How to make a bootable hard disk?

I tried "format c: /s" to make an external hard disk bootable,but the
command "/s" doesn't seem to exsist any more in Vista.Is there any way I can
achieve it?

You can format your external hard drive by plugging it in and then going to
the fallowing place:

Start>Administrative Tools (right pane)>Computer Management

Then select in the Computer Management window:

Storage>Disc Management

Click your external hard drive and then right click the partition you want
to format and click format.


There is also an alternate method if that doesn't work. You can download
gParted, it is a Linux Live CD with a partitioning tool on it. If you burn it
to a disc and boot from it, it will allow you to resize partitions, create
partitions, delete partitions, and format partitions. It has a lot of
choices, NTFS would be the option you would want to choose if you want to put
a newer Windows system on it. FAT32 is good for raw storage of data. ex2 and
ex3 are for Linux operating systems.


"Panos" wrote:

> I tried "format c: /s" to make an external hard disk bootable,but the
> command "/s" doesn't seem to exsist any more in Vista.Is there any way I can
> achieve it?

I think the question was how to put the system files so it can boot to the
HD, be it a DOS prompt or whatever. I'm not sure how to do it with Vista,
but the format C: /s command in DOS... I'm interested in the answer as well.

--
Dustin Harper
dharper@vistarip.com
http://www.vistarip.com

--
"Dr. Klienmahn" <DrKlienmahn@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:ADF430AB-436B-495C-90C0-FC787F498B08@microsoft.com...
> You can format your external hard drive by plugging it in and then going
> to
> the fallowing place:
>
> Start>Administrative Tools (right pane)>Computer Management
>
> Then select in the Computer Management window:
>
> Storage>Disc Management
>
> Click your external hard drive and then right click the partition you want
> to format and click format.
>
>
> There is also an alternate method if that doesn't work. You can download
> gParted, it is a Linux Live CD with a partitioning tool on it. If you burn
> it
> to a disc and boot from it, it will allow you to resize partitions, create
> partitions, delete partitions, and format partitions. It has a lot of
> choices, NTFS would be the option you would want to choose if you want to
> put
> a newer Windows system on it. FAT32 is good for raw storage of data. ex2
> and
> ex3 are for Linux operating systems.
>
>
> "Panos" wrote:
>
>> I tried "format c: /s" to make an external hard disk bootable,but the
>> command "/s" doesn't seem to exsist any more in Vista.Is there any way I
>> can
>> achieve it?

There are three ways you could boot from an external hard drive (keep in mind
that the external hard drive has to have an OS installed on it):

1-- Edit the boot file which had a .ini extension, change the Vista
bootloader so that it shows your external hard drive as one of the choices.

2-- Get a third party bootloader like GRUB and boot from that first thing.

3-- If your bios supports booting from USB, set the external hard drive as
the first booting device. If it is plugged in the bios should skip over it,
if it is plugged in it will boot from it instead of your primary hard drive.

Make sense?

"Dustin Harper" wrote:

> I think the question was how to put the system files so it can boot to the
> HD, be it a DOS prompt or whatever. I'm not sure how to do it with Vista,
> but the format C: /s command in DOS... I'm interested in the answer as well.
>
> --
> Dustin Harper
> dharper@vistarip.com
> http://www.vistarip.com
>
> --
> "Dr. Klienmahn" <DrKlienmahn@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:ADF430AB-436B-495C-90C0-FC787F498B08@microsoft.com...
> > You can format your external hard drive by plugging it in and then going
> > to
> > the fallowing place:
> >
> > Start>Administrative Tools (right pane)>Computer Management
> >
> > Then select in the Computer Management window:
> >
> > Storage>Disc Management
> >
> > Click your external hard drive and then right click the partition you want
> > to format and click format.
> >
> >
> > There is also an alternate method if that doesn't work. You can download
> > gParted, it is a Linux Live CD with a partitioning tool on it. If you burn
> > it
> > to a disc and boot from it, it will allow you to resize partitions, create
> > partitions, delete partitions, and format partitions. It has a lot of
> > choices, NTFS would be the option you would want to choose if you want to
> > put
> > a newer Windows system on it. FAT32 is good for raw storage of data. ex2
> > and
> > ex3 are for Linux operating systems.
> >
> >
> > "Panos" wrote:
> >
> >> I tried "format c: /s" to make an external hard disk bootable,but the
> >> command "/s" doesn't seem to exsist any more in Vista.Is there any way I
> >> can
> >> achieve it?
>

Sorry if this detail's been covered, but; not all OSs will be bootable
or can operate via a USB (or Firewire?) interface.

Vista may, but as XP initializes the USB during the boot process, it
will saw its legs off. The first code base that didn't do that was
Windows Server 2003, either "gold" or SP1. This has significance for
folks trying to build bootable Bart USB sticks.

OTOH...

>> > "Panos" wrote:

>> >> I tried "format c: /s" to make an external hard disk bootable,but the
>> >> command "/s" doesn't seem to exsist any more in Vista.

....Format /S installs DOS as the booting OS, and DOS can't "see" USB
or Firewire either (though it may do if BIOS already "sees" it as a
bootable interface, dunno if that's enough for success).

The NT family of OSs (NT, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista) don't contain DOS as
an alternate maintenance OS or boot, as Win9x did - they use WinPE as
the maintenance OS (available to shlebs like us only in the Vista
age). Up until XP, the ability to format diskettes as DOS boot disks
was preserved, but has prolly gone away in Vista.

There are good reasons to "retire" DOS, chief among these being safety
issues > 137G, inability to read NTFS and USB, etc. WinPE 2.0 is not
only available to all (though not exactly on a plate, it is in fact
the mOS that a Vista DVD will boot into when "Repair, Command prompt"
is selected), it is not actively promoted as replacement for DOS for
off-HD system maintenance contexts. At last!



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I'm on a ten-year lunch break
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