Laptop able to boot from USB stick ?

bonzodog2

Can anyone suggest a laptop model that can boot from a USB memory stick. Performance is not a major concern.

Alanstrainor

Any in the last 5 years that i've used will boot from usb tbh.

partyatmygaff

The vast majority of motherboards used in laptops and desktops support USB boot. It's as standard a feature as CD/DVD boot nowadays.

bonzodog2

I've just tried an image of BackTrack5, on a 4GB stick, prepared according to the instructions on their site, on 2 different laptops that according to their BIOS, support USB boot, an Inspiron 1501 and a Presario V2000. Getting on a bit I know, but they have the option in the BIOS. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

U_Fig

bonzodog2 wrote: »

I've just tried an image of BackTrack5, on a 4GB stick, prepared according to the instructions on their site, on 2 different laptops that according to their BIOS, support USB boot, an Inspiron 1501 and a Presario V2000. Getting on a bit I know, but they have the option in the BIOS. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

Try going into the BIOS and first changing the boot order so USB is first..If that does not work try disabling all other boot devices in the boot sequence.. Do this with each USB port on the laptops..if it doesn't work then i'm not sure..use a free program also called unetbootin..it's for Creating a bootable Linux USB and make sure the USB is formatted fat32
Otherwise you will not get it to boot..

FSL

Also check the hard drive devices. I had one bootable USB which showed as a hard drive whereas a different one showed as a removable drive.

Alanstrainor

bonzodog2 wrote: »

I've just tried an image of BackTrack5, on a 4GB stick, prepared according to the instructions on their site, on 2 different laptops that according to their BIOS, support USB boot, an Inspiron 1501 and a Presario V2000. Getting on a bit I know, but they have the option in the BIOS. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

When you boot the dell, just hit F12 on the bios screen and wait for the boot options to come up. Then choose USB.

There's always a chance that the drive is not configured correctly.

bonzodog2

I tried what I think is disabling the HDD as a boot option (putting an ! next to it), and the F12 method. Both end up with a message "Boot error" in the top left of a black screen.

I put the BT5 image on the stick with unetbootin, after doing a FAT32 format from XP. Another tool says the partition is active. ISTR reading somewhere a while back that you should use an HP tool for formatting sticks for bootable use, anyone know if this is true ?

Fluffy88

Unetbootin can create bootable USB's so, no you don't need a HP tool.

Maybe try a different disc image? Maybe from a different distro to be sure.

FSL

Have you tried using YUMI from pendrivelinux to create your bootable USB? It always works for me.

bonzodog2

I tried YUMI using a 4GB microSD card and got BT5 to boot on the Inspiron. Shame it doesn't seem to want to boot from the SD slot. The previous 4GB stick I was trying had errors installing syslinux.

Thanks FSL !