Create bootable USB?

[ronaldmonster]

Hi there. My dvd drive has died recently & I have no idea what to do. It still reads, yes but it takes forever before it reads (If at all) and I can't seem to get ANY OS booted up.

Right now my laptop is fubar and boot.mgr is missing. I can't get Windows to boot cause when I do manage to do it it gives me an error telling me something is wrong with my dvd drive.

I seriously need my laptop cause I will choke the shit out of my fiance who is scared shitless I'm gonna break this desktop and have it in the current state of my laptop. <3 Women

 

[Titcher]

Finally something I can help with! Okay, I take it you want these systems back to Windows? Well you're going to need a working system to do this on of course, but you also need a Windows XP disc with SP1 or newer slipstreamed in. Once you've achieved that, you need some software called UBCD4Win which is available here UBCD for Windows and the software to make USB booting possible http://www.ezpcfix.net/ubcd4win/UBUSB.exe

Once you've got UBCD4Win you need to point it at files of your XP disc(they don't need to be on an actual disc, but you do need all of the files). It'll then ask you to copy them onto a hard drive if they're not already, okay, once you're this far, press build on the UBCD4Win interface. Building will take a while, but once done it's time to get USB booting. Open UBUSB with your flash dongle already in and detected, it should pick up your dongle for you. Be sure to tick Quick Format, untick "Create CD Image for USB...". The programs need to know where the BartPE folder from UBCDWin is, so under BartPE Folder, press the three dots to browse, and set it correctly normally C:\UBCD4Win\BartPE\.

Once you've set all those options, press GO. Once done you can press test USB on the system you're on to see if USB booting is working, if it is, you can go ahead and set USB booting in the BIOS on the machine you need to and give it a whirl, if it doesn't work, try using one of the other bootloaders and starting the USB booting process again.

Once you're booting and have got UBCD4Win up and going, you can go ahead and format your hard drives should you choose. But if you look under the various menus, there's a windows XP installer, which will start an installation if windows XP going on one of your hard drives, so if you can find a way to get the windows XP files onto the PC(not the USB booting files you've made), then you can start the install going and be on your way to a working system.

Good luck!

 

[P.KID]

are you sure that you should be posting this here? cough* help sub-form

 

[ronaldmonster]

Finally something I can help with! Okay, I take it you want these systems back to Windows? Well you're going to need a working system to do this on of course, but you also need a Windows XP disc with SP1 or newer slipstreamed in. Once you've achieved that, you need some software called UBCD4Win which is available here UBCD for Windows and the software to make USB booting possible http://www.ezpcfix.net/ubcd4win/UBUSB.exe

Once you've got UBCD4Win you need to point it at files of your XP disc(they don't need to be on an actual disc, but you do need all of the files). It'll then ask you to copy them onto a hard drive if they're not already, okay, once you're this far, press build on the UBCD4Win interface. Building will take a while, but once done it's time to get USB booting. Open UBUSB with your flash dongle already in and detected, it should pick up your dongle for you. Be sure to tick Quick Format, untick "Create CD Image for USB...". The programs need to know where the BartPE folder from UBCDWin is, so under BartPE Folder, press the three dots to browse, and set it correctly normally C:\UBCD4Win\BartPE\.

Once you've set all those options, press GO. Once done you can press test USB on the system you're on to see if USB booting is working, if it is, you can go ahead and set USB booting in the BIOS on the machine you need to and give it a whirl, if it doesn't work, try using one of the other bootloaders and starting the USB booting process again.

Once you're booting and have got UBCD4Win up and going, you can go ahead and format your hard drives should you choose. But if you look under the various menus, there's a windows XP installer, which will start an installation if windows XP going on one of your hard drives, so if you can find a way to get the windows XP files onto the PC(not the USB booting files you've made), then you can start the install going and be on your way to a working system.

Good luck!

Thanks man! I got it to boot, but as of this moment my Sony Vaio is officially dead. Had problems with this thing since I got it don't know why I never brought it back :\

 

[KillerWhiteMan]

are you sure that you should be posting this here? cough* help sub-form

I'm glad to see that SOMEBODY knows the difference between all of the different sections in our forum. I noticed a request thread posted in the games section yesterday. *Sigh* What the hell can you do right?

 

[InsaneNutter]

Did you send the warranty back with your laptop? Cost me over £100 to get a simple problem sorted on mine simply because I had no warranty.

Could be worth seeing what Sony say anyway, there customer service might be a lot better than Acers.

 

[ronaldmonster]

Did you send the warranty back with your laptop? Cost me over £100 to get a simple problem sorted on mine simply because I had no warranty.

Could be worth seeing what Sony say anyway, there customer service might be a lot better than Acers.

Put it this way, I decided to just save up for a new laptop as repairs would be 300 dollars PLUS parts. I told them "That's almost 400 dollars! I might as well just buy a new one for that price!" so I took it apart saved my hard-drive, ram, battery & charger. All of which I bought so if anyone has a Sony Vaio NR give me a shout I'll send it all for 100 bucks.

 

[InsaneNutter]

Lol i did the same, mine broke again the other month and I didnt really use it as a laptop anymore, had it hooked up to a monitor, mouse and keyboard and just used it for coursework so it worked out a lot cheaper to get a Nettop pc rather than repair the laptop.