Can anyone solve my puzzle of booting from usb?

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by msr, Sep 9, 2009.

  1. msr

    msr MDL Senior Member

    Dec 27, 2007
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    #1 msr, Sep 9, 2009
    Last edited: Sep 9, 2009
    I have a laptop thats quite old, and i want to boot from a usb stick or a usb dvd drive. at the mo the bios only lets you boot from usb floppy, as this is quite old.

    Is there any way for me to get this thing to boot from usb stick or usb dvd drive, when the computer can only boot from usb floppy?

    I am sure someone here has had to deal with this before, and there are loads of intelligent people here, and i was wondering if any one could help me out here.

    Thx in advance.
     
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  2. 2centsworth

    2centsworth MDL Senior Member

    Feb 12, 2008
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    Nope...unless there is a updated BIOS for your laptop supporting boot from USB.
    A USB floppy option to boot from is just a floppy drive as far as the BIOS is concerned...sounds like your laptop USB ports are likely USB 1.0 which has about a 1-2 MB/sec transfer rate and would be painfully slow to install an OS from.
     
  3. msr

    msr MDL Senior Member

    Dec 27, 2007
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    Yep your right about usb1.0 ports.

    It is just a pain.

    Could i boot from a pcmcia card connected to ide cdrom drive. Is that possible?
     
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  4. 2centsworth

    2centsworth MDL Senior Member

    Feb 12, 2008
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    If the BIOS supports booting from a PCMCIA device I suppose, but that seems unlikely.
     
  5. msr

    msr MDL Senior Member

    Dec 27, 2007
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    Na it does not. I will just sell the thing.

    Thx for help.
     
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