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Tuoder · Oct 19, 2006, 05:31 AM

Has anyone tried, or does anyone know if it is possible to boot to a USB flash drive on an intel mac? Specifically, I would like to run Windows and possibly DamnSmallLinux on my MacBook off of little USB flash drives or hard drives (not preferable).

ghporter · Oct 19, 2006, 07:38 AM

Windows takes over USB management and reenumerates all USB devices during its initialization and BEFORE actually loading the OS. That means that, without a LOT of fiddling, you can't just "boot from a USB" anything.

There are ways around this that, while they do require a "lot of fiddling" apparently work. Some U3 USB devices emulate a CD, so it may be possible to use that mechanism to boot from. I haven't tried anything like that, but it's there.

Tuoder · Oct 19, 2006, 08:24 PM

I have a 20GB external HDD. It is a 4200RPM ATA-66 drive, so it is a little slow, but I imagine that it would be funtionally identical to using a flash drive. I wonder how I should format it.

I think I will partition using MBR. Then format with FAT32. The 4GB file limit could become irritating, but I want OSX to be able to write to the volume. I wonder if it will show up when holding option at startup. That would be a problem if it didn't.

EDIT:Should I use GUID or MBR?

ghporter · Oct 19, 2006, 09:24 PM

MBR is the appropriate partition for booting Windows or DOS. FAT32 is not nearly as bothersome as most people think it will be because you seldom actually handle a file anywhere near 4GB.

Other than the obvious possibility that the USB connection could be lost when Windows boots (though DSL may just take the hardware's word for the USB enumeration), I can't see a reason not to at least try this.

silver · 04:45 AM

hi Tuoder-
You might want to give this utility called rEFIt a try, think of it as a bootloader for your mac. Im still using it, even after my superdrive died in my MBP 17" and getting it repaired. Before I sent it out I had to boot from a USB dvd burner to install XP. The CD was recognzed instantly and I was allowed to boot from the cd to complete my XP install. I haven't tried an OS from a thumbDrive yet but it does sound pretty interesting.

The software is opensource and here's the link rEFIt - An EFI Boot Menu and Toolkit

I like this method of booting better than the Apple way "holding option at start up". Give it a try it comes with an installer so install is a breeze. One thing that might bother you is that when you reboot your machine your greeted with there bootloader everytime with either the different bootable CD,DVD,HD, or partition(s). I dont mind it as Im always jumping between the two OS's Tiger and XP.

Hope that helps.It saved my bacon when I had to install XP for computer science class.

silver

Tuoder · Oct 20, 2006, 09:15 AM

I have reached a stumbling block. I downloaded boot camp, and i burned the disc, then i quit it. I restarted with the windows xp disc. It picked up the usb hard drive.it said that that it won't install because the volume will not be bootable. I am going to try GUID and FAT32. Then I am going to try rEFIt.

Tuoder · Oct 20, 2006, 09:41 AM

I hit another stumbling block. Windows setup picked up the GUID partitioned disk as partioned as MBR. It does that with the internal disc, too. However, it says that it needs to write some files to the 60GB internal in order to install on the external. It said that it can't do this, however, as it does not recognize the formatting. I am going to partition the internal drive using the boot camp software. In the worst case, I will just install to the internal drive.

Tuoder · Oct 20, 2006, 09:51 AM

Another problem: Boot Camp won't Partition the drive. It says that some files cannot be moved. The only thin that I can think of here is to delete some crap and try again.

ghporter · Oct 20, 2006, 09:58 AM

I've seen a number of posts like this-and the solution was to generate enough free space for Boot Camp to use. It calls for 10GB free space...

Tuoder · Oct 21, 2006, 07:59 AM

Well I have the room. I set it to 5 GB there are 21 GB available on the drive. I dont think that space is anywhere near contiguous, though. I tried to install to external on my pc. It started to work but it wouldn't boot to the external to finish the process. I had some other troubles with that, too. It appears thaat my pc won't boot. Now I need to troubleshoot that.

ghporter · Oct 21, 2006, 10:11 AM

The PC one is easy-boot from the Windows CD and type "R" to select "Recovery Console" when that option comes up (very early in the process, and way before it gets to installing anything). At the prompt type "fixmbr" and when that's done you should be able to boot from your C partition again. You'll want to look at "boot.ini" on that partition's root folder though, as there may be unneeded data in it afterward-fixmbr makes the C partition's Windows installation the default OS, but it won't dump entries for other OSs/installations. Google for "boot.ini" for details on what should and should not be in there.

Tuoder · Oct 23, 2006, 11:31 AM

I went about fixing the PC a totally different way. But then, that is just because I have just not come up with all of the details about what is worng. I disconnected my internal hard drives at one poin to ensure that it would not try to wirte to that boot.ini file. I had gotten rid of the extra data before. The boot order came back wrong when they were reconnected. It wanted to boot to my storage-only drive. That works now.

Next I want to move a bunch of stuff off of the Macbook and try to partition the drive again using Boot camp. After that, I will install Windows using boot camp. Then, I will boot to the Windows installation CD. Then I will tell it to install to the external drive. Then I will delete windows off of the internal drive, leaving alot of free space. At least, that is the idea.

What do think, Do you think that will work?