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Can you boot from usb floppy?

post #1 of 10
12/1/03 at 12:26pm
Thread Starter 
I am buying a 4780 and I was just curious if anyone knows if it is possible to boot from a usb floppy. I always reinstalled XP pro with the six floppys after formatting the hard drive. ANy suggestions? The 4780 doesn't have a floppy and I was going to order with no OS.



4780 pixel me perfect
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post #2 of 10
12/1/03 at 1:06pm
bootable floppies are for n00bs. Just make a bootable cd-rom...
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post #3 of 10
12/1/03 at 3:43pm
Uhm, no, I use bootable floppies ocassionally, they are not for n00b's all the time

For instance, there is no point in making a bootable CD for a system that only has a floppy drive, or for where the CD isn't bootable.

OTOH, you CAN boot from a USB floppy, IF and only if the BIOS supports it. Most newer ones do.
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post #4 of 10
12/1/03 at 4:15pm
"For instance, there is no point in making a bootable CD for a system that only has a floppy drive, or for where the CD isn't bootable."

His system does have a optical drive and doesn't have an internal floppy hence the thread. Making a bootable cd takes like 25 seconds plus you can place madddddddd DOS based diagnostic programs and whatnot on it....
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post #5 of 10
12/1/03 at 5:01pm
Thread Starter 
I can not get my laptop to boot xp pro setup after I format the hard drive without the six disk floppys. I have them made into six cds already but once I get to cd #3 it says please wait.........then 10 minutes later I have to reboot. Right now I have the 5680 w/ 3.5 floppy but I will be getting the 4780 soon w/o floppy. After you format how do you begin reinstall. I did move cdrom to top of boot list. thanks.
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post #6 of 10
12/1/03 at 5:07pm
If CD-ROM wasn't before hard drive in the boot device priorities list then XP setup wouldn't auto-initialize. You don't need to manually format your drive if you don't want to; XP's setup includes the ability to partition and format directly within the setup process....

P.S. If the floppy disks you are talking about are the XP installation disks, forget them! Just boot using the XP Installation CD-ROM.
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post #7 of 10
12/1/03 at 5:24pm
Thread Starter 
ok heres the whole deal. two months ago I got a golden retriever pup and while the wifey was home with him he chewed up my xp pro original disk. since my license is still my own I got a friend to copy his xp pro disk. the way I understand microsofts policy on pirating im not doing anything horrifically wrong due to my serial key being legit and paid for as well as the license. the copied disk is not booting. I guess I could just use my friends orig but this would require a two hour drive to baltimore as he just moved there. lol I know this is the traditional "my dog ate it" but its true and I am on one heck of a bad luck streak.
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post #8 of 10
12/1/03 at 5:28pm
lol I bet your friend didn't make it a bootable CD-ROM!
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post #9 of 10
12/1/03 at 5:30pm
Thread Starter 
no he didn't and I don't want to drop another couple hundred for a darn windows product
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post #10 of 10
12/1/03 at 5:31pm
Thread Starter 
do you think there is a few files I could add to the disk to make it bootable?
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