Creating a bootable USB Drive

These days, most computer systems come without a floppy drive build into them. In most cases you probably don't require the floppy drive anymore, but if you're like me; then chances are that you come across a situation where a system dies and you require a bootable floppy drive or similar means to access the command prompt and investigate Windows.

Fortunalty for us, most systems come installed with USB connectors and have the ability to support USB sticks. Only problem is that you cannot boot from a USB device if there is no boot sector on it.

I've been looking on the Internet for quiet some time to find an easy work around for this issue, and came across the following solution to make a USB stick bootable like a floppy drive.

- Download the following tool and install it : click me

- Download the Windows 98 boot disk files: click me

- Run the tool and format your USB stick into FAT32 using the files of the boot you downloaded.

- Now you can use your USB stick as a bootable device if your BIOS supports "boot from USB".

With this modified stick, you can add small tools to it in subfolders and run them from the commandprompt. Easy if you want to flash a BIOS or graphics card and need to do this outside Windows for example.

The supplied boot image comes with generic drivers, so you can even access your CDROM station if you have one connected.

Credits to http://www.victorchen.info/category/miscellaneous/