Booting from USB Flash Drive

[Pesmerga]

Anyone know how to boot an operating system from a flash drive? I've got an image of... this new linux distribution called "Findows Meven" and I was wondering how I ought to install it on my HDD from the Flash drive.

I think I have the boot sequence sorted out (raised the priority of my harddisks so the flash drive is on top) and had the first boot check to harddisk.

The problem is that whenever I try it, it just comes to a blank black screen and nothing happens and I have to manually shut'r down.

Please halp me.

 

[No Limit]

Strange it should work fine. I wonder if your distribution set up the partition properly on the usb drive. Do you have a boot selection menu you can try? You would see a key for this on the post screen saying "boot menu" or similar.

 

[Asus]

Try a different USB port.

Some motherboards (although usually older ones) have the first 4 ports running off the main southbridge chip (which would be used for booting) but then extra USB ports...even ones mounted on the motherboard..***n off a secondary chip only used for USB or SATA.

 

[Pesmerga]

Also - should the USB have the files contained within the .iso, or just the .iso?

 

[Kamikazie]

I would like to try this new... Linux distribution myself. I'll trade you Snicker Chex/Sex for this said drive.

I would get it myself, but I'm lazy. Actually, I might just get Cybr to acquire it.

 

[Pesmerga]

I tried the various USB slots, but I did recognize an error I did not before. Apparently, it doesn't even know the USB drive exists.

 

[Asus]

The files should probably be extracted out of the ISO. So you have just the files on the flash drive and not the single large ISO file.

 

[Pesmerga]

I have no idea what the problem is, then. I have the files extracted, I formatted my USB drive into an NTFS format, it has plenty of room for the OS, and I stuck it in all available USB slots.

I think I may be skipping a step.

http://kurtsh.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!DA410C7F7E038D!1665.entry

Format the Apacer Flash Drive
Run CMD.EXE and type the following. Note: This set of commands assumes that the USB flash drive is addressed as "disk 1". you should double check that by doing a list of the disks (type "list disk") before cleaning it. If you have multiple hard drives, like an SDFlash drive or a Multibay drive, you could end up wiping your second drive using this command.
(This was a warning that Josh added to his post along with the following commands that I copied from him, so kudos to Josh)
diskpart
select disk 1
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=fat32
assign
exit

Under "list disk" there is no mention of my USB drive, only my internal harddrives.

 

[Asus]

How did you format the flash drive?
Try HP's USB flash tool (#2 in the list).

these instructions look similar to what you are going by.

 

[Pesmerga]

I've formatted the drive under NTFS and FAT32 to no success. Remember, I am trying to do this from XP. I lack a DVD burner and I had a flash drive laying around (SanCruzer micro 8gb) so I thought I'd try to install it from the flash drive.

New error when I tried formatting my flash drive with FAT32:

BOOT DISK FAILURE - INSERT BOOT DISK AND HIT ENTER

doesn't work