Micah C Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 Hey everyone, I was wondering if it was possible to boot an Intel based mac from a flash drive. I heard that it might be possible but i wasn't sure, and if it was possible where can I get the files to do so. Also I was wondering how i could boot vista or xp from a flash drive. Any ideas or advice? Micah C Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingwray Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 Why not use a CD/DVD like everyone else? I can't see a need to boot a windows os off a flash drive, linux is a different matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1Sniper Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 well sting, not everyone has a cd drive on their computer i am an example of this but i would like to know the same thing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silentknight329 Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 maybe its a air Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingwray Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 The air supports remote booting from another computers optical drive, if you didn't buy the external drive with it you can use that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Micah C Posted February 11, 2009 Author Share Posted February 11, 2009 maybe its a air LOL if it was an air why would you want to boot mac?? LOL jk does apple even support booting like off of a flash drive? Maybe it's a netbook. I mean come on who wants to carry around a bunchof cd's when you canhave all your data on one small device. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingwray Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 Hey everyone, I was wondering if it was possible to boot an Intel based mac from a flash drive. I heard that it might be possible but i wasn't sure, and if it was possible where can I get the files to do so. Also I was wondering how i could boot vista or xp from a flash drive. Any ideas or advice? Micah C LOL if it was an air why would you want to boot mac?? LOL jk does apple even support booting like off of a flash drive? Maybe it's a netbook. I mean come on who wants to carry around a bunchof cd's when you canhave all your data on one small device. Well the fact that you call it an "Intel based mac" generally implies your working with an Apple computer, like a MacBook or MacBook Pro. At whatever rate, I really can't be arsed any more to help you, if you can't be bothered to write a decent question with lots of information your going to get crap answers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mls577 Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 here try this http://portableapps.com/apps/operating_systems/mac-on-stick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FireTime Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 install PLoP from a floppy. It allows the oldest of computers to boot from USB. http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DingleBerries Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 here try this http://portableapps.com/apps/operating_systems/mac-on-stick Im not sure if you are kidding or what. However, yes macs do support usb boots, look at the appletv. Just depends on what you want to boot. Im not a mac guy, and dont care enough about it to learn but im sure google will help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonlit Posted February 28, 2009 Share Posted February 28, 2009 Vista = no can do XP = it's possible, but it's a headache and relatively pointles There's an alternative, though I don't know how easily it can be done on a Mac, you can use WinPE environments to run certain Windows apps from a USB stick. It's been featured on the show and I posted some info on a Vista based WinPE stick on here somewhere, searching for "WinPE 2.0" should give you some useful hints. Be aware that it's not a full Windows install, though, and some apps (and most drivers, other than storage and network) won't work. Really though, if you want to boot Windows on an Intel Mac I'd recommend either using virtual machines or Boot Camp. You can install Windows Vista from a USB stick easily (format with HP's USB Format Tool and copy the Vista DVD files to the stick) and Windows XP can be installed using a BartPE stick. Edit: Probably irrelevant, but it's possible to boot OSX from a USB stick - just install it to a USB stick as you normally would. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomethingToChatWith Posted February 28, 2009 Share Posted February 28, 2009 Hey moonlit, thanks for your edit. Wanted to know if you could do that with OS X. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSB Posted March 2, 2009 Share Posted March 2, 2009 Btw, to answer the original question: Hold down the Option (alt) key while starting and it will display the bootable devices in a menu. If it's gonna be able to boot from it, it'll be displayed there. (this is also the way to get into a Boot Camp partition, etc.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lopez1364 Posted March 2, 2009 Share Posted March 2, 2009 hiren's boot cd has win xp on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKo Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 You can boot Vista *install* from a USB stick if its formatted with FAT32 and the partition is active. YOU DO NOT NEED TO USE THE HP USB TOOL IF THE PARTITION IS ACTIVE. This is due to windows PE2, which can also be used for XP installs in conjunction with the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.