Pe2usb: Installing Bartpe To Usb Flash Disk 

http://www.911cd.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=10806

I've been playing around with the new setup loader that comes with server 2003 sp1 (release candidate) and this opens the door to load BartPE on USB sticks through a ramdisk loader (not to be confused as the ramdrive "b:" you have in BartPE). So I've created a simple script that helps you to install it.

Please check instructions below (piece from pe2usb.txt)

Pe2usb: Installing Bartpe To Usb Flash Disk 

  1. . .

Installation of PE2USB: You should copy the files pe2usb.cmd and pe2usb.bin to your <pebuilder> directory.

For successful installing BartPE to a USB flash disk you need:

  1. A USB flash disk with a capacity of 256MB or more
  2. Server 2003 SP1 (or a release candidate). You can download this from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=02734CEA-7A4B-4D95-B220-8E1708C3ED46 This file is large, about 350MB!!! Unpack the files from the service pack (this is not installing) with: sr1sp.exe -x, lets assume you extract it to c:\server2003sp1 Create the folder <pebuilder>\srsp1 Copy the file c:\server2003sp1\i386\setupldr.bin to the <pebuilder>\srsp1 folder Expand the file c:\server2003sp1\i386\ramdisk.sy_ to the <pebuilder>\srsp1 folder expand -r c:\server2003sp1\i386\ramdisk.sy_ <pebuilder>\srsp1 You can now remove the c:\server2003sp1 folder, not needed anymore…
  3. Build BartPE using pebuilder as normal, you must set the output folder to "BartPE", you do not need to generate an ISO image for now.
  4. Run "pe2usb -f <drive:>" to format and install the files to your UFD. Formatting is only needed the first time, so next time you can run "pe2usb <drive:>" (without -f) to update the BartPE files.

For successful booting BartPE from a USB flash disk you need:

  1. A PC that is capable of booting from a USB flash disk with 256MB memory or more.
  2. . .

    Download: http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/files/pe2usb101.zip[]

Bart Lagerweij

documented on: Feb 9 2005

Pe2usb: Installing Bartpe To Usb Flash Disk 

It is a good idea to test the stick+motherboard combo with a "normal" dos boot utility, I found several of them:

sp27213 HP Windows Format Utility for USB Drive Key or DiskOnKey
sp27214 DOS-based Format Utility for HP Drive Key or DiskOnKey USB Device
sp27608 Windows-based Format Utility for HP Drive Key or DiskOnKey USB Device
(substitutes 27213)

Just make a google search for sp27xxx where x is the number and you will find the hp page for download.

Dell has a utility to make their keys bootable. R69131.EXE ftp://ftp.dell.com/rmsd/R69131.exe

There is another one from hp called cp004916 that includes syslinux.

And yet another one apparently from Smart Modular, known to be Lexar compatible, called usb_memory_boot_setup.exe

(just google for the filename)

jaclaz

documented on: Feb 11 2005