In our line of work a bootable stick is nothing less but essential! CD’s can be used (in fact, sometimes you have no other option as the computer won’t boot from USB) but they are slow, easily scratched, have no option to add files (unless you’re going to burn a new cd), limited in size, etc.
Bootable sticks can be used for a lot of things, e.g.
- create backups
- recover non-bootable systems
- partitioning related stuff (mbr, set active, create, remove, resize)
- offline defragmentation
- offline editting of registry
- …
But first, let’s see how to create the sticks.
MSDOS
Download this utility (originally) from HP: hp_format_usb_sp27213.exe
You’ll also need these files msdos_files_for_bootable_usb.zip
- Extract the msdos files.
- Run the utility.
- Select the device (stick).
- “Create a DOS startup disk” “using DOS system files located at:” and select the location of the msdos files.
- Start
Now just add extra files, utilities, modified config.sys or autoexec.bat and you’re off to go!
XP
I presume everybody’s familiar with WinPE/BartPE cd’s. These can be booted from usb. Refer to this site for a how-to:
http://www.911cd.net … .php?showtopic=10806
There are some disadvantages when using XP-based bootable media:
- Limited hardware support (e.g. no AHCI/sata or other harddisk controllers)
- (usb) drives connected AFTER booting won’t be recognized. They must be connected when booting, not afterwards
I recommend using Vista based media.
Vista
Bootable media based on the Vista kernel have big advantages:
- Better/more hardware support
- (usb) drives connecter AFTER booting WILL be recognized
- (best of all) Vista supports user-mode driver loading.
Example: one of my customers uses an iscsi SAN. Servers are equiped with iscsi hba’s. In case of trouble, i can boot from usb, then load the driver and all of a sudden all drives on the SAN are visible. No reboot requred. No floppy + F6 etc.
I recommend the Active Boot Disk. They come pre-loaded with utilities for checking drives, changing passwords etc too!