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    Hello,

     

    Does anybody know if there's a way of "copying" the installation DVD to a USB thumb drive? I just received the installation DVD and for now I'll just open my server and connect a DVD drive to it to get me going, but I'd like to have the ability of just pluging in a thumb drive if I need to install it again on that machie which does not have a DVD player connected all the time. I searched the web but could not find any good resource with instructions on how to do that.

     

    Thanks,

    rodolfo

    Friday, December 14, 2007 3:35 PM

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    While you can easily copy the contents of the DVD to a USB drive, this won't help if you want to re-install from it. The WHS installation only works correctly when you boot the installation media. Hence you will have to get the USB drive bootable. While I know this is possible, I am not sure how you would go about getting the WHS boot setup on there.

     

    I am aware that some have installed OK from a USB DVD drive, as long as the system BIOS can be set tp boot from it.

     

    Not much of an answer, but I hope it helps.

     

    Friday, December 14, 2007 4:01 PM
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    Yep, I know the copying part is easy. My doubt is on making the USB drive bootable.

    rupio

    Friday, December 14, 2007 4:21 PM
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    HP have a utility to make a USB Key drive bootable as long as your bios can support it. Although it says it is for HP USB drives, I have used it with a Kingston device. The link is http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&mode=3&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-UNITY-I23839

     

    or google 'hp usb boot utility'.

     

     

    Friday, December 14, 2007 5:06 PM
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    How much space is needed for the install files?  Making a USB key bootable doesn't seem too hard as long as your BIOS supports it but it seems that many BIOSes only like USB drives that have a FAT format.  That limits you to 2 GB.

     

    Friday, December 14, 2007 7:18 PM
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    Hey,

    I checked the DVD and it has aprox. 1gb of files. Maybe a little bit less than that so with a 1GB USB drive it'd be great.

    Now, you are right, I have to double check the bios of my server to see if it allows to boot from USB.

    rupio

     

    Friday, December 14, 2007 7:54 PM