I remember reading somewhere that dell were goin

[mcmitch]

I remember reading somewhere that dell were going to replace floppy disk drives with a USB key drive, and that it was possible to boot from this. I was wondered if this was something you could do on the Compaq Tablet. It would be really good to know i had something I could boot from. As I could then restore the OS over the network using drive image.

Does anyone knows if this is possible, or if someone has a USB key drive could they try and see if it will work.

Thanks

[andyf]

USB boot is supported for floppy and CD-ROM. Not sure what kind of device you're talking about. Disk On Key?

[mickeyfin]

I would be very interested in finding out if it would work also. I have a USB 256 JumpDrive that I use to carry large documents to meetings. I have tried finding ways to boot other computers with this device but have been unsuccessful. Since you can boot to a USB CDROM I would think you could boot to the USB Key drive if they proper drivers were loaded. Has anyone been able to do this yet?

[cisgrad00]

So I guess part of the question is, does a USB disk-on-key have a boot sector - forgive me for not knowing.

[cisgrad00]

Just for fun I browsed the web ;)
http://www.memorykeytools.com/MBRTool.asp
Anyone willing to give a try?
The other information indicated that the BIOS needed to support it, so may be futile... but I know some of you like to tinker! :-)

[splintercell]

Interesting. I wonder if Dell memory keys are somehow special, or if this utility works for any USB memory key.

[cisgrad00]

Not sure. The indication I got from a collegue was that you could simply use Windows 98 to "format /s" the key. Don't have that option in Win XP anymore (except to make DOS startup disk).

[msitpro]

I can boot to my sony usb key but it locks up FreeDOS kernal loads.

[msitpro]

Skip the Memory Key Boot Utility idea...

This is how I did it;
First go into the TC1000 Bios and set your usb memory key to boot before the internal hard drive.
I booted to a usb floppy drive with a Windows 98 startup disk and then formated the usb memory key with the /s switch (Format c: /s). That's it! My memory key is now bootable on my TC1000!

If you don't have a USB floppy I think you could use a PC loaded with Windows 98.

FYI - The USB Memory Boot Utility.exe will add a MBR to your USB memory key that's hard to remove. I needed to use RANISH to get back to the standard MBR.

[mickeyfin]

I tried to make mine bootable but it didn't work. I had an old win 98 machine, and I formatted my usb key drive with /s. But when I try to boot to removable drives on my TC1000 it just skips right by. Am I missing something?