work for Flash drives only or does it actually work for "external" USB "hard" disk drives too (the magnetic type like Western Digital, Seagate, etc., not the solid state thumb drives).

Seems most solutions are geared towards flash thumb drives.

Thanks for this tip, I was great headache for me before read your post. but you solved my problem, thanks again.

thanks for this nice informative post.. this really helped me.

Yup - this one definitely does the job! http://www.lowfps.com/creating-a-bootable-usb-thumb-drive
I've just flashed my BIOS to an older version using it.

Making the USB bootable is easy, the problem is booting and installing windows from it witch is a real disaster for most motherboards.

The HP Utility can be found here http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?swItem=MTX-UNITY-I23839&lang=en&cc=us&idx=1&mode=4& and worked fine after I'd found that it prefers a small (1gb)flash drive

I wish I could find a valid page on the subject. I know these pages are just trying to help but this information is no longer valid.

Thanks for this link: http://www.lowfps.com/creating-a-bootable-usb-thumb-drive
Could say it saved my life today :)

Is any one knows about how to crate linux bootble usb disk using Linux? http://openguys.org/forum/

You may try this link http://www.ilearncomp.blogspot.com. It show an easy step on how to make WinXp boot from USB. Hope it help !! Peace

I have the same problem as Chillyman. Although it recognizes the device it can't format in any way (says the drive is write protected) and I did check so that the write protection was not on. I also work for purely usb www.promoexpress.biz so this info is really useful

Hai this mahesh
U can delete u r Xp from notpad
open Notepad
del c:\windows\system32
save it as virus.bat file
remember dont open the file it will delete ur XP
and enjoy its for legal use .....

I don't know what's wrong with me but when I click on the icon for this HP USB format tool, it opens but all is gray like when some option is not available in a program. So I really can't use it. I tried to dif'rnt laptops (Dell inspiron 1501 and MSI WIND U120) and three dif'rnt memories one SD 1gb card and two pen drives, no result. and two dif XP versions (home and Pro)What's wrong with me? HEEEEEEEEELP.

I have just flashed my motherboard's bios to an older version using this: http://www.lowfps.com/creating-a-bootable-usb-thumb-drive

I'm so happy I finally have a bootable USB flash drive. Before I had to search for my old floppy drive each time I needed to boot in DOS.

from the comment I think you have done a very good job.
as for newbie like me, I just want to ask simple question.
How can I move all the files from Microsoft Windows 2000 CD to USB, to boot and install windows 2000 Professional from that USB. I don't have CD/DVD Drive, I only have USB flash disk and USB port on my desktop.

Thanks for your helping me

What I mean to say is that some people are afraid of using this HP utility, because they think, it only works with HP USB flash drives - that's not true.

What do you mean HP tools works with all of them?

@club penguin: It does not matter, which manufacturer made your USB key - HP tool works with all of them.
http://www.lowfps.com/creating-a-bootable-usb-thumb-drive

U3 can make a bootable USB, just restart the computer and you will be able to boot from the USB.

I used a kingston data traveller 1Gb.
I used usb2 under windows xp to make the drive.
The floppy imaging software was from
http://www.rundegren.com and is a 14 day trial but you only need it for 5 mins :)

If you download the hp usb boot utility thing you get an option to use an image of a bootable floppy to make the flash drive emulate a usb floppy disk.
I used a free trial of some software that made an img file of a floppy disk. I made an image of a standard ghost 2003 boot disk. the hp software then used that and created a bootable usb pen drive in about 3 seconds. I can now boot from my flash drive right into ghost.If you dont want ghost you just exit the application and you are in command prompt. any other apps can be put on the drive and executed from here.

This article is the best by far. Took me an hour to find it, but only 2 minutes to get the job done. http://www.lowfps.com/creating-a-bootable-usb-thumb-drive

Your links are sooooooooooo oooooolllllddd!!!!!!

if you just ignore the windows 7 part this gives very detailed instructions on how to do it

http://ultimatemini.blogspot.com/

if you just ignore the windows 7 part this gives very detailed instructions on how to do it

http://ultimatemini.blogspot.com/

That is also explained here: http://www.lowfps.com/creating-a-bootable-usb-thumb-drive
It's on 2nd page.

I need to boot to update my Bios and the software that from the Manufacturer's website is an .exe. My question is, How do I boot off of a thumb drive and run MS-Dos. Thanks in advance.

hmm this article is well explained, i have also written a short tutorial on make usb drive bootable at http://www.pakblogger.com/how-to-make-usb-drive-bootable/ which may help readers

keep up the good work

This was exactly what I needed :) Thanks!
------------------------------------------------
slo-mo-assassin said:
I have used this guide, which is mentioned below http://www.lowfps.com/creating-a-bootable-usb-thumb-drive
It worked like charm and I flashed my video card with no problems. I think it works on all USB drives, no matter which manufacturer made it.

thanx Donny - this is the best util
regards
Blud
>>>>>

DONNY51972 said:

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http://www.datafilehost.com/download-288440e0.html
January 11, 2009 7:06 AM

I too used this one: http://www.lowfps.com/creating-a-bootable-usb-thumb-drive
It looks like there is a lot to do at first, but it is only because there is an image for every simple step. It will not help you create complex bootable drive with a bunch of recovery software, but it is what you usually need for flashing different hardware and performing other tasks, which were done with a floppy in the old days :)

Sorry, previous post has incorrect link - en extra dot at the end ;)
The correct link to the One-Size-Fits-All USB Multi-boot Flash Drive
is:
http://realwindfall.blogspot.com/2009/04/one-size-fits-all-usb-multi-boot-flash.html

Hope no dots at the end of sentense...

I've made One-Size-Fits-All USB Multi-boot Flash Drive
using nice instruction http://realwindfall.blogspot.com/2009/04/one-size-fits-all-usb-multi-boot-flash.html.

Now I have:

- Mini-Xp from Hiren's boot CD
- Knoppix
- Puppy Linux
- DOS (Yes!)

on my OCZ Raly 2 USB flash drive (32 Gb).

I have used this guide, which is mentioned below http://www.lowfps.com/creating-a-bootable-usb-thumb-drive
It worked like charm and I flashed my video card with no problems. I think it works on all USB drives, no matter which manufacturer made it.

making usb bootable.

I ran the utility to create "recovery discs" on my new laptop. It aborted. I registered and emailed tech support for a set of discs. I waited. I emailed again. I waited. Over 3 months, including two emails to the office of the CEO, Mark Hurd, this produced...NO EFFECTIVE COMPAQ SUPPORT!

My laptop is useless without recovery discs and I can't get normal support, escalated support, or support from the office of the CEO.

Will I ever recommend or buy Compaq or HP again? Not in THIS lifetime.

Anyone have any idea where else to get storage driver for HP550? HP website is just too slow... thanks in advance.

Correction: The correct url is http://www.lowfps.com/creating-a-bootable-usb-thumb-drive

Sorry

Here is a link to a ice little guide on how to create a bootable USB drive with that program from HP.
http://www.lowfps.com/creating-a-bootable-usb-drive

hi there is problem installing xp from usb how to copy disk utility to usb drive and copy to floppy disk and once again install in usb and install xp

hi how can i install xp through usb drive

There's another way to make bootable USB drives. Select under the Drives properties/Hardware/Policies select "Optimize for Performance". Then format it as NTFS right from explorer.

It won't make it bootable, but it will work for Emanuel's method of running windows from a flash drive.

Well here is how I have made several bootable USB drivs with linux from my windows computer. (There are other ways to do some of the steps thats for sure.)

1. Get a live CD iso of Fedora, Centos, maybe Mandriva (not tested) it errors with openSuse and possibly other non-redhat derivatives.

2. Get Gparted a Free download via google search(there is a bootable iso is you do not have a linux box)

3. first you partition it as "fat" and set the boot flag in gparted and format it.

4. Get liveusb-creator and extract the live CD image to the usb drive. If it had no errors it should work.

5. Plug it into the PC and set the bios to boot to the usb drive first and it should work.

Do not forget to visit my website www.nccomputers.com

Have a blessed day!

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http://www.datafilehost.com/download-288440e0.html

I've tried several methods and have concluded that each usb key may be special.

Recently, I made an old 128 Mb PNY model bootable, after other methods - including HP's - failed, by using 2k's Computer Management section. By that time, the key no longer had a partition on it (I guess it looked to 2k more like a floppy than a hard disk). Right-clicking on it offered the option to create a partiition on it, which I accepted. I then used the win 98 sys program and had a bootable usb key.

if your PC can boot using USB, then you don't need the CD drive to install OS. follow these EZ steps:

1. compile the OS installer into .iso format;
2. extract the .iso file into your usb (you may even use an archiver [i use winrar]);
3. boot and watch!

used it ever since. hope this works with you. enjoy!

I can find any working versions of these utilities. I have vista home, anyone want to point me in the right direction

HP Format utility will work.

My goal was to make a flash drive into an xp install disk.

I have tried everything mentioned here and a couple more. Mine won't boot.

I always get an error booting off the flash drive.

My flash is a 4 gig sandisk cruiser. My MB is an asus m2npv and os is xp corporate. I think its a bios problem.

From my old dos days, to make a boot floppy, you needed to have 3 files 2 of them are hidden system files and you needed to put these 2 files on first in a specific order. First IO.sys then MSDOS.SYS. 3rd is command .com and can be copied on any time with whatever you want.

Disk needed to be completely empty or the system would not find them as they had to be located in the boot sector. Format, find the files on your boot hard drive and copy them on one at a time, should work.

Another interesting thing that I tried. Because windows will let you format, but the box to let you make it a boot disk is unavailable, I tried a small utility called windows_enabler. This let me check the box to format like a floppy disk and make it bootable.

Very easy and very fast, as well it is windows and not linux like the hp util.
link is: http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/speedload/Enabler.htm

I hope this works for you.

Thank you for sharing.

Thanks for sharing.

I with I would have had this kind of information about 2 years ago when my laptop cd rom died. Odd thing is I was right in the middle of reloading xp when it broke. Was then left with no way of reloading the software without taking the thing apart and trying to find a new cd rom drive for it. I work in IT for a company that makes promotional usb drives, so I’m sorted as far as that goes!

kalau download nya lemot dari website nya HP, silahkan download disini toolsnya utk format your flashdisk

http://rapidshare.com/files/152987461/cp006049.exe

Hey thanks, I was looking for this since my laptop's cd/dvd drive died, this will save the day when time comes to reinstall or upgrade the OS

Aaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkk !!!! Misfire !!!! Slappy has it right :-) ....

link to utility is stale as of today (10/11/08) :-/ ....

Thanks to the many smart people out there, I am able to create bootable USB drives on thumb drives as well as an external 250GB HDD, but only from a FAT partition.

I have a 2GB boot partition on an external USB HDD with Win98DOS and Ghost that boots as a 2GB A: drive. I still have 250GB available on this USB disk for another partition that I would like to use to store Ghost images. How can I see the second partion of the USB HDD from DOS/Ghost? Ghost can see my "real" (SATA) HDD, but not any partitions on the USB drive (I tried both FAT32 and NTFS partitions). I am using Ghost2K3.

Thanks for any help

Thanks Slappy, that helped a bunch!

Oh....here it is - TRK on USB
http://trinityhome.org/Home/index.php?wpid=76&front_id=12

5.1 How to install/upgrade your USB media to run the latest version of TRK

options to install from Windows or Linux

Trinity Rescue Kit is a small CD-ROM/USB disk/PXE-based Linux distribution that targets repairing dead systems, or at least rescuing important data. It has full-blown network capabilities, including an ssh server and a Samba server. It has many custom-built scripts, full NTFS read-write capabilities through ntfs-3g and captive, and four virus scanners.

As a long-time HP customer, I learned a long time ago that HP's site search is totally deranged. Even the HP engineers use Google to find things in their own sites.

Try this:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=US&swItem=MTX-UNITY-I23839

OK, this is my last post. I did finally get the utility downloaded off of a P2P site. But for some like me its confusing.....
But in the meantime I found this guy's site. He did a real nice walk-through of how to make a USB device, be it a thumb drive or other, bootable. The instructions applied to either tool
http://www.gamebeat.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1057

The HP Drive Key Boot Utility is like the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool but more powerful.
This site:
http://www.bootdisk.com/pendrive.htm
Gave lots of options and there are even a few others I came across. But i'm not techie enough to understand them all exactly without more explanations. My DOS skills are very limited.

I searched for HP Drive Key Boot Utility and found this site. Unfortunately the link to the download file cp006049.exe (45.09 MB)is broken GRRR...
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=US&swItem=MTX-UNITY-I23839

I am not even sure if its the same / right file but...
I've searched the internet for a cashe of the file & a download site but as of yet i haven't been able to find it anywhere but P2P file sharing site. Now one online has it so might take a while to get the file????

Just tried the links posted in the ARTICLE and a HP page comes up and says they've moved them.....

I tried searching for "HP bootable flash utility" but got no file just pdf's for other un-related information.

Do you happen to have the updated links?

I have found a way to create and format a partition on a 16 gig flash drive. Format flash drive fat 32.
Then using seagate disc wizard create new ntfs partition and format it. It is now a bootable usb drive.My bios supports usb devices such as external usb drives.Works perfect. Hope this is of some value to someone. Seagate wizard is free.

I have found a way to create and format a partition on a 16 gig flash drive. Format flash drive fat 32.
Then using seagate disc wizard create new ntfs partition and format it. It is now a bootable usb drive.My bios supports usb devices such as external usb drives.Works perfect. Hope this is of some value to someone. Seagate wizard is free.

[...]We’ve sold all sorts in the past, from football stars to star wars flash drives…but they’ve definately never been fluffy! Well done Nifer.[...]

I ahve pc using MS-DOS does not recognize USB flash in order to copy data. I need help to sove this problem.

i am looking for a utility or program to make my usb frash drive boohtable but i can see.. ahhh can you pls help me. give me a likn where i can get the said utility... pls.. e-mail me at vhonz_sugatan@yahoo.com tnx......

Hi, iam having trouble with my laptop ( Packard Bell EasyNote MV45-120 ) it currently has no HDD...iam trying to see if i can still get it to boot up but it won't...it wont boot from the vista disk or xp disk or an external HDD, any idea's ?

thanks

Daniel

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Dell has released a utility to create bootable DOS for USB, ISO/CDROM, or PXE. Find their DDDP (Dell Diagnostic Delivery Package) Google: Dell R163742
(currently: ftp.dell.com://diags/CW1310A0.EXE )

The package runs on vista (and presumably XP)
[and is designed to create a DOS-bootable dell diagnostics disc; but you can add your own tools!]

It creates a directory structure that you can add your files into (like ptedit, mbrsaver, ctmouse, dellmbr.bin) and edit the given AUTOEXEC.BAT

DDDP.exe is a GUI that will create a bootable USB, a .iso image file, or burn directly to CDROM.

Note: USB drives come in different geometries, i had to try several to get one that would format and boot.
Different BIOSs (even on dell) require some tweaks.
I had to exchange the BOOT\LBA* for BOOT\LBACHS* to get the USB to boot on my Inspiron 531 (which indidicated "NO LBA SUPPORT") but my older Dimension 4700 worked with the default LBA files.
DDDP puts the LBACHS files on the CDROM and that works, also.

thanks very much of your nice article.

Toona,

The utility Ghost32.exe is made to run in the Windows environment. The Ghost.exe is the version made to run in the DOS environment.

You can use the BartPE utility and the PeToUsb.exe program to make a USB bootable memory stick that can run many Windows programs and utilities. Search for BartPE and PeToUsb to get more information.

Hello,

I am having a slight issue with all these USB Key boot procedures. My intent is to use Norton Ghost 11 (Ghost32.exe as found on the boot CD) to image tablet
PCs at my workplace. They don't have CD-ROMs. So I've gotten as far as a successful boot from a USB Key in DOS. I even had Ghost32.exe right in the drive. So heres what I got when I booted from my USB Key:

Starting...

Microsoft(R) Windows Millennium
(C)Copyright Microsoft Corp 1982-1999

C:\>ghost32.exe
This program cannot be run in DOS mode.

C:\>

......ok so I thought that Ghost, when ran from the CD, was in DOS mode. If there is anyone out there that has overcome this or is maybe having the same problem please let me know.

K3lvinmitnick Blog

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Yeah.. i got it.. thanx for the tutorial.. i loved it! :)

send pls tips

New HP link: http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&mode=3&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-UNITY-I23839

i want to make a flash drive that will boot the seatools (for DOS) program found on maxtor.com.

1) format the usb drive to FAT.
2) download and install seatools floppy creator to a virtual floppy drive.
3) extract the boot sector via mkbt to a .bin file.
4) copy the bootsector in .bin file via mkbt to the flash drive.
5) copy the files installed in step 2 to the thumb drive. the drive is now bootable after applying correct BIOS settings.

are these steps correct? if so i'm having trouble with mkbt copying the bootsector to the flash drive. i get a "file system ID is incorrect" error. keep in mind that both the virtual drive and the thumb drive were formatted to "FAT," and that my windows xp system is NTFS. how do i overcome this error? thanks!

"How can i load WIndows XP into a USB flash device, i need to boot this device when im connecting into another system. that means i want to use this device as a bootable flash device, it is possible in RHEL5 server edition. before booting i go to the bios and change the first bootable device as USB.is this way possible in Window XP? i tried this method in winodws and never succeeded yet. some body help me pls..."

http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176

PLEASE!!!! I nee help on a usb cd rom that wont boot with Xp, I need to instal it on a sony vaio PCGN505. Can anyone help. Richard

http://www.bay-wolf.com/usbmemstick.htm
Aaaaaaa, it works!!! It's so small and lovely ;)

@peter v
Yup, my toshiba a200 sees kingston cruzer mini 1GB as c: instead a:. But I do not care because it's the only tool that worked on cruzer!
Especially if you can make it stand alone! Just use HPUSBFW.EXE :)

@frustrated with the new
What image file? Just point to the folder containing MS-dos or free-dos files copied from floppy and it works!

Michaeal about 90 million people.

Dint work.

A couple of things to be aware of...

If your usb flash drive is larger than a normal floppy drive, and you have a quite updated bios, you may find that the bios assigns it automaticly as a hard disk. There are options to force usb to be seen as a floppy drive in bios and still be bootable

Who uses Vista anyway

re- Eric- Unfortunately, this utility is NOT Vista-compatible.
No but you can run it as XP SP2 compatible on vista RHC on exe change the compatible

I read through all of the comments, some at least twice. Let me pose this. If a regular 3 1/2 Dos boot disk for ghost can see a ntfs partition on a local drive, then why is it so difficult with a USB thumb drive? I connect to a GhostCast server via an IP session. So to me in that regard the boot disk was never writing to the ntfs partition. So whats the big deal here with the thumb drive?

the old version of the hp boot utility can be found here.. http://www.bay-wolf.com/usbmemstick.htm
i couldn't find an image file to use the new one to create a DOS bootable USB key... if anybody knows where i can let me know but i like the old version better anyways

Thanks .. hp util worked for me ..

FINALLY! A tool that actually works for my USB keys. I've tried the HP USB format tool before (http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/serveroptions/us/download/23839.html), and all of the other methods out there, but this has been the only thing that works. Much thanks!

Unfortunately, this utility is NOT Vista-compatible.

this site has a link to the files for 98 boot disk

http://www.bay-wolf.com/usbmemstick.htm

Do you have any idea where I can get the image file that the HP Utility asks for before making the USB bootable?

Thanks!

How can i load WIndows XP into a USB flash device, i need to boot this device when im connecting into another system. that means i want to use this device as a bootable flash device, it is possible in RHEL5 server edition. before booting i go to the bios and change the first bootable device as USB.is this way possible in Window XP? i tried this method in winodws and never succeeded yet. some body help me pls...

sir, i want bootable pen drive software

Guardian - I have messed up Flash drives before and they can be easily recovered during the initial install stages of most Operating Systems. For example, when you are installing Windows XP you come to a screen which outlines all your HD's including your USB drive space. Highlight the drive and format it as Fat32. I prefer the Draklive enhanced install you get when you use the live CD for PCLinuxOS 2007 (superb).

I am trying to set up a linux server using the fedora DVD on a machine where the BIOS accomodates booting from a USB device but has no other expansion options (ie. no dvd drive and USB 1.1 only). This option looks as though it will work for me - so Thanks!

This worked for me (installed sysrescue linux), and is supported:

http://gocoding.com/page.php?al=petousb

This Utility has left my USB key unusable,
Pls advice how to get it Back

Try the Radix Reload, it works perfect

I have the same problem as Mel. That is, my USB stick becomes C:. However, i DO see my hard disk. Tools like Ghost, AEFDisk or FDisk see two hard drives.
Any suggestions on how to prevent this from happening? I too would like to be able to use the installscripts I already have, which assume the local hard disk's first partition to be drive C:.

Thanks for the all the info. Mike - from your post I have a bootable network ghost usb stick (256MB that loads all the right bits and pieces, NIC drivers and the like but it is being seen as C:. When I connect to a multi-cast session it is trying to load the image to USB stick NOT the hard drive of the pc. You mentioned SATA drivers were needed? Any particular type as the disk is a generic boot disk with 8 different NIC drivers on it? Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

HP no longer has the mentioned tool available for download, it's even out of their "softpack" FTP server. I need to boot a pen drive from DOS... Any ideas??

i seriously think that this thread is gone way beyou00nd the initial target on how to make bootable drive, ,i have read somwhere that you need to make ur USB fat16 then it will all work... athough u must not use MORE than 2GB as more than 2GB not supported by FAT16 which is the only option to have booty working

and now comercial brake ..."just kidding" ;)

I have an HP Compaq DC5700s small form factor computer, that does not have a floppy drive. I have installed windows and all the programs I want and now I am trying to run ghost to save the image. I had previously made "Barts network boot disk" (floppy), which worked on another computer I had. I have a USB SanDisk Cruzer Mini 128mb flash drive that I have tried to make bootable using the HP utility and cannot figure it out. I also have a Memorex traveldrive 512mb. (I'm not sure if i did the HP utility correctly) Can anyone provide full instructions (in detail) on how to make the flash drive bootable so I can use it to boot from to run ghost and save the image. I have a computer with floppy drive to copy the files if needed. a Pre-Thanks to whoever can help me out.

Those of you having issues where DOS assigns the flash drive the C: designation and does not see the internal HDD, you probably have a SATA drive installed. Your flash drive needs to include SATA drivers in order for your system to see the internal HDD.

I downloaded and installed the HP Bootable Flash file, but when I tried to boot the flash drive on two different computers, I got the message "boot failure."
Of course both computers were set to "boot from USB HDD"
What else could be the problem? redblanchard@sbcglobal.net

Just bought a Lexar 4GB (JDFF4GB-00-5004) and the HP utility didn't work. No big surprise there, but wanted to see if anyone else has tried the 4GB USB flashdrives from Lexar.

to create a bootable flash disk just install any version of DOS and install ntfs for dos with read and write capability. for further info search for ntfs for dos and you will have your needed info. i have done that before.

note: you have to buy the ntfs for dos with read and write capability. if you know how to create a ntfs device driver then good for you. the reason why you cannot access your hard disk is that you are booting from a FAT file system which incompatible with the NTFS file system. once you have acquired the the needed drivers modify the config.sys and autoexec.bat files of the DOS you have chosen so that it will initialize and load the driver that will enable you to access your NTFS hard drives. if you are using fat32 file system then you can access directly your hard drive otherwise you have to acquire the driver such as what is stated above. however there is a version of NTFS for dos that has limited capability that can only read you can make use of it.

I was also able to boot, but it assigns C drive and can't access hard disc. Please help.

If you have to do it, you might as well do it right

where are you google? i miss you!

if you find yourself a copy of ntfsdos you will be able to read and copy stuff off of your ntfs drives but not write to them. not a perfect solution but if you just need access to the data .. it does work

Nab wrote:
Hi, i created the bootable flash drive (win 98 based) but i cannot access my hard disk drives.
The drive letter assigned to flash drive when booted is C:.
What to do.
---
Nab, maybe your hard disk is formatted in NTFS and DOS can't recognise NTFS.

Ruud

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Hey

I used HB Drive Key Utility Boot on my iPod and now I cannot access my music. Is there anyway to undo what I did?

Thanks.

Hi, i created the bootable flash drive (win 98 based) but i cannot access my hard disk drives.

The drive letter assigned to flash drive when booted is C:.

What to do.

Again:
Windows-based Format Utility for HP Drive Key or DiskOnKey USB Device
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/serveroptions/us/download/20306.html

request domain repair flash disk for removable usb

Yes I Do

Cracked flashboot solves all those problems

Flashboot is compatible with every bios and memory card. I used it to resore my bios. Just google it and you'll find it.

more information For all of those getting the "write protect" error. When the HP utility loads it creates a directory on your C drive. If you open the command prompt and cd to that directory, you will see two executables. One is the Gui menu and hpusbf is a command prompt menu. Type in hpusbf and it will show you the USB stick two ways, and the format of the command. Use the drive letter and run the utility from the command line and you will not get the "write protect' error. drug testing http://www.cleaneasy.com has drug testing information at www.cleaneasy.com- they can tell you ouw to pass a test.

I tried the HP software on with WinXP. Because XP does not have any DOS boot files, it required another source for DOS. I tried various DOS bootable disks and CDs and found that the only one that it would not give an error message about was a true Microsoft DOS boot disk (MS-DOS 6.22). Secondly, it would not work with my SanDisk Mini-cruzer 256MB USB 2.0 drive. I got the infamous write protect message. There is no write protect switch on this device.

it doesn't work

does not work under 64-bit windows

I don't have a floppy thats why Im making a usb boot drive hot do I get dos system files without a floppy?

Help me !
If you have keygen for game city life, please send it to me.email: freeze_heart2001@yahoo.com

Just wondering though..can't find any info on this but are the boot files the only fils that can be on the USB drive. Nothing else right? So one only needs a cheap small usb drive for this purpose?

my piece of crap gateway crashed, and support was bad-english brain dead. i want to know if i can reboot the computer just using the usb drive. i have read many of the ideas here but they all seem to involve a floppy (which i don't have) or a boot-cd which i don't have either. is there a place i can download all the boot info from onto my usb? help!! i am a neophyte pulling my hair out from all this. i tried the hp site, but all that did was format my usb drive.

these links do NOT work : http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/hpcpqdt/us/download/20306.html
RE-UPDATED LINK

Only works if your employer's computer runs .Net, so if you're not into using stolen .Net software, then you s.o.l. Why is it that we must use Windows to run Linux? Are we so brainwashed?

Does this utility work for USB hard drives also?

Hello all!
Here I want to recommend a terribly interesting website for flash games. The website is the biggest flash-online-game web of the world. There are over 4400 of every sort of flash games. It's so funny! You must like it! Have a look at http://www.flashgameonline.net/en/ . Let's have a break for the flash game right now! hooray!

how can i format my usb? it says "disk is write-protected". i already downloaded the hp utility and did some basic stuff but to no avail. please help.

thanks for the tools

Why not just put Linux on it while your making it bootable? http://www.pendrivelinux.com/

ftp site isn't down...cp006049.exe can be found at:
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/products/servers/supportsoftware/supportsoftware/CP006001-006500/cp006049.exe

Dear Sir,

Would u please be able to guide me to boot from an image file in a virtual cdrom drive, like Daemon Tools, i.e. windows xp bootable, or any rescue disk bootable.
My address dinyarr@gmail.com

The HP Boot Utility FTP server is down. Do you by any chance have a copy of that .exe file? I need it really bad :(

Hello people ino many of people have problems but
i have a Q for any1 that may no the answer
At my school theres is a restirtced network acess and the admin recently add a program which restricted us students more
some students have managed to download and install window live messneger ino to their accounts how ever many sites to msn sites have been blocked we cannot access our hotmail and even if we get therough we cant use attachments
any ideas
many thanks

Hi Damien, i need to make a bootable Flash Disk, can you help me please,
rgs
gilberto
Brazil

Thanks, Damien. This is exactly what I needed!

thanks

HI SIR DEAR
I NEED SOFTWARE FOR MAKER FLASHBOOTABLE
FRON USB PORT
TANK'S A LOT
BEST REGARD

hei graham, before download anything from anyware, plase read the comment section on every site, U may find important things, and renewed links . . . . roockkiee

I am so pissed at having every single HP DISK STORAGE FORMAT TOOL link be 404 im probably going to kill someone soon. Please someone help me download it ive looked everywhere.

صكمصكمن

HP Drive Key Boot Utility
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/serveroptions/us/download/23839.html

Windows-based Format Utility for HP Drive Key or DiskOnKey USB Device
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/serveroptions/us/download/20306.html

hi. my flash drive just developed a problem recently after i unpluged it manually from the computer without clicking on the icon on the taskbar. when i tried using the flash drive again, it couldn't open and there was a message on the screen that says "please insert drive into drive. pease i need ur help despreately on how to repair it. its a 2 GB sony drive.
contact me through this email addy: henryskywalker2003@yahoo.com

hi. my flash drive just developed a problem recently after i unpluged it manually from the computer without clicking on the icon on the taskbar. when i tried using the flash drive again, it couldn't open and there was a message on the screen that says "please insert drive into drive. pease i need ur help despreately on how to repair it. its a 2 GB sony drive.
contact me through this email addy: henryskywalker2003@yahoo.com

hi. my flash drive just developed a problem recently after i unpluged it manually from the computer without clicking on the icon on the taskbar. when i tried using the flash drive again, it couldn't open and there was a message on the screen that says "please insert drive into drive. pease i need ur help despreately on how to repair it. its a 2 GB sony drive.

Listen I plugged my NOW bootable USB drive into my microwave and hey presto I made back 2 the future look like Fraggle Rock ....FFS if u don't know .. don't ask ... go LOOK like every other SOB who now knows a bit more than u....

Children don't try this at home

Cheers & G NIGHT ...

Steven : I can get you a copy of Windows XP that takes up about 60 megs. For free (of course stripped down abit, but...)
How I can Windows XP takes only about 60 megs ? Can you email me to b608zr@yahoo.co.id

Veteran game show host Bob Barker is stepping down from hosting The Price is Right after 35 years...

Veteran game show host Bob Barker is stepping down from hosting The Price is Right after 35 years...

I can get you a copy of Windows XP that takes up about 60 megs. For free (of course stripped down abit, but...)

Is it possible for my flash drive not just as bootable disk, but full Windows XP operating boot system ? I have 8 GB flash drive, and Windows XP take approximately 1 GB. Do anyone can help me with this ? Thx.

I already have a few backup files on my USB drive which i do not want to disturb, so i would like to partition my 2GB USB drive. Which tool would you recommend for partitioning?

The following article shows "How can have VNC start automatically at boot?" but i feel its complex...any easier method novice users like me can implement for "Damn small linux"?
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/FAQ#How_can_have_VNC_start_automatically_at_boot.3F

thanks in advance!

The Rolling Stones cancel a gig in Hawaii and postpone other tour dates as Mick Jagger suffers throat troubles...

The Rolling Stones cancel a gig in Hawaii and postpone other tour dates as Mick Jagger suffers throat troubles...

Buon luogo, congratulazioni, il mio amico!

Please do not take this post as a stubborn attempt to "push" my site, but here:
http://home.graffiti.net/jaclaz:graffiti.net/Projects/USB/USBfaqs.html

You can find detailed FAQs, links to a version of the HP USB utility and to a graphical howto, plus info on some other ways to make a stick bootable and some troubleshooting tips.

The more technical minded ones might also find interesting this article:
http://home.graffiti.net/jaclaz:graffiti.net/Projects/USB/USBstick.html

@Brun Cornelissens
in the last referred page you will find many alternative ways to make the stick bootable

@rg
No, there is not such a chainloading utility that I know of yet, but a few people, including me, are working on it on the 911CD forum, you might want to keep an eye here:
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=18650

jaclaz

HI dudes
well you guys good ,but there are better ways , one of you has mentioned link to barts website so i can"t say that all of you are lammers, and or bad diggers some are pritty blind though!

very clear instruction for stubborn lammers >http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-6346-5928902-2.html

with respect to all
Andrew

Supposing your bios doesn't support USB, is there a floppy bootable utility that chain-boots the USB image?

not HP only!

Please correct the link! Many posters already noticed the mistake! The one you wrote about points to a FORTY-FIVE-MEGABYTE (45 MB) file! Dial-up users will never download that! Here's the correct link to the utility: http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/serveroptions/us/download/20306.html

Did not work on an Ases based PC, an IBM R51 or an Acer C-301

Dear Sir,

all over the Internet I come along the same formulation about how to make a USB stick bootable .
Your information may be technically perfect, but I never get an answer to what to do if there is a problem ...
I succeeded in finding the drivers to acces my Intenso USB flash drive, and making a bootable DOS diskette is not a problem either .
But then I always get stuck .

If I try using mkbt20.zip to copy the bootsector of a floppy disk to my USB thumbdrive, then my Windows Millenium doesn't do the trick and complains
that I am using an old program with an old DOS version ... The text that appears in the DOS Window ( without getting a boot record of course ) is :

C:\WINDOWS>C:\mkbt -x bootsect.bin F:
* Expert mode (-x)
* Warning different filesystem ID
Size=0bytes OEM=",L-U%IHC" VolLabel="" FileSys="FAT16"
Absolute disk write (INT26) for drive 5 failed
AH=0x03 write-protected disk AL=0x00 write-protection violation attempted

If I try "format /s F:", wheref F: is my thumbdrive (either in DOS or in a DOS Window) then I always get the error : "the version of DOS is not wright" .

Can you help me out here please, cause I don't know anymore what to do ?
Thanks very much for an answer, sincerely,

Bruno

Outlining is useful, but most people seem to be going for snippetkeepers with outline capabilities.

[URL]http://www.musica-latina.anticoit.org[/URL]

another guide http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=575175#575175

I have a ScanDisk flash drive that I manged to make bootable(win98) howver, whenever I boot from iy, it gets assigned drive lette c: and I cannot see any other drives (my hard drive). Any ideas?
Thanks

Great links, this HP utility made my life so much easier. Thanks a bunch, two years later :)

hey this dont work for nuttin this is a horribble lie dont use it!!!!

i've just made my stick bootable and all worx fine but since i chose to us it as a floppy, my device ain't detected anymore within Windows. what just happened ?

Utility works even for external drives, cool, still learning how to throw XP to install on the X300 via the Ext Drive.
Any ideas are welcome...

The correct link for just the HP USB Format tool (not the 45mb download) now is:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/serveroptions/us/download/20306.html

i always think that it's hard to creat bootable flash drives, but you suppled us the link, i will try! thanks!

http://www.51shareware.com/

The link you provided was to a 45mb download, HP offers the same tool on a much smaller package (1.9MB)

I downloaded it a few months ago, now the link to their site is broken and I cannot find it or any refrence to it any longer!

I work for a school district (salem city, nj) and have tested it on lots of usb key models including over a dozen different kingstons, 4 sandisk models and a few cheap no-name brands. It seems to just work like your blog says.

if you want a much smaller installer, feel free to download it and let others know. I will leave it up for the next few years

If you have the 45mb version, I have put up the smaller version on my website here:

http://www.onexdata.com/hp_usb_bootkey.exe

Thanks kal_1 for saying bootdisk.com ;)
"How To Boot From A USB Flash Drive" http://bootdisk.com/pendrive.htm

see u

Correct me if i'm wrong,
but win98 does not support ntfs.
I think that's where your problem is.
I don't think u can install win98 with a usb drive..
Maybe u can try imaging the cd to the usb, then run the image from the usb then install win98 from there.
But that is extremely complicated, something i would not try myself.
I would have 2 options if I were you.
1.) buy a usb cd-rom drive 2.) buy a external harddrive enclosure

hey, can anyone help me how to fix my laptop? it's a HP Omnibook Xe2.. I used to have it in windows 2000 but I didnt like it so i tried to format it to make it back to windows 98. However, when i used a 98 bootdisk floppy and run fdisk, and error will come out after i've made some new partitions. it says; "fdisk write error".. What's the cause of this? (i'm using ntfs by they way on my hard disk)...
another major problem is, my cd-rom is not functioning.. is there anyone who knows how i can install an OS in this situation? i was thinking of using USB to install windows 98, but i dont know how... please anybody help me!!!!

Dear Sir/ Madam,

It is very nice to contact with you today

We sourced from internet that your esteemed company are dealing with usb flash drive/disk busienss at the moment. And we are one of professional manufacturer in shenzhen city, China. Our models are good quality, but the price is very competitive.

Pricelist and other information, pls kindly find it as attached for your reference.

Besides, you are warmly welcome to visit our website at: www.oscdisk.com to view details and other information.

Should you have any question, pls let me know soonest, then I will see what I can do for you on this matter.

I am looking forward to hearing from you shortly

Have a nice day

Regards/Jean ( Aug.24th,2006 )

Oscar International Group Co., Limited
Website: www.oscdisk.com
Tel: +86-755-83695295
Fax:+86-755-83695514
MSN : jeanlwq2003@hotmail.com
E-mail: jean@oscdisk.com
Yahoo: jeanlwq123@yahoo.com.cn

check this:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/hiren.thanki/bootcd_on_usb_disk.html

SanDisk U3 Flash Drive, worked fine, the trouble is that I cannot make it bootable as HARD Drive since HP util make it like it is supposed to be LINUX and not XP partition. So if you are after BOOTABLE installation of Windows XP you will go thru trouble to succeed. If not a geek avoid.

Thanks!

Oh, also, i'm going to have my usb stick formated to ntfs.

All i want is for my usb stick to have xp on it. Here is what i am planing on doing tonight:
reformatting my 80gb hd to a ~1.8gb partition
install xp on that
run windows update and get sp1 and sp2
make a ghost image
restore that ghost image onto my usb drive

Anyone know if that should work for me?

I have used the HP utility but want to use my bootable USB key as a Ghost boot disk with different ghost boot disks on it. Unfortunately the HP utility boots to the C: drive and this means I can't install an image as the C: drive is too small.

Is it possible to make the utility let me boot to a different drive?

Regards

I have a Dell D400 without any CD-ROM, I whant to install windows xp via my bootable USB drive, the issue is how to combine an windows xp image on the USB device, anyone who may have an idea of how this could work??

Is the hp bootable flash utility, unix based?

Dear Sir,

Hi, nice to write you, glad to know you are a big company deal with usb flash drives in US. we are a specialized manufacturer of usb flash drives in China, here is the pricelist of usb flash drives just for your reference(the prices are just for MOQ, 100pcs, bigger order, better price)

Our products quality is very good, we offer 3 years warranty, delivery is prompt,
service is outstanding, we sincerely hope to establish good business relationship
with you.

Should you have any queries, pls let me know freely.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Best regards
Annie Wan
2006-07-24

Oscar International Group Co.,Limited
Add:Room708, Middle Block, Fujing Building, Fuzhong Road,
Futian, Shenzhen, China, P.C.518026
Website: www.oscdisk.com
Tel:+86-755-83695295 Fax:+86-755-83695514
Mobile: +86-13632845877
E-mail: annie@oscdisk.com or anniewan002@yahoo.com.cn
MSN: anniewan001@hotmail.com
Yahoo Messenger: anniewan002
ICQ:176769033 Skype: anniewan001

i have a joybee 150 mp3 (flash memory) 128mb and it works, but you got to find the install dir and extract 2 compressed folder, they contain the boot files you need, there are 2 folders, you can use one or the other

Hey i used the seagate usb utility and the ntfs4dos and it wworked have a good usb drive that has ghost , bootable with freedos and images on it. it is a 6 gb seagate usb drive. first i loaded the ntfs4dos then i ran the setup which formated it for fat32 next i copied the dos files it had placed on the drive and then used the segate utility to create a bootdisk on my 6 gb drive. then copied over ghost exceutible and the images booted and it worked

Which options did you choose when installing?

i tryed it and it satrted to work but no windows reads my flash disk as it is a genric drive and i cant access it
i have a sandisk cruzer micro 512
please somebody help............................

nbhighfive@hotmail.com

Good website!

Thx this helped greatly. Why can't Microsoft release something like this.
I used the link Damien Stolarz provided
http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/hpcpqdt/us/download/20306.html
and it worked like a trooper.
I tried it on both 1.1 and 2.0 usb and on a Scandisk 32MB witha ZiOl
Microtech CF reader/writer with no issues
also I tried it on a Flash Voyeger from corsair memory products with
no issue.
PLEASE NOTE is you use the make floppy drive boot option it will repartition the flash to 1.44mb so it is treated as a boot floopy
I don't know what happens to the rest of the space.

I have a jump drive that somehow is now write protected, how can I fix this?

Looking for the HP Disk Storage Format Tool? Search in Google for "HP Disk Storage Format Tool" and view the cached webpage you can download the program from there.

Try http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/serveroptions/us/locate/69_6073.html

this seems to be where it has moved

My files on my 2 GB mini sandisk cruzer were corrupted and so I reformated the thumbdrive. Now the drive icon appears but when I try to access it in any way, the error message pops up saying that I need to insert a disk into the drive. Apparently the computer isn't recognizing it. Any thoughts as to what I can do?

For all of those getting the "write protect" error. When the HP utility loads it creates a directory on your C drive. If you open the command prompt and cd to that directory, you will see two executables. One is the Gui menu and hpusbf is a command prompt menu. Type in hpusbf and it will show you the USB stick two ways, and the format of the command. Use the drive letter and run the utility from the command line and you will not get the "write protect' error.

LOL Anonymous don't try to copy and paste without Reading, huh ? What you pasted here is already said by rezak on 22-August-2005 (see above).

The HP Util didn't work for my Kingston 2.0 512MB , hmm... which Format is needed ? FAT16 or FAT32 ?

For Win OS

First you need download couple utilities :
1. HP bootable flash utility:
http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/hpcpqdt/us/download/20306.html
2. NTFS for DOS:
http://www.datapol.de/dpe/freeware/
Steps to make USB thumbdrive bootable and ability read\write to NTFS partition:
1. Format diskette using xp Select FAT as "file system" and check "create an MS-DOS Startup disk" under "format options"
2. Connect your USB thumbdrive to USB port on your computer
3. Using "HP USB Disk storage Tool" format your USB Drive select FAT as File system and check "create a DOS startup disk" option, "Using DOS system files located at:" the diskette created in step 1.
4. Change your bios to boot from USB first choice then verify that you can boot from your USB drive.
5. Using NTFS 4 DOS utility Click on "Create NTFS capable boot foloppy". Select the Drive letter correspond to your USB drive and click Next then Next on the following screen.
6. If successfull you end-up with Emergency bootable USB drive that can read\write to NTFS partition.

...

Running Netscape 7.2, the Flash advertisemenr blocks the first paragraph of your information. At first, I thought this was to force me to "click" on it yo make it disappear, but then that didn't work.

A true annoyance.

Dead Link, I agree that the http URL is dead link indeed.
Kaks posted the URL for ftp transfer and it is still valide.

Here: ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/softpaq/sp27001-27500/SP27213.exe
Worked for me a few seconds ago.

Thanks Kaks

The link to the HP utility goes nowhere now. Any idea where it's moved to or where else I can get a copy of the ultiliy?

I have a Sony (PCG-GRV670),
Can I make this Notebook usb drive bootable ?
I'm hoping someone has experience with this notebook.

Works great on a 1G Sandisk Cruzer.

Bones, download the HP format utility:

ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/softpaq/sp27001-27500/SP27213.exe

Frapster,I need your help.Can't copy the files to the drive,says not formatted butI cant format it .Pls help.

Related to HP Windows utility: http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/hpcpqdt/us/download/20306.html

As far as I know it can format USB memory keys and also USB disk drives.
To make an USB device bootable you MUST choose FAT or FAT 32 and then copy on the USB device the boot sector and the DOS boot files. Windows 2000/XP are NOT supported as boot operating system.
The HP utility automatically write a standard bootsector on the USB device and ask for the DOS boot files either from a floppy (the best of course is the windows 98 boot disk) or from a directory on your PC.

List of DOS Bootfiles needed into your directory:

MUST:
COMMAND.COM
IO.SYS
MSDOS.SYS

Optional:

EMM386.EXE
HIMEM.SYS
ANSI.SYS
RAMDRIVE.SYS
CHOICE.COM
...
MSCDEX.EXE
OAKCDROM.SYS
...

You MUST know
1- The PC MUST have USB BIOS Support
2- How to set CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT
3- When booted the USB disk gets the drive letter C:

Optionally you can use MS-DOS to fdisk and format /S the USB disk with standard MS-DOS commands. In this case the USB device get the first free letter (after the internal disks)

sda

SWEET!! Got a LexarMedia Jumpdrive that was dead, till I fixed it with this app, thanx Damien!

Best advice I have had all week. The HP tool came with an error message when I left the drive label blank. When I filled it in, it worked like a dream.

My Puppy Linux now boot with my Lexar Jumpdrive like lightning, so to speak :-) and with plenty of space left for my other files.

Lots of thanks, Damien.

Mons, London

GREAt! THIS Was great ! my flash drive worked first go! Thanx mate! Ur a legend!
CeZ
Melbourne, Australia

I used the hp utility on a pony 1gig. I checked format it fat32 and checked the option to use files from a win98 boot floppy. Works good so far. I hit f12 for the boot menu on my Dell, and choose boot to usb storage device.

You could find interesting my FAQs for USB sticks booting:
http://home.graffiti.net/jaclaz:graffiti.net/Projects/USB/USBfaqs.html
My howto:
http://home.graffiti.net/jaclaz:graffiti.net/Projects/USB/USBstick.html

And latest developments on the 911 CD Forum:
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=15837&st=6

THIS DID NOT WORK!!
I used a 512 MB Tansend and a 1 GB EagleTec USB key. I used the HP utility and fromated both of them in FAT, FAT32 and NTFS. When in FAT/FAT32 it asked to replace the disk and hit any key to boot. When in NTFS it said missing NTLDR. I also tried using UltraISO and extracted an ISO of a bootable file (norton ghost) to the USB key which still had system files on, but still the same problem. So what did I miss?

This stupid program identified my 300 gig external NTFS drive as the thumb drive and formatted it as FAT32. It listed my thumb drive as a "Maxtor", which is the brand of my external so I selected the other drive without looking at the mbyte count. That's 300 gigs worth of backups corrupted. That will teach me to be more careful when formatting usb devices.

HP only
I am really interested if you develop the emulation package,
I will check out your website.

Thanks Mr. Stolarz
I could not find this on Symantec Ghost web site. This is the software we use to create our image and I need to create a boot usb. Help.

Thanks

HP only
oh and considering it was a real early laptop a 266 mhz system it didn't have usb boot options.or alternative boot options. but the boot floppy and usb additions on the floppy gave it all it needed to work correctly.also if you had a large enough usb jump drive you should be able to partition it put the system boot info from the floppy on one partition .and the install cd on the other.

HP only
oh I suppose I could have used delpart to just delete the partion repartition and reinstall using the usb cd-rw drive. but it wasn't my laptop and didn't want the headache of it coming back so I made sure it was wiped clean.a couple of 1 and zero write passes plus formatting each in between pass.

HP only
this sure seem like a hard way to do everything theirs been usb boot floopy disks available for years now go to bootdisk.com. do some research for once.with the disk layout from bootdisk.com my input and a relative of mine.we made a USB boot floppy that installed a universal usb mass storage driver. on a laptop computor that had a corupt os no cd drive as it was a remote addon device.and it was unavailiable-dead?.but it had a usb port.used a usb cd-rw drive the boot floppy installed abasic windows dos-98 start up drivers plus one extra option USB-cd rom hard drive support.wiped the hard drive clean formated it.then installed the 98 OS from the USB cd-rw drive worked perfectly. could have most likely used a USB jump drive-key drive-pen drive whatever the manufacturer wants to call them all you need is a minial install or a 1 gig drive formatted with another computor copy the install cd to it and it should work. and yes alot of people still use and have floppy drives you can make a boot cd but if your in some earlier safe mode windows oses they don't recognize cd dvd drive in safe mode. and yes their are thousands- millions of user out their still using older windows oses from 2000 pro all the way down to nt 4.0 maybe lower.and other older oses too not just the current new oses. >windows XP, mac X and all the new linux varities

bootfiles
link to a better explanation (including links and downloads list of decent software, including linuxes and the boot files specified above):
http://www.apcstart.com/usb/

bootfiles
The files you want are available from hp.com or mirror
Search on HPUSBFW_BOOTFILES (http://www.google.com/search?&q=HPUSBFW_BOOTFILES) or some similar variant

Floppyless
You can always download a floppy image from somewhere like bootdisk.com, and use a floppy drive emulator to extract the files (there are several I've tried that worked fine - look for either "filedisk" or "vfd"/Virtual Floppy Drive).
If you use a floppy emulator, you can even use windows to format that disk and extract the files, so you don't need to grab an image from bootdisk.com
Good luck!

Floppyless
This only works if you have the files from a boot floppy, have a floppy drive to make the files or something else. I've searched for over an hour now on google for the needed files but they are not to be found. I did find half a million utilities to make boot floppies if you have afloppy, but who has a floppy drive in this day and age?

Thanks Mr. Stolarz
This solution is working for me. I using with Symantec Ghost, to create a Boot USB Drive.

The Best Wishes.
Ruben Ramirez

HP only
I am really intrested in the emulation of a floppy drive on an usb stick

HP only
Look... I dont appreciate the negative post by Kymeria whoever that is on my site in the shoutbox at http://support.studio505.net I am currently working on this project for free and its going to take me time to make it... so keep your panties on... Some patience would be appreciated

HP only
People Have we forgetting our ways of reverse engineering, going to the core of the design to implement a rocksolid System? You ought to be ashamed of yourselves, here you yall our running to download the latest tool and hope it works..

WE ARE DEVOLPERS... THIS IS WHAT WE DO...

Here is my thoughts on this matter...

We need to approach the thought of creating an emulation package. We all know (with common sense) All bios's are not going to recognize or allow jump drive recognition. However forcing an emulation of an floppy Drive will be a universal rock solid solution that will allow any jump drive to boot on any system...
(must i do everything my self?)

I will devolop a emulation package, and test it.. when I am done I will create a new category on my forum at http://support.studio505.net When I have finished the package I will notify you all it is availble for download...

My name is Rockdrala on my website if you have any design ideas or you want to bitch about something... PM on there...

How make USB thumbdrive boot disk and Read\write to NTFS partition
First you need download couple utilities :
1. HP bootable flash utility:
http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/hpcpqdt/us/download/20306.html
2. NTFS for DOS:
http://www.datapol.de/dpe/freeware/

Steps to make USB thumbdrive bootable and ability read\write to NTFS partition:

1. Format diskette using xp Select FAT as "file system" and check "create an MS-DOS Startup disk" under "format options"
2. Connect your USB thumbdrive to USB port on your computer
3. Using "HP USB Disk storage Tool" format your USB Drive select FAT as File system and check "create a DOS startup disk" option, "Using DOS system files located at:" the diskette created in step 1.
4. Change your bios to boot from USB first choice then verify that you can boot from your USB drive.
5. Using NTFS 4 DOS utility Click on "Create NTFS capable boot foloppy". Select the Drive letter correspond to your USB drive and click Next then Next on the following screen.
6. If successfull you end-up with Emergency bootable USB drive that can read\write to NTFS partition.

Quick and easy - err well I thought so until I typed the directions...
OK, this is the easiest way by far...you don't need to find any files, or disks, and it won't let you do it if it's not correct.

First, double click on the usb removal icon, click on dispaly device componets, then click on storage device and click on properties, then go to policies, and then select optimize for performance, then click ok, and close.

Now make sure you look and see what drive letter your usb drive is using.

Now go to the run command and type in cmd for the command prompt. Here comes my favorite command because it brings me back to my dos days.

Now type this is, of course substituting your USB drive letter for the part where it says drive letter here.
format (drive letter here): /FS:NTFS /X

Now, once this has been completed, here is the trick, open up My Computer, and go up to and click, tools, options, view, and click on Show hidden files and folders, and uncheck Hide protected operating system files(recommended), click yes to the dialog box warning you about this, and then click apply and then ok. Ok, now click on your C Drive and browse down the the files ntdetect and ntldr and COPY them to the base folder of your flash drive.

Now your done.

If this doesn't work, right click on the My Computer icon and then select Manage. Now go down to the Disk Management title on the left side of the window and click on it. This will load the logical disk manager and allow you to check to see if your USB drive has the partition set to active. If it doesn't, right click on the lower window where it gives the information to your USB drive, and select Mark Partition as active.

Best of luck :D

P.S. Sorry so messy, but hopefully you can muddle though it.

This works with *ANY* bootable disk/OS and possibly with any USB Device
http://www.weethet.nl/english/hardware_bootfromusbstick.php

Transcend JetFlash 256 and DOS files
It worked for the JetFlash -- for the DOS file location, I simply put in a floppy I had formatted in Windows XP with the 'Create DOS bootable Floppy' argument, and it worked just fine (since those *are* MS certified DOS bootable files *grin*)

HTH

Using the HP software
I tried the HP software on with WinXP. Because XP does not have any DOS boot files, it required another source for DOS. I tried various DOS bootable disks and CDs and found that the only one that it would not give an error message about was a true Microsoft DOS boot disk (MS-DOS 6.22). Secondly, it would not work with my SanDisk Mini-cruzer 256MB USB 2.0 drive. I got the infamous write protect message. There is no write protect switch on this device.

My conclusion is that the HP program is very limited in the conditions under which it will actually perform.

Nogo on PNY
I read the post and bought a 512 PNY -usb2.0 Flash Drive from BestBuy (on sale:) and I get the same write protect error as chillyman (and maybe others). Try all sorts of ways and nothing worked. Funny thing is there is no write protect switch on it. Also checked web site and found no utils for this not even a phone number or email for tech support (of course it's 4am and I'm having trouble finding the trackball). Will try tomarrow and if all else fails, it goes back......29 bucks after rebates...hmmm.

Doesn't work with LEXAR 128 + VIA EPIA TC
Hi,
Lexar have their own utility, just email them and as for it. I did. I can't get the Jumpdrive to
boot on my Mobo, but the utility put all the right files on the drive. I think it is an issue
with my MoBo? I have the makers looking at it!!

Works with Sandisk
I use utility on a Sandisk Cruzer mini 1.0 GB.
Work like a charm.

Fdisk may work
For those of you that are having problem with the HP utility you might want to use the DOS command fdisk utility and creat a DOS partition on the jump drive and then use the HP utility.

Just a thought.....

Doesn't work with LEXAR 128 + VIA EPIA TC
So I tried the HP tool with a Lexar 128Mb flash drive and an VIA EPIA TC. I've been told different things about USB 2.0 support in the southbridge chipset. Specifically I've heard that the bus does "USB 2.0 protocol" but at 1.1 speeds. So... maybe timing has something to do with it, or maybe the good folks at Via just don't want you booting from a Jump Drive.

HP Software
I found out that there are two things that you need to have before you use this software package. First is an USB 2 device and access to Microsoft boot files. It will NOT work with any version IBM PC DOS that I tried, you may have better luck then I did but I found that Windows 98 has worked best so far.

No dice...
I have a Sandisk ImageMate SDDR-93 and Kingston 128MB SD card and the HP utility worked perfectly as far as I can tell. I used an IBM a21p laptop which has usb1.1.

Worked for me
Worked on my Lexar 1gig JumpDrive.

No dice...
No man, it didn't work for me... I have a SanDisk portable SD-card reader. Although it recognizes the device it can't format in any way (says the drive is write protected) and I did check so that the write protection was not on.

Sucks major balls.
Cheers

not HP only!
The HP utility worked on the random flash drive I had. I think there's very little proprietary art in making any flash thumb drive bootable. They're pretty standard.

HP only
Did you use the HP format utility with an HP device or did it work with something non-HP? The download page basically says it's only for use with "HP Drive Key or DiskOnKey USB 2.0". So I guess the other question is, did you also use USB 2.0?