Boot Linux From USB Flash Drive

[jkitc]

I have been trying to set up my USB Flash drive to boot to a Linux distro, but so far I have not been successful. I have followed all of the instruction successfully, but when booting to my USB drive it just says: "NTLDR is missing" then it says do a Ctrl+Alt+Delete to get back into Windows.
I use F12 to get into the Boot Menu and the select: USB Flash Drive
Go here for the instructions: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2008/02/13/pendrivelinux-2008-install-from-windows/

I am running WindowsXPSP2
Dell Dimension4600

Can someone help?

[tinjaw]

Without knowing what you are doing, my guess is that you are either skipping step 4 or are getting an error doing so.

From your USB device, click makeboot.bat to make the drive bootable

[jkitc]

Without knowing what you are doing, my guess is that you are either skipping step 4 or are getting an error doing so.

From your USB device, click makeboot.bat to make the drive bootable

I have not skipped any steps. I have run "makeboot.bat". If the solution was only that easy.

[Armando]

Have you tried other USB Flash drive distributions -- just to see if they'd work?

[jkitc]

Have you tried other USB Flash drive distributions -- just to see if they'd work?

Yes

[Armando]

And... so? what happened? 

To be able to boot into Linux, you need to first make sure that your Flash Drive will boot in general... Did you try this test?

If that doesn't work there's likely a problem with one of these : 1- your USB device as such (corrupt boot sector or master boot record, incompatible device...), 2- your BIOS settings (did you try to turn off quick boot in the BIOS?), 3- The process of making your device bootable (through makeboot.bat ), etc.

[wreckedcarzz]

I run a linux destro on my laptop via USB hard drive - I just installed the thing to the external drive and let GRUB be the boot loader. Only problem is that I need the hard drive to boot the laptop, but I always have them both together.

I have tried guides to making USB devices bootable, and all the ones I have read, quite frankly, suck. It is basically a guess-and-check process - every computer and device is different, so you have to fiddle to get it to work. Just depends on your needs, your options, and your computer setup.

[jkitc]

I run a linux destro on my laptop via USB hard drive - I just installed the thing to the external drive and let GRUB be the boot loader. Only problem is that I need the hard drive to boot the laptop, but I always have them both together.

I have tried guides to making USB devices bootable, and all the ones I have read, quite frankly, suck. It is basically a guess-and-check process - every computer and device is different, so you have to fiddle to get it to work. Just depends on your needs, your options, and your computer setup.

What is GRUB?

[wreckedcarzz]

GRUB is nothing more than a boot loader. It lets you choose between various bootable Operating Systems. Most major Linux distributions install it automatically to your MBR when you install the distro - you can usually change it to be installed to the flash drive itself in advanced options.

It can be tricky though, so if you plan on trying what I did, proceed with caution.

[Anatolie]

http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/
GRUB is great! 

[bassclarinetl2]

Ubuntu (my distro of choice) has an installer for USB flash drives built into the live cd.  http://www.ubuntu.org

[kartal]

I use puppylinux and works great. I did the tut from penlinux website as well