Weird Boot-from-USB problem on a Latitude x300

[yukichigai]

I'm having a rather bizarre issue with an x300 I recently recovered. I'm trying to get it up and running for the missuz, but I'm having a devil of a time getting Windows on it. The laptop doesn't have an optical drive, and I don't have a docking station. No problem though, right? Just boot from USB and problem solved. That's what I thought anyway, but it's being a bit of a pain in the tuchus.

The short version is that any time I try to use a formatted XP USB install stick, the laptop refuses to boot from it. I've checked and the stick works in OTHER systems, just not in this laptop. I've also tried using a different USB stick under the assumption it might be a hardware incompatibility, with no luck.

Even weirder though: if I insert a USB stick with a live version of Linux on it, say puppylinux, the laptop boots it just fine. Unfortunately my girlfriend is not a *nix person, so Linux is straight out.

I think the problem may have something to do with the tool I've been using to make the boot stick (WinToFlash), but I can't find a handy guide to making an XP Bootstick the manual way. Or it might be something else entirely. If anybody has a link to that kind of guide, or advice in general, I'd be very interested.

 

[stevech]

BIOS-specific for that laptop?

WIndows XP and I think WIn7 cannot boot from a USB drive because there are no drivers in first-parts of the OS.

You may be using some other format of Windows that is supposed to be bootable from USB.

 

[yukichigai]

I've installed XP from this USB stick before on other computers. It works and is doable.

There's no settings that I can find in the BIOS which relate to booting from USB, other than boot order.

 

[yukichigai]

Alright, fixed the problem. Turns out it's a common issue with some BIOSes and the workaround is creating a second VERY TINY partition on the USB stick, which for some reason helps it be read as a bootable device. I found a program, WinSetupFromUSB, which has an option for this in the USB preparation tool. Just ticked the right boxes and away it went.

 

[ther00kie16]

Could be useful info as more and more laptops are made without optical drives. I've encountered issues such as lack of SATA drivers and BIOS-enabled touchpad locking up the system whenever trying to install an OS but this is new to me. I'll have to bookmark this in case I ever come across this problem.

 

[VirtualLarry]

yes, if the USB stick isn't partitioned, it is read as USB-FDD by the BIOS, and is non-bootable. If it has a partition, it is read as USB-HDD by the BIOS, and is bootable.

 

[yukichigai]

yes, if the USB stick isn't partitioned, it is read as USB-FDD by the BIOS, and is non-bootable. If it has a partition, it is read as USB-HDD by the BIOS, and is bootable.

The stick was partitioned, it just wasn't partitioned in the exact right way. Or maybe that's what you were talking about. Either way, this is the first time I've had to include that second hidden partition to get the stick to read as bootable; I've installed to other laptops and desktops using a single-partitioned USB stick before and they went fine. Weird that this is the first time I've run into that problem.

Anyway, it's moot now. I know what the issue was and how to work around it.