Make your OCZ Flash Drive Bootable - Vista and FreeDOS

[RyderOCZ]

The FreeDOS files I supply in the zip file for download do NOT support FAT32. If you have a key larger than 2GB, you will need a Fat32 compatible set of system files. Try the FreeDOS site here: www.freedos.org

Disclaimer: This software is written and distributed by HP (Hewlett Packard). I have just zipped everything up and included additional boot files so that it makes the process easier, I did not write or modify this application in any way.

Create a directory in "My Documents", in this example I named it "Drivekey", but you may name the directory anything you like, just remember its name and where it is.
Download and save this file in that directory: Link to Zip File
Once that is done, unzip it, insert the USB key you want to work with, and execute the "RunThis" file.
I have included bootfiles that just boot to a basic FreeDOS partition so that you have easy access for flashing bios files, etc.

You will now see this, If you have more than 1 USB device, make sure you choose the correct one as shown here (of course names may vary, this is just what my PC showed):



Now pick your file system (FAT is ok for 1 and 2GB keys, FAT32 must be used for keys larger than 2GB):



Now pick the name of the device:



Now since you want to make it bootable, you need to tell it to "create MS-DOS Startup disk":



Now click the box to the right, so you can browse folders:



Now navigate to the folder that you unzipped this into and find the "bootfiles" folder:
Note: Your window will not look like this, unless you named the folder "Drivekey".




Now click start:



When its all done, you will get the summary screen looking like this:



You should now be able to plug the USB key in, turn on your PC and select it as a boot device.
Once completed, the drive will be blank, so if you need it bootable to flash a bios, or run some other utilities outside of Windows, you will need to put those files on the drive. This only makes the key bootable, it does not put any utilities (fdisk, etc) on the drive.
The PC should boot with a quick flash of the Windows 98 splash screen and leave you at a C: prompt.

[AndyT]

This works great in any system, desktop or notebook.

I have been using it for a while now and running memtest form a USB drive beats out messing with bootable CD's of floppies. You simply put the memtest86+ "mt170.exe" file on the drive once you have made you drive bootable. When you get to the dos prompt just type "mt170" with no quotes and memtest will start.

As stated it can also work with DOS based BIOS flashing utilities. Think of it as a modern day floppy disk.

BTW, the drive can still be used as a regular data storage drive as usual.

Nice job Ryder.

[Tademos]

Hi

Do you want to install Vista on your machine via your OCZ flash drive?

If yes, go this way:

1) Creating A Bootable WinPE 2.0 USB Key:
http://windowsconnected.com/blogs/jo...0-usb-key.aspx

2) Copy the complete Vista-CD in a directoy on the flash drive, e.g. \VISTAx86en.

3) Start the machine and choose the USB-drive to boot.

4) Change to Vista directory made in step 2.

5) Start setup.exe

Further informations you'll find here:
Install Windows Vista from a high speed USB 2.0 Flash Drive:
http://kurtsh.spaces.live.com/blog/c...38D!1665.entry

:thumbs:

Greetings
Tademos

[RyderOCZ]

You must Own a copy of Vista for this to work!

This method sent to me by Kaimelar:

Supplemental alternative to the method listed above.

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Step 1: Prepare the USB stick
1. Plug in your USB Flash Drive

2. Open a command prompt

3. Find the drive number of your USB Drive by typing the following into the Command Prompt window:
- diskpart
- list disk
The number of your USB drive will listed.

4. Format the drive with following commands. Replace the number “1” with the number of your USB disk below.
- select disk 1
- clean
- create partition primary
- select partition 1
- active
- format fs=NTFS QUICK
- assign
- exit

Step 2: Make the Drive Bootable

1. Extract the files from the Windows image to your HDD and open command prompt.
2. Change directory to the boot directory where bootsect lives:
- d:
- cd d:\boot
3. Use bootsect to set the USB as a bootable NTFS drive prepared for a Vista/7 image. I’m assuming that your USB flash drive has been labeled disk G:\ by the computer:
bootsect /nt60 g:

Step 3: Copy all files from the Win 7 image to the USB drive.

Step 4: Set your BIOS to boot from USB

Tested with Western Digital Passport 300GB and ******* Flash Voyager 32GB.

Install from CFV to Vertex took ~10-12+ minutes with W7 RC1.

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All that isn't areally necessary either, as formatting an USB drive using NTFS under Win 7 or Vista should automatically prepare the USB drive to be used as installation base for Vista/Win 7, as long as one copies the entirety of the contents of the Vista/Win 7 image to the USB drive after formatting. However if you are using Win XP the first method should work just fine.
Either method should let you boot directly to the USB drive and the installation will start automatically.