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Help Creating bootable USB for HP mini. (2354 Views)
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metalguy33 Top Student
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metalguy33
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎08-10-2009
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Help Creating bootable USB for HP mini.

[ Edited ]

‎02-22-2011 12:38 AM - edited ‎02-22-2011 12:38 AM

 

My sister bought a computer HP Mini 110-1030LA (VD434LA)e  and I asked the HP Tech support  for the USB pendrive to restore the system in case of future problems. They sent me a 8gb HP pendrive with the Windows XP operating system ready to make a full restore when I need.
When I explore the USB, I can see that it has only 4 gb of Operating system files and the other space is free. I was wondering, what if I want to keep that usb for me and instead buy another 4gb  flash memory  and copy all the system files  to the new flash?
I did it and it failed to boot. The original USB has the following  directories : 
$WIN_NT$.~BT (DIR)
$WIN_NT$.~LS (DIR)
I386 (DIR)
RECYCL (DIR)
SWSETUP (DIR)
BOOT.ini
BOOTFON.bin
default
grldr
menu.lst
NTDETECT.exe
NTLDR
TXTSETUP.SIF
WIN51
WIN51IC
WIN51IC.sp3
windefault
winsetup.lst
I Just formated in Windows the new flash, copied the whole archives and tried to boot with F9, but when I select the USB it does not boot. 
I know this question may be too technically but I want to know if there is anyone that did the same thing I trying to do. What I'm doing wrong? 

 

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erico
Posts: 18,755
Registered: ‎01-07-2009
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Re: Help Creating bootable USB for HP mini.

[ Edited ]

‎02-22-2011 01:28 AM - edited ‎02-22-2011 01:33 AM

Hi,

 

metalguy33 wrote:

 

My sister bought a computer HP Mini 110-1030LA (VD434LA)e  and I asked the HP Tech support  for the USB pendrive to restore the system in case of future problems. They sent me a 8gb HP pendrive with the Windows XP operating system ready to make a full restore when I need.
When I explore the USB, I can see that it has only 4 gb of Operating system files and the other space is free. I was wondering, what if I want to keep that usb for me and instead buy another 4gb  flash memory  and copy all the system files  to the new flash?
I did it and it failed to boot. The original USB has the following  directories : 
$WIN_NT$.~BT (DIR)
$WIN_NT$.~LS (DIR)
I386 (DIR)
RECYCL (DIR)
SWSETUP (DIR)
BOOT.ini
BOOTFON.bin
default
grldr
menu.lst
NTDETECT.exe
NTLDR
TXTSETUP.SIF
WIN51
WIN51IC
WIN51IC.sp3
windefault
winsetup.lst
I Just formated in Windows the new flash, copied the whole archives and tried to boot with F9, but when I select the USB it does not boot. 
I know this question may be too technically but I want to know if there is anyone that did the same thing I trying to do. What I'm doing wrong? 

 

 

A 8GB thumbdrive is required for HP Recovery media for the mini. Slightly more than 4GB is required and that equates to a 8GB thumbdrive. That is just the way it is.

 

You can make the other thumbdrive bootable and put a Linux OS on it. There are many websites that explain many different methods of doing that.

The reason that the flash drive will not boot is that one needs to make a partition and set it as active in order for it to boot. That can be done with the diskpart command. Just do a web search on how to make a thumbdrive bootable. 

 

Best regards,
erico 



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metalguy33 Top Student
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metalguy33
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎08-10-2009
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Re: Help Creating bootable USB for HP mini.

‎03-08-2011 11:42 AM

Ok thanks. After following your suggestion, this is th way  I did it.

 

For anyone else who have  a  8 GB USB  and want to copy or make another USB from 4 GB, just  copy the whole USB  content to a folder on your  computer. The content should size aprox. 4.5 Gb-GB, but in the APPS folder, you can find that many of the programs have multi-languague installer, so start deleting those  Rusian, Chinesse, bulgarian, german and any other foreign installers from software like MSN messenger, Adobe acrobat and Windows media player 11. If you did it correctly, it should now be  around 3.3 GB, really man, im not joikng.

 

 

Next, a after  an extensive research I tried a lot of programs, found that WinSetupFromUSB_0-2-2 does the job. Download, install, open it,  connect your usb, click  Browse , find and select the root  folder where you copied the USB content and click OK. After that, select  in Force target  disc type "Fixed" and just click GO. 

 

After the program copies the installation files , for some reason, the USB didnt start because some files  were missing, so copy again all the whole USB files (  even those hidden folders )  and try again the USB should now boot and recover your system.

 

Important Note: this was tested under Windows XP , I have a HP mini and it works .

 

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