Suggestion: Use RMPrepUSB to format USB sticks

Icecube · **Joined:** Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:52 pm **Posts:** 1275

Quote:

RMPrepUSB is similar to the HP Format utility, but much more flexible and should be better at creating a USB Flash memory drive that will boot on most systems successfully. See below for details of these utilities.
Let me know if it works for you please (or even if not)!

What are these utilities?

RMPrepUSB.exe - a user friendly front-end Windows x86 (32-bit) GUI for the command line tool RMPartUSB.exe. When you set the options in RMPrepUSb and click the Prepare Drive button, it will display the command line that it is going to use to run RMPartUSB and then run RMPartUSB. If you have selected a folder, it will then copy the entire contents of that folder over to the new partition when RMPartUSB has finished formatting the (USB Flash Drive) UFD. You can then use the Eject button and disconnect the UFD when you have finished.
RMPartUSB - a command line Windows app used by RMPrepUSB - allows you to partition and format any USB storage device as FAT16, FAT32 or NTFS from Windows XP,2K3,Vista,Win7,2K8. Can be used in scripts/batch files.
RMFormat - Windows GUI allows you to format any partition under Windows XP+ as FAT16, FAT32 or NTFS (no Windows FAT32 size limit - e.g. can have a 40GB FAT32 partition). Originally developed as a test program to test the FormatEX API on Windows systems for NTFS formatting. Only default Windows cluster size, etc. is possible.
RMBootSect - Windows command line utility that changes the boot sector on any disk (similar to MS BootSect). Not all filesystems are supported.

WARNING: RMFormat and RMBootSect will work on ANY drive, including your Windows PC hard disk - you have been warned!

More Details about RMPartUSB and RMPrepUSB:
RMPartUSB makes a single user partition of any size and is primarily intended for USB Flash Drive (UFD) memory sticks although it can be used on USB hard drives to create a single partition.
The utility also places boot code on the USB device for either XP/WinPEv1 (ntldr), Vista/WinPEv2/Win7 (bootmgr), MS-DOS (io.sys) or FreeDos (kernel.sys).
RMPartUSB does not place any files on the UFD - you must copy these over yourself or set the option in RMPrepUSB to copy over the contents of a folder of your choice.

There are some options that allow the UFD to boot either as a super-floppy (ZIP) drive or a Fixed disk (HDD). Thus DOS or FreeDos can boot from a UFD as either the A: drive or the C: drive depending on how you partition and format it using the options available.

What do the options in RMPrepUSB actually do?
Boot as Zip - Changes some bytes in the Volume Boot Sector Bios Parameter Block table to indicate that the device is a floppy disk and not a hard disk and uses 64hd/32spt translation if poss.
64hd/32sec if poss.. - if the partition is not too large (<1GB) then use 64hds and 32 sectors per track for the partition table values, rather than the standard 255hds/63spt values used in modern LBA (Logical Block Address) systems. Select this option or the ZIP option (which also uses this 64/32 option) is often successful in booting a UFD as a ZIP device (A:). If the partition is larger than 1GB then the next translation up is used (e.g. if 1.5GB then 128hds/32spt is used).
Boot as HDD (2PTNS) - adds a second hidden very small partition to the partition table. Some BIOSes, when they see a UFD with two partitions, automatically assume that the device must be a hard disk (as ZIP removable devices are defined as having a single partition). Selecting this option increases the chances that any BIOS will boot the UFD as a fixed disk rather than as a ZIP disk. Many thanks to online for this discovery!
Set drive as non-bootable - Does not set the Active flag on the first partition - useful if you just want to make a non-bootable UFD so that if left in a system, the system will not try to boot from it when you switch it on.
Size - by default the maximum size for the UFD will be used. If you want a smaller size then change this (e.g. 500)
Volume Label - change this text box to set the volume label (11 characters max).

RMBootSect
Usage:
RMBootSect [/nt52 | /MSDOS] <drive_letter>: [/debug] [/nowrite] [/ZIP]

Examples:
RMBootSect D: (to write a Vista compatible boot sector)
RMBootSect /nt52 D: (to write an XP compatible boot sector)
RMBootSect /MSDOS D: /ZIP (to write an MSDOS FAT16 compatible boot sector)

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.p ... topic=7739

Victor Chew · **Joined:** Mon Feb 21, 2005 10:59 pm **Posts:** 1177

How do you find RMPartUSB?

I replaced it in usb2ubcd.cmd and it seems to work quite well. It's nice to have the "SURE" switch that removes the confirmation prompt, plus you can fiddle with the options to work with USBFDD and ZIP compatibility.

Icecube · **Joined:** Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:52 pm **Posts:** 1275

Victor Chew wrote:

How do you find RMPartUSB?

I never tried it myself (doesn't work on Linux), but it is one of the recommended tools for formatting an USB stick on the boot-land forums.

Other formatting tools that aim to make the best bootable USB sticks:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showforum=95

fbinst can do the most (command line). For example, it can make a stick bootable on BIOSes that start reading the "MBR" of the stick not from the first sector:

Quote:

193 is not the number of sectors per track, it's the number of boot sectors. Some bios skip the first few sectors. I make multiple copies of mbr so that it can boot from either one of them. Using this option won't cause regression on normal system.

It would also be great if ubcd2usb.cmd doesn't automatically formats your drive. Once a drive is partitioned correctly, there is no need to format it again, when you want to update UBCD.
For example, I have UBCD installed on a logial partition on a drive which has much other data (which I don't want to loose), so formatting the whole drive wouldn't do anything good.

Victor Chew · **Joined:** Mon Feb 21, 2005 10:59 pm **Posts:** 1177

Quote:

It would also be great if ubcd2usb.cmd doesn't automatically formats your drive. Once a drive is partitioned correctly, there is no need to format it again, when you want to update UBCD.

Noted. Maybe we can replace it with a warning that the drive must be preformatted before using ubcd2usb.

Icecube · **Joined:** Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:52 pm **Posts:** 1275

Maybe a text file with the steps (manual method) do put UBCD on an USB stick in the same folder would be nice (let them use the GUI version of RMPartUSB for formatting if needed).

Just like the document I made for linux users:
/ubcd/tools/linux/ubcd2usb/readme.txt
Like the instructions I did give at: viewtopic.php?t=2285

Icecube · **Joined:** Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:52 pm **Posts:** 1275

Can you let usb2ubcd.cmd detect if it is running with Administrator rights? I guess that it won't work without it.

delicatepc · **Joined:** Mon Jun 01, 2009 8:30 am **Posts:** 49

Personally I like the fact that UBCD formats the drive everytime.

However a solid solution would be make ubcd2usb by default run only in a "upgrade mode". However if you want it to format the drive then throw out a switch.

For example:

Code:

ubcd2usb c:\ubcd e:

This would simply upgrade/install UBCD to drive E using c:\ubcd as source files.

If you wanted to format you could do:

Code:

ubcd2usb c:\ubcd e: /f

At the batch level I think it would only require seperating the format section from the install and then having the batch file skip it unless /f switch is given....

~dpc

Victor Chew · **Joined:** Mon Feb 21, 2005 10:59 pm **Posts:** 1177

Quote:

At the batch level I think it would only require seperating the format section from the install and then having the batch file skip it unless /f switch is given....

Good idea. Thanks!

Icecube · **Joined:** Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:52 pm **Posts:** 1275

Newer version of RMPrepUSB available (more than one actually).

clark40 · **Joined:** Fri Apr 16, 2010 1:54 am **Posts:** 1

Maybe a text file with the steps (manual method) do put UBCD on an USB stick in the same folder would be nice (let them use the GUI version of RMPartUSB for formatting if needed).

Clark

StopSpazzing · **Posted:** Mon Apr 19, 2010 9:16 am

clark40 wrote:

Maybe a text file with the steps (manual method) do put UBCD on an USB stick in the same folder would be nice (let them use the GUI version of RMPartUSB for formatting if needed).

Clark

Im actually working on that as we speak. It will be located on the wiki and I believe added to the iso.

s69 · **Joined:** Sun May 17, 2009 7:44 am **Posts:** 16

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX6BHnefIms

for how to boot from USB

apaul1011 · **Joined:** Sun Jul 18, 2010 4:58 am **Posts:** 4

I think so RM Prep USB bus root HP format utility is similar, but much more flexible and a USB flash memory on the system should be better at making the boot drive successfully.If the USB drive is not format try to dos cmd for format.

s69 · **Joined:** Sun May 17, 2009 7:44 am **Posts:** 16

New version of RMPrepUSB/RMPartUSB available at http://sites.google.com/site/rmprepusb/home

Suggestion: Use RMPrepUSB to format USB sticks

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