Guide - How to make a bootable usb drive

Well, I decided to write this guide in order to help people make a bootable usb drive,

especially those who are interested in updating the firmware of Performance series SSD drives.

 

For our guide I'm using a usb drive from Corsair and particularly a 4 GB Flash Voyager USB drive, Windows 7 is our os.

 

STEP 1

First we're going to need the necessary tools to make a usb drive bootable:

 

Extract the attached files provided e.g. on your desktop for easy access.

 

Run the HPUSBFW_2.2.3_MASTER.exe file, the following screen will appear:

 

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll104/mpamphs70/Guide%20-%20How%20to%20make%20a%20bootable%20USB%20drive/FATSelection.jpg

 

STEP 2

From the drop down list you will have two options, FAT32 and NTFS, in order to make our usb drive bootable, select FAT32.

 

Select the options a) Quick Format (if you want a quick formatting) and b) Create a DOS startup disk.

 

Also through the option "using DOS system files located at" we locate the win98 boot files we extracted on our desktop in the beginning of this guide:

 

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll104/mpamphs70/Guide%20-%20How%20to%20make%20a%20bootable%20USB%20drive/FORMAT-LOCATETHEBOOTFILES.jpg

 

STEP 3

Press start a confirmation dialog will pop up:

 

Remember to backup first all your files you have in your usb drive, format will erase everything in your usb drive.

 

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll104/mpamphs70/Guide%20-%20How%20to%20make%20a%20bootable%20USB%20drive/ConfirmationDialog.jpg

 

Press YES and the process for creating a usb boot drive will begin.

 

We chose quick formatting so no time to wait:

 

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll104/mpamphs70/Guide%20-%20How%20to%20make%20a%20bootable%20USB%20drive/FORMATCOMPLETION.jpg

 

STEP 4

 

The bootable USB drive has been successfully created.

 

Inside our USB drive we find three hidden system files, those that are needed just to make our drive bootable:

 

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll104/mpamphs70/Guide%20-%20How%20to%20make%20a%20bootable%20USB%20drive/BOOTFILES.jpg

 

COMMAND.COM, IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS files.

 

We extract the files provided by Corsair for the firmware update of P series SSDs into our usb drive, it will look like this:

 

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll104/mpamphs70/Guide%20-%20How%20to%20make%20a%20bootable%20USB%20drive/EXTRACTEDFILES.jpg

 

Now we're ready to go.

 

STEP 5

 

We restart our system and at the post screen we press F8 for the pop up boot drive selection menu to appear (I'm having an ASUS board).

 

From the list we select our newly created usb boot drive, the update process will start automatically, some interactive options provided with detail in the pdf file and the update process will be completed successfully.

 

Restart your system and the new firmware of the P series SSDs will be applied.

 

Update

 

Seeing some people having problems updating their firmware, I would like to add some info about usb boot drives:

 

a) The file system used may also affect the BIOS's ability to detect and boot the drive. If a FAT file system doesn't work, try FAT 32 and vice versa.

Remember usb drives with a capacity less than 2GB, will give you also the option to format with the FAT file system.

Usb drives with a capacity larger than 2GB will give you the option to format only with the FAT 32 file system for your usb drive to become bootable.

b) Remember also to enable USB Legacy support inside bios so as the system can recognize your usb drive at the boot process.

HPUSBFW_2.2.3_MASTER.zip

win98boot.zip

This is very timely and very well done. I was supposed to do this sometime during the week but you have saved me the work.

 

Cheers and Happy Holidays.

Thank you for your kind words, comments from you have a great value.

Look at all the pretty pictures :cool:

 

I like the fact you use a Corsair Voyager Flash, very appropriate.

 

Yes, job very well done.

 

-Joe

It's a Corsair support forum, so I though it would be nice to use a Corsair product, thank you for your kind words.

Touche mate! Happy Holidays!:cool:

Does this guide apply to a hard drive in an external case with a USB connection?

 

Thanks,

 

x509

Thanks for this guide, now at least I can boot from the usb drive. I tried a few other methods and it never worked until I got your files here (could be the HP utility I had was not as new as the one you provided).

 

However, my Corsair P128 is not recognized by the DOS installer.

 

I boot using F8, choose the usb drive, I have the win98 logo that flash for a second, then a black DOS window that ask me to press any key to continue. After a key is pressed it then proceed to search for the SSD for about 10-15 second, then it tell me that no disk was found, say it will switch the process off, then another DOS screen flash, and I'm left with c:\dsrd\ and have to reboot. I tried a few times and no success.

 

The SSD is my C: drive, and is usually set in AHCI mode in BIOS. I read in the firmware update topic from RAM GUY, that the BIOS setting should be IDE for the firmware update. I tried to run the update in both mode and no difference actually.

 

Something else that appear as weird, and maybe a useful thing too. If I select F8 to get the boot selection I can see the USB and boot WIN98 DOS. However if I enter the BIOS to try to select the USB from there, it's not in the

list of available boot devices.

 

All my hardware info is up-there.

Does this guide apply to a hard drive in an external case with a USB connection?

 

Thanks,

 

 

x509

 

HP tool allows creation of a FAT32 volume larger than 32 GB, but on external HDD I'm not sure if it can work.

 

Thanks for this guide, now at least I can boot from the usb drive. I tried a few other methods and it never worked until I got your files here (could be the HP utility I had was not as new as the one you provided).

 

However, my Corsair P128 is not recognized by the DOS installer.

 

I boot using F8, choose the usb drive, I have the win98 logo that flash for a second, then a black DOS window that ask me to press any key to continue. After a key is pressed it then proceed to search for the SSD for about 10-15 second, then it tell me that no disk was found, say it will switch the process off, then another DOS screen flash, and I'm left with c:\dsrd\ and have to reboot. I tried a few times and no success.

 

The SSD is my C: drive, and is usually set in AHCI mode in BIOS. I read in the firmware update topic from RAM GUY, that the BIOS setting should be IDE for the firmware update. I tried to run the update in both mode and no difference actually.

 

Something else that appear as weird, and maybe a useful thing too. If I select F8 to get the boot selection I can see the USB and boot WIN98 DOS. However if I enter the BIOS to try to select the USB from there, it's not in the

list of available boot devices.

 

All my hardware info is up-there.

 

Did you format with FAT or FAT 32 file system?

Inside bios the most possible option is USB HDD, did you select it?

Also check if you're using the latest bios version of your board.

Try setting your bios settings at bios defaults and repeat the process.

-AHCI or IDE

 

- Tried both Fat & Fat32 (I'm in FAT at the moment)

 

- Bios version is latest stable.

 

- P128 is the first drive, secondary SATA is unplugged. Blu-Ray Rom still plugged-in though.

 

- Tried 'USB Mass Storage Configuration' Auto, Force FDD, Hard Disk. I didn't set the USBb to CD or FLoppy.

 

- Tried from cold boot.

 

The DOS program is loading at start-up when the USB is set to Hard Drive, or Force FDD only. On Auto, only F2 can make it boot in DOS. Whatever though, cause none can see the SSD anyway. Yet Windows and the BIOS identify the SSD as it should, with it's full name.

 

I saw another topic about the problem down in the forum, yet the other guy's SSD name was scrambled. I can read the name of the P128 just fine in both Win7 and in the BIOS...

What's your USB Configuration settings inside bios?

Go to USB Mass Storage Device Configuration -> Emulation Type and Select Forced FDD.

Now go to Boot Device priority and select as your first boot device your Removable media. Save your changes and restart.

Also did you try another usb port, does this make any difference?

i have tried the above mention way to make a bootable usb drive. i get an error saying operating system is missing. any ideas?

Assuming you made the bootable USB drive correctly, you also must set the BIOS to boot from it. Either that, after the POST, use the F key your board uses to select the boot device and select your USB drive from the menu.

i followed the instructions step by step. i even tried 2 different usb sticks i formated with fat and fat32. the computer sees both usb sticks and tries to boot from them. but i get an error loading os or os missing.

What is the source of your bootable image? Is your image valid?

you must follow the first post to the letter. follow the pics exactly and it will work.

the dos system files will be located wherever you extract them. remember the path.

Assuming that you followed the guide correctly, check if you have an active partition on your usb drive. Boot into windows, right click on Computer icon, select manage, disk management, see if the partition of your usb drive is marked as active.

If that doesn't help, try repeating the guide, but now do a full format for the usb drive.

You may have a missing or corrupted command.com or other boot files.

Also a computer virus may causing the issue or a hardware failure.

Try a different usb port.