USB Flash Drive boot?

USB flash drives are available in 4 and 8 gb sizes now. Is it possible to put OSX on one of these drives and boot from it?

HOWTO: Install and Boot OS X On a Flash Drive >>
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Request BIOS to fix an USB flash drive boot problem in EFI (GE60 0ND-265FR)

Hello,
I'm currently trying to install Ubuntu on my MSI GE60 0ND notebook but I'm having troubles to boot on my USB flash drive in EFI mode.
I've disabled Fast Boot and Secure Boot options but the only thing I can have is the GRUB menu of the liveUSB and whatever option I try I always get a blank screen. On the other hand everything works fine when I set the BIOS on Legacy mode.
It's the same problem they have on this thread : https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=165756.0 but with an other notebook.
The problem is I want to keep Windows 8 side by side with Ubuntu so I must have them both installed in EFI mode.
I asked for help on a specialized forum (french Ubuntu's community) and they believe this problem is related to the BIOS. Do you think an unlocked BIOS will help with that ?
Here are my current BIOs and EC infos :
BIOS Version : E16GAIMS.514
BIOS Build : 03/12/2013
EC Version : 16GAEMS1 Ver5.05
EC Build : 02/21/2013
Thanks for your help, and sorry if I've made English mistakes.

i don't know if unlocked BIOS can help you with this

Satellite M40-237: CD Boot not working + is USB flash drive boot possible

*Model: Satellite M40-237 (PSM40E)*
I decided to reinstall windows, my hard drive is currently formatted. So as usual, boot from Windows CD is needed to start instalation but it simply won't boot. I never had problems like this, boot always worked. It is like there is no bootable CD in the drive (but it is bootable and it is working on another PC).
- i have the latest BIOS
- BIOS detects optical drive and everything is ok, HDD is primary ODD is secondary
- i tried selecting boot priority with F12 and/or setting it from BIOS, but it won't work either way
What could be the problem here? Drive not working properly (i hope it is that and not something worse)? I had some problems with the drive i before (writing...), but it reads CD/DVD's normally and like i said boot was working fine before. I cleaned the lens a little, disconected it and put it back. Is there anything more i can do ?
I am trying to find someone who has the drive that fits so i can try with that one, but who knows when will that be.
Now, here is the second question i have related to this. Because my laptop is practically useless currently (i can't install anything), is it possible to boot from:
a) external USB optical drive
b) USB flash drive
Bios on this laptop has no USB boot option, it has HDD / CD / FDD / network. But I've red somewhere that FDD = USB if legacy emulation is enabled.
If that is correct i should just plug the USB drive and select FDD as boot option ? If i can't find USB optical drive, i was thinking of making USB bootable flash disk and copying windows xp installation on it. So once it boots into DOS i just start setup from the stick.
tnx

First of all I have to say that the booting from USB flash memory (USB stick) is not possible and you shouldnt waste the time trying this.
Regarding your CD/DVD drive booting issue
Well, its really strange it sounds a little bit like a kind of master/slave/c-sel settings issue. But usually you should get a IDE (#0 or #1) error if one of the devices (HDD or ODD) would be not recognized ?:|
The whole story sounds mysteriously
Maybe there is a firmware issue
Several months ago a friend of mine was not able to boot from the CD.
He entered the BIOS and set the BIOS back to the default settings.
This helped
This is a suggestion but I really dont know if it helps.

[875P Neo Series] USB Flash Drive Boot?

I've got a 875P Neo-FIS2R MB, MS-6758 (v.1.x) with AMI Bios 1.6. Before purchasing a USB Flash drive, I'd like to know whether this MB can boot from it.
Any help appreciated

See the link in my signature. You should be able to.

Bootable MacOSX 10.6 Snow Leopard emergency USB flash drive boot disk

I want to create a minimal recovery boot disk for SL. I've followed how-to's on creating one for 10.4 and 10.5, but so far it I couldn't get it to work with 10.6.
If you have successfully done this, or can point me to a pre-made image or how-to, it would be much appreciated.

I found this article:
[2009 Live DVD, howto make a simple, working osx livedvd|http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=144128]
Here's the overview of the method presented there:
How it works:
This method works because OSX has a disk image boot system in place to support its network boot system. IOHDIXController and kernel can take a path to disk image supplied to them, and mount it as /, via "imageboot", which recognizes a disk image as an attachable filesystem.
Further, Apple has setup a system to take a read-only disk image and attach a shadowfile to it, so that it is writeable. Intended to support a network boot system by making the user's session local and non-persistent, it is implemented in /etc/rc.netboot. Basically, vndevice (/usr/libexec/vndevice) attaches a shadow file to the dmg, and enables a copy-on-write strategy on that device--writes to the dmg are diverted to the temporary shadow file. This is much like what happens on a linux live dvd, albeit with Unionfs.
Normally the shadowfile is created on a local disk or network share, on either nfs or hfs. Under my method, the shadowfile is created on ramdisk formatted with hfs, and the system behaves exactly as if it were booted with netboot. The difference is that I specify that the dmg to boot from is local(file:///), and then manually start a customized rc script. The script behaves like rc.netboot, except i create a ramdisk and setup the shadowfile there instead of on a local disk. After that / is R/W and OS X boots normally into finder...and beyond.
Got that?!

MSI P965 Neo-F (MS-7235) problem booting from USB flash drive

Hi, all!
I was wondering if someone can help me. I am trying to install Windows 7 x64 on my 320GB HDD that is connected to my MSI P965 Neo-F (MS-7235) mobo (The CPU is a Core2Duo 6600 with 6GB of RAM). I created a bootable USB 8GB flash drive using Microsoft's "Windows 7 DVD USB Download Tool" and bootsect.exe (Needed to create a boot sector on the USB drive) from the MS store. I successfully tested the resulting bootable USB drive using freeware MobaLiveCD (Sorry, you'll have to Google "mobalivecd" since this forum doesn't seem to allow external links) running under Windows XP SP3 x86 (32bit). Under MobaLive's QEMU, Windows 7 setup loaded its files and produced an error message basically saying that it could not install Windows 7 x64 under an x86 OS (No surprise there since QEMU is emulating a 32bit processor - The point is that the bootable USB drive I created works).
I then went into my mobo's CMOS and under Advanced BIOS Features -> Boot Sequence -> 1st Boot Device, set the value to "USB-HDD" and rebooted my machine. The USB drive probably was not detected by the mobo under that setting because it proceeded to boot from my HDD which is the 2nd Boot Device. I repeated the same process using each one of the four USB ports in the rear of the mobo (I don't have the optional USB panel that the MSI users manual mentions) to no avail. I also tried setting the 1st Boot Device to "USB-FDD" and repeated the process for each USB port but the mobo still will not boot from the USB drive (It does not recognize it). When I set the 1st Boot Device to "USB-ZIP" and rebooted, the mobo hangs after "Verifying DMI Pool Data ..." which is no surprise since I am not using a USB ZIP drive but a USB flash drive. It appears that under that setting, it recognizes that there is a USB device attached but it is expecting a response (From a USB ZIP drive). I had no idea it would be this frustrating to boot from a USB flash drive! If anyone knows how to make this mobo boot from a USB flash drive, please let me know. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Quote from: RemusM on 12-June-14, 17:51:30
The P965 Neo motherboard is 8 years old, so don't expect miracles. .... You need to format the USB stick in the proper way. You may use this utility to do it: hxxp://www.prime-expert.com/flashboot/ Also, it's a good idea to use the first (USB0) connector (controlled by Intel ICH8) for the USB flash drive. Good luck.
Thank You for your fast response, RemusM!
I'm not looking for a miracle. I'm just looking for a mobo that does what it is supposed to do: Allow me to boot from a USB flash drive (I don't think that is too much to ask for even from a board that was made in 2006)!
Thanks for recommending FlashBoot. I see under their "Why FlashBoot" section that it "... does not shift to user the burden of choice between "USB-ZIP" and "USB-HDD" at format time and proper BIOS setup at boot time. ... and every USB disk is formatted in such way that it will work in every environment properly, regardless of current BIOS setting.", so I will give it a try and let you know about the results afterwards.

How do i install and boot mac os 10.4 on a usb flash drive?

i want to make a bootable flash drive for my powerbook g4 and i have a mac os 10.4 on a install disk.. i want to be able to boot from the flash drive.

At some point in the past, when the hardware was more recent, some said they
were able to make it work. To boot a PowerPC G4 iBook (USB2.0 ports) from a
USB flash drive memory device. The read/write speed of the USB flash had to
be optimal and the capacity large enough to accommodate the booting and also
the necessity for Virtual Memory to run on the USB flash drive, as with a HDD.
Some suggested they made a clone of a working system, boot from USB flash.
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=ibook+g4+boot+from+usb
There still are some bits and pieces of information pointing to discussions or
other topics of similar concept; some of the older sites aren't online any more
where claims and 'proof' were given that this worked out OK. Figuring the older
Apple portables were adapted to use CF or other camera memory cards, for use
in systems prior to OS X...
Sounds like a fun diversion, to take ones mind off weather, and other incidentals.

Boot camp install from USB Flash Drive

Hi Folks,
I recently purchased a new Macbook Air. It has 10.8.3.
I used the Boot Camp Assistant to set up the computer for Boot Camp. It went through all the steps: First, it formatted my USB Flash Drive. Next, it copied Windows installer crap from the my ISO to the USB Drive. Next, it downloaded the Apple Drivers and put them on the USB drive. Next, it restarted in order to boot from the USB drive.
This is where I hit a wall. The computer will not bpt from the Flash Drive. It is as if the control panel has set the startup disk to "BOOTCAMP" instead of the flash drive. So when the computer restarts, it just says "No bootable device - insert boot disk and press any key."
How can I get it to boot from the flash drive?
Thanks In Advance
Andy
Corrected the error message to exact phrase.

Hmmm... interesting... My sites I found suggested otherwise. I tried three diferent brands of jump drives and none of them actually booted the Macbook Air. The Boot Camp Assistant used them all just fine, but booting was the issue. Glad you got it to work. Would you mind posting what brand you used so other reading this thread in the future could learn?
Also, were you just using the BCA or, did you do some other process to make it bootable first? Since the BCA formats the drive, I would think any process done ahead of time would be thwarted (as mine were).
Thanks!

Satellite U400-10j - How to boot from USB flash drive?

Hello,
I have a Toshiba Satellite U400-10j.
I have Ubuntu on my USB flash disk, I now want to boot from it.
I am unable to find the option in the BIOS to boot from the Usb flash drive.
Secondly I have noticed that the laptop also has a internal memory card reader.
Could I load Ubuntu onto it then boot from the memory stick as well?
Your Help will be much appreciated.
Thank you.

I think its not able to boot from an USB stick on this notebook.
The best way is to use a CD. There you can boot from on this notebook and all other notebooks.
In the Internet are a lot of CD versions of Ubuntu and other Linux systems available.
And as Feliks said, its not able to boot from an SD card because this is not listed in the BIOS.

How to boot from usb flash drive on Satellite A500-o25

How do you configure boot order on A500-o25 so that it boots from usb drive first.

Hi,
Enter the Bios, pressing F2 on startup, go to the Boot menu and choose Usb drive as the first boot device (you navigate with F5 and F6 keys). Press F10, and ..Save and Exit menu ,, appears, press ok. That's all.
Note, on my satellite A500, I have to connect the Usb flash before to turn computer on, otherwise the usb flash drive doesn't appear in boot menu in Bios
Message was edited by: Jeka-IL

HOW TO YOU ADD USB FLASH DRIVE TO BOOT OPTION

i HAVE TWO LAPTOPS SAME MODEL NUMBER ONE CRASHED, hp SUPPORT TALKED ME THROUGH F11 TO RECOVER TO FACTORY CONDITION THE LAPTOP STOP AT 100% WITHN1 MINUTE LEFT TO CMPLETE. HP TOLD ME TO ESCAPE AN DO F2 TO CHECK THE HARD DRIVE. THAT WORK IT SHOWED ALL THE CHECKS PASSED. IT TOOK 2 + HOURS SO WHEN i CALLED BACK DIFFERENT PERSON SAID $350 SEND IT THEY WILL FIX. iT'S NOT IN WARRANY SINCE FEB2014 i ONLY PAID $399 FOR IT, CANNOT AFFORD THAT. SO HP TECH SAID USE SECOND PC TO MAKE A FLASH DRIVE . (I MADE CD'S WHEN I FIRST GOT IT BUT THEY DID NOT WORK). SO GOT A FLASH DRIVE WTH 32GIGS (I THOUGHT SHE SAID I NEEDED AT LEAST 20 GIGS) COPIED THE RECOVERY PROGRAM, NOW THE USB WILL NOT OPEN. FROM AN EARLIER WRITTER HE WAS TOLD TO F10 BIOS, ESC LOOP FOR BOOT OPTIONS TO SEE IF USB FLASH DRIVE IS THERE. MY PROBLEM ITS NOT ON MY PC SO HOW DO I ADD IT SO THE USB WILL OPEN.
RIGHT NOW PC IN A LOOP WHEN POWERED ON HP AND TIME COMES UP, LITTLE WHILW A BLOCK WITH HP/DAT/TIME COMES UP AND A CMD ON BOTTOM OF SCREEN, IT GOES BY TOO FAST T CLICK ON IT AND GOES BACK TO HP LOGO. IF I COULD ADD USB FLASH AS AN OPTION IT MIGHT MAKE IT OPEN ANY HELP APPRECIATED.

The flash drive is not going to show up if it is not bootable. To make a bootable Recovery on flash you have to use Recovery Manager just like you do to create cd/dvd Recovery.
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How to boot from USB flash drive - Portege R500

Hi,
I have a Portege R500 running Windows XP, brought about 2 years ago, and recently contracted a worm virus that has infected some of the start up files as the minute I log in it logs out again, even in safe mode! Quickest way I can think of sorting it is to reformat it with the XP recovery disc and reinstall windows.
Problem!! The CD/DVD drive on the laptop stopped working a while ago, have tried pretty much everything in the thread on this site but had no luck.
So my plan was to boot from a USB flash drive and do it that way. However in the boot settings I only have the options of HDD / FDD / CD-ROM / LAN, neither of these will work. Does anyone know how to boot from USB flash drives?
Any help would be really appreciated

Hi
As far as I know it should be possible to boot from USB FDD
Im not sure if you would be able to boot from USB flash drive but its definitely worth a try
Generally you could try to press F12 button when notebook powers up.
Then a boot menu should appear on the display and you should see all bootable devices.
PS: As far as I know the USB booting was available in ToshibaHWSetup (Toshiba tool which changes the BIOS settings in windows OS.) Therefore I assume booting from USB should be possible.
Greets

Boot problem - Snow Leopard on USB flash drive

Built a fresh install of 10.6 on a USB flash drive. The steps I took to do this were:
Installing from 10.6.3 install disc onto an external firewire drive with minimal install option. Drive is hooked into a Mac Pro station
Booted to external drive, installed updates to get to 10.6.8.
Carbon Copy Cloaner the external firewire OS to a 32gb Patriot USB drive
Removed the external drive, then forced the station to boot to the USB drive
The behavior I get is a startup chime, then the grey Apple logo, but NO spinning gear. No other types of signs or symbols come up for roughly 5 minutes. The system then reboots itself and chimes. Then repeat until I hard shutdown and make it boot back to the Mac Pro's internal HDD.
I also tried installing the OS disc directly to the flash drive ( after formatting it ) but it does the same thing. Chime - logo - no gears - reboot.
The drive itself works as I've used it for other purposes and I can see the files on there. The access light is blinking so it appears to be trying to communicate with the computer.
Did I miss a step somewhere?

http://www.maciverse.com/install-os-x-snow-leopard-from-usb-flash-drive.html
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16276201#16276201

My compaq cq62-214nr will not boot from a usb flash drive

I have a Compaq CQ62-214 NR Notebook. When I enter the bios boot options screen with F9 there is a blank space where Boot from USB/Flash Drive should be. If I enter the bios setup and move usb flash drive up to the first option above Notebook hardrive and Internal CD/DVD Rom ,save the changes to the BIOS then Reboot. Enter the boot options screen again the blank line moves up to the first choice slot but still is blank. If I press enter over that black option the computer does not boot from the OS I have install on the usb flash drive it just starts its normal windows boot screen. YES I have upgraded the BIOS to the lates version F.37
Can somone tell me what is wrong.

Try booting into the one time boot menu.
Step 1: As soon as you turn on the computer on the hp invent screen keep tapping F9 key.
Step 2: you will get boot otions such as hard drive, optical drive, USb drive
Step 3: You can hit enter on the usb flash drive. Should boot from the os on your flash drive
*Although I am an HP employee, I am speaking for myself and not for HP.
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How do I boot from a USB flash drive?

I have two different Toshiba laptops. In the BIOS settings I only see the following options.
Laptop 1:
CD/DVD
FDD
LAN
HDD1/SSD1
Laptop 2:
HDD1/SSD1
HDD2/SSD2
eSATA HDD
CD/DVD
FDD
LAN
Is it possible to make either computer boot from a USB flash drive?
Thanks in advance for any help,
yeto

FDD (Floppy Disk Drive) equates to USB in my Toshiba laptops. Seems like it's taking some BIOS designers a long time to catch up with the rest of the computer world!
C.B.
Toshiba Sat. C75D-B7260 Win 8.1 64 Bit--Toshiba Sat. L775D-S7132 Win 7 HP SP1 64 Bit and Win 10 PRO Technical Preview--Toshiba Sat. L305-S5921 Win Vista SP2 32 Bit

USB Flash Drive boot?

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