Creating A bootable USB Flash Drive

A computer with a BIOS that allows for booting from aUSB port.I used a Dell Optiplex GX260 that has a Phoenix ROMBIOS Plus version 1.10 revision A05. A Bootable floppy disk or CD.I used a Windows 98 bootable CD. For those who haveDell systems, you can also use the bootable DellOptiplex Resource CD that is used to reinstall yoursystem with Windows 98. Utilities with the ability to create a master bootrecord, create partitions, set active partitions, andformat and transfer boot files to the active partitionI used the DOS FDISK and FORMAT that are on theWindows 98 CD. Of course, the USB drive that you want to makebootableI used a 256MB SanDisk Cruzer Mini USB Flash Drive. DirectionsMake the USB drive the first in the drive sequence. Why?? fdisk does not allow for a partition to be setas ACTIVE (bootable) unless it is the first drive. Itis most likely that your hard drive(s) is set as thefirst drive. This needs to be changed.How?? Setting your USB drive to be the first in thedrive sequence can be done by following ONE of themethods below. No matter which method you follow, thecomputer MUST be booted with the USB drive plugged ininto the computer. Take a note of how the options thatyou are about to change were set before, as they willneed to be changed back later. Method # 1. BIOS drive sequence option.Depending on your BIOS, there may be an option tochange the drive sequence. On mine, there was anoption labeled "Hard-Disk Drive Sequence". If yourBIOS has this or a similar option, make sure youchange the sequence so that the USB Drive is listedfirst.Method # 2. Disabling other hard drives.Again, this is done from the BIOS. Different BIOS'smay have different options to disable the hard drive.On mine, the system had just one hard drive. I changedthe option labeled "Primary Drive 0" to "OFF". Method # 3. Unplugging the hard drives.If your BIOS doesn't have an option to change thedrive sequence or to turn off the hard drive, you canturn off your computer and unplug your hard drive(s).Make sure you know what you are doing here. Openingyour computer case may result in voiding your computerwarranty if you have one. Boot the computer from the boot floppy/CD into thecommand prompt with the USB Drive plugged in.Run fdiskUse fdisk's "Set Active Partition" (option 2) to setthe primary partition on the USB Drive to ACTIVE. This step assumes that a primary partition alreadyexists on the USB Drive. If this is not the case, usefdisk to create one. As noted in step # 1, fdisk willnot allow for setting the the partition to ACTIVEunless the drive the partition is on is the FIRST inthe drive sequence. Exit fdisk.Reboot the computer from boot floppy/CD into thecommand prompt with the USB Drive plugged in.At the command prompt enter the following command: dirc:This step is just to verify that the C: drive isactually the primary partition on the USB Drive.Regardless of the result that the command generateswhether it be a listing of files or an error message,what is important here is to make sure that the sizeof the primary partition on the USB Drive is roughlyequal to the sum of the empty space and the usedspace. Format and copy the boot files to the primarypartition. At the command prompt, from the directory whereFORMAT.COM is located, enter:format /s c: Run fdisk /mbr"fdisk /mbr" writes the master boot record, in thiscase to the USB drive, without altering the partitiontable information. Restart the computer and choose booting from the USBDrive. If all goes well, you should see a C:> commandprompt.Change the computer settings back to what they werebefore step # 1.I had a few people e-mail me with an error message "Nofixed disks present..." which they encountered whenthey ran fdisk.. Personally, I did not run into thisissue or know what is causing it on other people'smachines. A simple Google search and this link canprovide more information..