How do I make a thumbdrive bootable?

[Jfas521]

I have heard a lot about making your thumbdrive bootable, but do not know how to do it. My main goal is being able to load an OS directly from a thumbdrive. I know it is possible, but just not sure how to do it. Any help will be much appreciated.

 

[philbar71]

i've done it with linux and xp but you need like a 4gb or bigger drive. just as your installing unplug all hdd's and put in flash drive and format it in the NTFS file sys and install like you would do on a hdd. but the flash drive should be in the NTFS format not FAT32.

 

[Jfas521]

I have an 8gb Disk Go drive. So i unplug all the HDD and boot with an XP disk, but only have the flash drive in? This will make the flash drive bootable? I am not trying to install XP on the flash drive. I want to be able to plug in a flash drive and load the OS onto the computer through USB. I have been told it is possible and is a lot quicker then doing it through the CD-Rom. In my line of work I am constantly loading computers, we have just moved to Vista and it has become a pain.

 

[KSoD]

You will need to install a OS on there. Use google to find steps to do this.

 

[philbar71]

are you saying use it like a live cd through a flash drive? is so then that wont work. also to boot off the flash drive you have to enable boot off of usb. and as far as faster i'de say it's prob slower cause i ran linux(ubuntu) off of it on a p4 rig and it was faster than the live cd but it was kindve slow i think it was the p4.

mak your too fast!

 

[KSoD]

Sorry.

But yes Phil is right. Booting from the USB drive and using that as a LiveOS will be slower than just using a LiveCD.

It is possible to use the USB Drive as a live OS. I have seen the tuts myself. But they run slower cause it takes so much longer to access everything.

Not to mention that will kill off the flash drive faster. Each flash drive has a limited read/write phase. Where it can only take so much then it will die. So be careful of that as well

 

[Jfas521]

Thanks guys! Thanks for the links too. I will try this stuff tomorrow and see how it works.