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creating a start disk on a usb memory stick
Hi everyone
I have a problem regarding a pc without a disk drive. So I was wondering if anyone knows how to make a start "disk" on a usb memory stick. If it can be done??? |
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#2
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creating a start disk on a usb memory stick
Hi, Newb.
A PC without a disk drive? I've never heard of such a computer! The last computer I had without a disk drive was my original TRS-80, back in 1977, which loaded from a music cassette; we got floppy drives the next year and hard drives for our IBM and compatible PCs in the mid-80s, and I haven't seen a diskless PC since then. Do you mean your computer has no CD/DVD drives? What make and model computer do you have? Is it on a network? Tell us more about that. To make a PC bootable from a USB memory stick, you must have support for USB and that memory stick built into the computer's BIOS - the small amount of memory that is not forgotten when the power is turned off - the part that tells the computer how to start and load everything else, including the parts that load and start Windows. So far as I know, there is no computer on the market - yet -with that much capability in the BIOS. Today's PCs can use USB until it has loaded the USB drivers, so we have a chicken-and-egg problem in trying to boot from any kind of USB hardware. RC -- R. C. White, CPA San Marcos, TX Microsoft Windows MVP "The Newb" The wrote in message ... Hi everyone I have a problem regarding a pc without a disk drive. So I was wondering if anyone knows how to make a start "disk" on a usb memory stick. If it can be done??? |
#3
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creating a start disk on a usb memory stick
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#4
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creating a start disk on a usb memory stick
Salut/Hi R. C. White,
le/on Mon, 14 Feb 2005 09:43:55 -0600, tu disais/you said:- A PC without a disk drive? I've never heard of such a computer! I've had several. Sinclair ZX80 Sinclair ZX81 Sinclair Spectrum ZX64 BBC B Amstrad CPC 6128 Amstrad PCW 9256 and my first PC. Grin! I can - hypothetically - think of several reasons why one might want this. Imagine that you are a terrorist. If you store information on HD, it can become evidence to be used against you in trial. Windows is so insecure that it is practically impossible to use it, without it leaving traces of what you've been doing lying about. So it might be advisable NOT to have anything compromising permanently attached to the physical computer you use all the time. This is especially true in the UK, which has no 5th amendment and where it is now an absolute offence to refuse to open an encrypted container when ordered to do so by a law court. The same reasoning could apply to anyone wanting to use computers for any other illegal activity. Imagine you want to use on several (same make and model) machines. If you could boot all the machines from an identical and transportable drive, then any machine you use would look and feel the same and your data would travel with you. USB sticks are the most secure form of data storage known. A recent experiment showed them resisting high temperature, low temperature, corrosive liquids, and mechanical stress (being run over by a car, and shot from a mortar, even) better than any other storage medium. -- All the Best Ian Hoare http://www.souvigne.com mailbox full to avoid spam. try me at website |
#5
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creating a start disk on a usb memory stick
By 'disk drive' do you mean floppy drive?
Or no floppy, cd, or hard drive of any kind? -- Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine] (Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested) "The Newb" The wrote in message ... Hi everyone I have a problem regarding a pc without a disk drive. So I was wondering if anyone knows how to make a start "disk" on a usb memory stick. If it can be done??? |
#6
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creating a start disk on a usb memory stick
While certainly not the norm it is no longer unusual for new systems to ship
without a floppy drive. This is true for laptops as well as tower or desktop models. While not common on older systems many new PCs can now boot USB devices. See the information here http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1676 -- Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User] www.webtree.ca/windowsxp "R. C. White" wrote in message ... Hi, Newb. A PC without a disk drive? I've never heard of such a computer! The last computer I had without a disk drive was my original TRS-80, back in 1977, which loaded from a music cassette; we got floppy drives the next year and hard drives for our IBM and compatible PCs in the mid-80s, and I haven't seen a diskless PC since then. Do you mean your computer has no CD/DVD drives? What make and model computer do you have? Is it on a network? Tell us more about that. To make a PC bootable from a USB memory stick, you must have support for USB and that memory stick built into the computer's BIOS - the small amount of memory that is not forgotten when the power is turned off - the part that tells the computer how to start and load everything else, including the parts that load and start Windows. So far as I know, there is no computer on the market - yet -with that much capability in the BIOS. Today's PCs can use USB until it has loaded the USB drivers, so we have a chicken-and-egg problem in trying to boot from any kind of USB hardware. RC -- R. C. White, CPA San Marcos, TX Microsoft Windows MVP "The Newb" The wrote in message ... Hi everyone I have a problem regarding a pc without a disk drive. So I was wondering if anyone knows how to make a start "disk" on a usb memory stick. If it can be done??? |
#7
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creating a start disk on a usb memory stick
format the stick and copy the files from a bootable floppy to it. If you
need the files you can download them from www.bootdisk.com check here for more info http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1676 -- Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User] www.webtree.ca/windowsxp "The Newb" The wrote in message ... Hi everyone I have a problem regarding a pc without a disk drive. So I was wondering if anyone knows how to make a start "disk" on a usb memory stick. If it can be done??? |
#8
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creating a start disk on a usb memory stick
Actually I just tried it. Use the instructions here
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.c...id=1676&page=2 It works nicely. -- Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User] www.webtree.ca/windowsxp "The Newb" The wrote in message ... Hi everyone I have a problem regarding a pc without a disk drive. So I was wondering if anyone knows how to make a start "disk" on a usb memory stick. If it can be done??? |
#10
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creating a start disk on a usb memory stick
Hi, Harry.
Thanks for the update on booting from USB. While certainly not the norm it is no longer unusual for new systems to ship without a floppy drive. But the OP said "a pc without a disk drive", so I interpreted that to mean with neither HD nor floppy. RC -- R. C. White, CPA San Marcos, TX Microsoft Windows MVP "Harry Ohrn" wrote in message ... While certainly not the norm it is no longer unusual for new systems to ship without a floppy drive. This is true for laptops as well as tower or desktop models. While not common on older systems many new PCs can now boot USB devices. See the information here http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1676 -- Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User] www.webtree.ca/windowsxp "R. C. White" wrote in message ... Hi, Newb. A PC without a disk drive? I've never heard of such a computer! The last computer I had without a disk drive was my original TRS-80, back in 1977, which loaded from a music cassette; we got floppy drives the next year and hard drives for our IBM and compatible PCs in the mid-80s, and I haven't seen a diskless PC since then. Do you mean your computer has no CD/DVD drives? What make and model computer do you have? Is it on a network? Tell us more about that. To make a PC bootable from a USB memory stick, you must have support for USB and that memory stick built into the computer's BIOS - the small amount of memory that is not forgotten when the power is turned off - the part that tells the computer how to start and load everything else, including the parts that load and start Windows. So far as I know, there is no computer on the market - yet -with that much capability in the BIOS. Today's PCs can use USB until it has loaded the USB drivers, so we have a chicken-and-egg problem in trying to boot from any kind of USB hardware. RC "The Newb" The wrote in message ... Hi everyone I have a problem regarding a pc without a disk drive. So I was wondering if anyone knows how to make a start "disk" on a usb memory stick. If it can be done??? |
#11
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creating a start disk on a usb memory stick
A truly Thin Client.
-- Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine] (Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested) "R. C. White" wrote in message ... Hi, Ian. A PC without a disk drive? I've never heard of such a computer! I've had several. Sinclair ZX80 snip list Yeah, I heard of those - in addition to my own TRS=80s. But those were when we still called them "microcomputers" or a variety of other names. As I recall, we didn't call them PCs until IBM introduced its Personal Computer in 1981 - and it always had a floppy disk drive. I can imagine a workstation, attached to a network, which might not need a disk drive of any kind, but I've never had anything but a standalone computer. "PC", it seems to me, implies standalone capability, even if it can connect to a network. I like USB and don't dispute its utility. But booting from USB is a new idea to me, so I'm learning from this thread. ;) RC -- R. C. White, CPA San Marcos, TX Microsoft Windows MVP "Ian Hoare" wrote in message ... Salut/Hi R. C. White, le/on Mon, 14 Feb 2005 09:43:55 -0600, tu disais/you said:- A PC without a disk drive? I've never heard of such a computer! I've had several. Sinclair ZX80 Sinclair ZX81 Sinclair Spectrum ZX64 BBC B Amstrad CPC 6128 Amstrad PCW 9256 and my first PC. Grin! I can - hypothetically - think of several reasons why one might want this. Imagine that you are a terrorist. If you store information on HD, it can become evidence to be used against you in trial. Windows is so insecure that it is practically impossible to use it, without it leaving traces of what you've been doing lying about. So it might be advisable NOT to have anything compromising permanently attached to the physical computer you use all the time. This is especially true in the UK, which has no 5th amendment and where it is now an absolute offence to refuse to open an encrypted container when ordered to do so by a law court. The same reasoning could apply to anyone wanting to use computers for any other illegal activity. Imagine you want to use on several (same make and model) machines. If you could boot all the machines from an identical and transportable drive, then any machine you use would look and feel the same and your data would travel with you. USB sticks are the most secure form of data storage known. A recent experiment showed them resisting high temperature, low temperature, corrosive liquids, and mechanical stress (being run over by a car, and shot from a mortar, even) better than any other storage medium. -- All the Best Ian Hoare |
#12
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creating a start disk on a usb memory stick
Salut/Hi R. C. White,
le/on Tue, 15 Feb 2005 08:08:30 -0600, tu disais/you said:- Hi, Ian. A PC without a disk drive? I've never heard of such a computer! I've had several. Sinclair ZX80 snip list Yeah, I heard of those - in addition to my own TRS=80s. But those were when we still called them "microcomputers" or a variety of other names. As I recall, we didn't call them PCs until IBM introduced its Personal Computer in 1981 - and it always had a floppy disk drive. Good point. I'd sort of not noticed your "PC" restriction. So strike the Sinclairs which were never called PCs. The Amstrads were on the other hand, The CPC 464 was the "Colour Personal Computer" model 4 with 64k of RAM. My 6128 did have a single 3" floppy drive and 128k of RAM. I can imagine a workstation, attached to a network, which might not need a disk drive of any kind, but I've never had anything but a standalone computer. "PC", it seems to me, implies standalone capability, even if it can connect to a network. I wouldn't want to go to the wall over this, but in those days quite a lot of data was stored on little tape cassettes, and paper tape drives were used too. I THINK the earliest IBM PCs had 5.25" floppy drives (truly floppy by the way). At the time, the debate was over whether CPM or MSDOS would prevail. MSDOS stood for Microsoft Disc Operating System, so it's logical that even from its earliest day the IMB PC was conceived of as using floppies. I like USB and don't dispute its utility. But booting from USB is a new idea to me, so I'm learning from this thread. ;) I've seen some discussions of the possibility and I can well imagine quite a number of possible other circumstances when the ability to boot from a removable drive might be useful. For example, one could imagine having a second operating system on a plug in drive and that could be kept entirely separate. One could even conceive of someone who kept XP on one USB drive and Linux or Unix on another, keeping nothing but encrypted data on the main computer hard drive. That would be extraordinarily secure, if you think about it, as without having access to the appropriate OS, you couldn't even _begin_ to know how to approach data decryption. For example, a Truecrypt encrypted drive looks and feels like an unformatted drive. It can only be unlocked with a running version of the software and the right password. Of course, it goes without saying that such a thing would be very unpopular with Law enforcement agencies, as it would be impossible to prove that the hard drive WAS an encrypted drive. -- All the Best Ian Hoare http://www.souvigne.com mailbox full to avoid spam. try me at website |
#13
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creating a start disk on a usb memory stick
In ,
Ian Hoare typed: I THINK the earliest IBM PCs had 5.25" floppy drives (truly floppy by the way). Yes. Modern 3.5" floppy disks are still floppy. However, unlike the 5.25" diskettes you're referring to, they are packaged in a hard plastic casing. By the way, as a matter of historical interest, the first floppy disks were 8". They were first introduced to load the microcode on IBM mainframes around 1970. -- Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User Please reply to the newsgroup |
#14
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creating a start disk on a usb memory stick
If I remember right, the IBM 5150 first shipped with only a jack for a
cassette recorder at the base price. It booted to the Basic prompt. The 5.25 drive was extra. I never saw one without a floppy and the cassette recorder idea never caught on. I used 8" diskettes on a dedicated word processor in the late 70's and had to pay around $10 apiece. When I first taught Basic as a middle school math teacher (1969), we accessed a time-sharing mainframe with a teletype machine and saved the programs to paper tape. In high school in the 50's we computed ballistics problems with rubber bands and paper clips. -- Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine] (Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested) "Ian Hoare" wrote in message ... Salut/Hi R. C. White, le/on Tue, 15 Feb 2005 08:08:30 -0600, tu disais/you said:- Hi, Ian. A PC without a disk drive? I've never heard of such a computer! I've had several. Sinclair ZX80 snip list Yeah, I heard of those - in addition to my own TRS=80s. But those were when we still called them "microcomputers" or a variety of other names. As I recall, we didn't call them PCs until IBM introduced its Personal Computer in 1981 - and it always had a floppy disk drive. Good point. I'd sort of not noticed your "PC" restriction. So strike the Sinclairs which were never called PCs. The Amstrads were on the other hand, The CPC 464 was the "Colour Personal Computer" model 4 with 64k of RAM. My 6128 did have a single 3" floppy drive and 128k of RAM. I can imagine a workstation, attached to a network, which might not need a disk drive of any kind, but I've never had anything but a standalone computer. "PC", it seems to me, implies standalone capability, even if it can connect to a network. I wouldn't want to go to the wall over this, but in those days quite a lot of data was stored on little tape cassettes, and paper tape drives were used too. I THINK the earliest IBM PCs had 5.25" floppy drives (truly floppy by the way). At the time, the debate was over whether CPM or MSDOS would prevail. MSDOS stood for Microsoft Disc Operating System, so it's logical that even from its earliest day the IMB PC was conceived of as using floppies. I like USB and don't dispute its utility. But booting from USB is a new idea to me, so I'm learning from this thread. ;) I've seen some discussions of the possibility and I can well imagine quite a number of possible other circumstances when the ability to boot from a removable drive might be useful. For example, one could imagine having a second operating system on a plug in drive and that could be kept entirely separate. One could even conceive of someone who kept XP on one USB drive and Linux or Unix on another, keeping nothing but encrypted data on the main computer hard drive. That would be extraordinarily secure, if you think about it, as without having access to the appropriate OS, you couldn't even _begin_ to know how to approach data decryption. For example, a Truecrypt encrypted drive looks and feels like an unformatted drive. It can only be unlocked with a running version of the software and the right password. Of course, it goes without saying that such a thing would be very unpopular with Law enforcement agencies, as it would be impossible to prove that the hard drive WAS an encrypted drive. -- All the Best Ian Hoare http://www.souvigne.com mailbox full to avoid spam. try me at website |
#15
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creating a start disk on a usb memory stick
Hi,
I remember working for a small company that installed and maintained networks using Windows for Workgroups 3.11. The workstation computers did not have a hard drive, but booted from a floppy disk that enable the computer to connect to a server to download and run the O/S and other programs from. The PC just had the FDD no HDD at all. The floppy disk had the autoexec.bat, config.sys and all other necessary drivers, especially the ethernet drivers (back then we were using Lantastic). The PC would boot from the floppy, connect to the server then download the necessary files and programs to the PC`s RAM to operate. Jeff "Colin Barnhorst" wrote in message ... If I remember right, the IBM 5150 first shipped with only a jack for a cassette recorder at the base price. It booted to the Basic prompt. The 5.25 drive was extra. I never saw one without a floppy and the cassette recorder idea never caught on. I used 8" diskettes on a dedicated word processor in the late 70's and had to pay around $10 apiece. When I first taught Basic as a middle school math teacher (1969), we accessed a time-sharing mainframe with a teletype machine and saved the programs to paper tape. In high school in the 50's we computed ballistics problems with rubber bands and paper clips. -- Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine] (Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested) "Ian Hoare" wrote in message ... Salut/Hi R. C. White, le/on Tue, 15 Feb 2005 08:08:30 -0600, tu disais/you said:- Hi, Ian. A PC without a disk drive? I've never heard of such a computer! I've had several. Sinclair ZX80 snip list Yeah, I heard of those - in addition to my own TRS=80s. But those were when we still called them "microcomputers" or a variety of other names. As I recall, we didn't call them PCs until IBM introduced its Personal Computer in 1981 - and it always had a floppy disk drive. Good point. I'd sort of not noticed your "PC" restriction. So strike the Sinclairs which were never called PCs. The Amstrads were on the other hand, The CPC 464 was the "Colour Personal Computer" model 4 with 64k of RAM. My 6128 did have a single 3" floppy drive and 128k of RAM. I can imagine a workstation, attached to a network, which might not need a disk drive of any kind, but I've never had anything but a standalone computer. "PC", it seems to me, implies standalone capability, even if it can connect to a network. I wouldn't want to go to the wall over this, but in those days quite a lot of data was stored on little tape cassettes, and paper tape drives were used too. I THINK the earliest IBM PCs had 5.25" floppy drives (truly floppy by the way). At the time, the debate was over whether CPM or MSDOS would prevail. MSDOS stood for Microsoft Disc Operating System, so it's logical that even from its earliest day the IMB PC was conceived of as using floppies. I like USB and don't dispute its utility. But booting from USB is a new idea to me, so I'm learning from this thread. ;) I've seen some discussions of the possibility and I can well imagine quite a number of possible other circumstances when the ability to boot from a removable drive might be useful. For example, one could imagine having a second operating system on a plug in drive and that could be kept entirely separate. One could even conceive of someone who kept XP on one USB drive and Linux or Unix on another, keeping nothing but encrypted data on the main computer hard drive. That would be extraordinarily secure, if you think about it, as without having access to the appropriate OS, you couldn't even _begin_ to know how to approach data decryption. For example, a Truecrypt encrypted drive looks and feels like an unformatted drive. It can only be unlocked with a running version of the software and the right password. Of course, it goes without saying that such a thing would be very unpopular with Law enforcement agencies, as it would be impossible to prove that the hard drive WAS an encrypted drive. -- All the Best Ian Hoare http://www.souvigne.com mailbox full to avoid spam. try me at website |
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