Booting from an SD Card.

Hey everyone, so is it possible to boot from an SD card and possibly run a repair of an OS?

 

not sure if you can do it directly from the sd card slot but i think you can if you use a sd card reader and connect to usb port.

just checked the bios and yeah it doesn't support it, then only way is with the card reader through the usb port.

 

Right off hand i dont remember seeing an SD card reader option in the boot order, so i'm going to say its not possible. But i'm going completely off memory so dont take it as truth.

Check your BIOS to see if the system can boot from the SD slot.

Not sure what you would actually gain by doing this though. But if it works great

 

Usually the SD card reader is connected to the motherboard via one of the unused USB outputs on the motherboard.

Therefore if you set your BIOS to boot from USB first, and have an SD card in the reader it will boot from that (assuming you have set up your SD card with a boot partition).

This has worked with every previous laptop I have owned, but I have no experience with the m15x.....

 

That makes sense do you think you link me up with an external link regarding setting up a boot partition? In the mean time I will google this for all its worth. This isn't for an M15x I'm actually trying to fix this old HP lappy.

 

For generic boot partitions this is the method I always use....

Install Windows 7 From USB Drive/Pen Drive

I have used this method on a USB harddisk, making a 4gb partition first, so now I can dump any DVD files into that partition and it will boot as if its a DVD.

For Linux boots, you cannot go past

UNetbootin - Homepage and Downloads

It will bootify any SD card automatically, and pretty much do everything for you, assuming you have the .iso of the linux distrubution.

Hope that helps!

 

Thanks to you, and one try, I have shrunk my Alienware Windows 7 Ultimate x64 disc to a USB MicroSD Bootable Alienware Windows 7 Ultimate x64, which I can carry without worry.

 

If this works, you will have made me a VERY happy man! Weekend project...

 

wow great job if you could post your method as to how you did this would be greatly appreciated and rep

 

There is a hyper link in PATCHSEVEN post regarding installing windows 7/Vista via Pen drive... I did exactly the steps and it worked like a charm.

Side Note: Patchseven, is there a way that I can put another OS (Windows xp pro x64) on the same windows 7 USB Drive?

 

Yes, easy as pie. Just stop at step 7 and copy whatever install DVD files you want.

My little project a few months ago was to create the ultimate portable problem fixer (lots of friends with broken computers, and I like to change and play with other OSes quite frequently). So I took a 120gb external harddrive, and made a 4gb partition on it. I then followed the instructions up to step 7, which just creates the boot partition, and assigns it as the primary partition on the drive.

Then I repartitioned the other ~110gb of the haddrive as normal space (FAT32 for universal compatibility).

In this normal space I have copies of various linux install dvds, win xp dvd, windows 7 dvd, (and various other apps which are useful on a fresh install - open office, firefox, winscp, virtualclonedrive etc.). Now whenever I want to install any one of the operating systems on any computer all I need is this one portable HDD. I just delete whatever files are in the 4gb partition, and copy in the DVD files for the OS I want to install. Then plug in the harddisk via USB to the lucky computer and boot.

 

That's an awesome idea!!

 

Whitelight01,
isnt your sig pic from an old pc game called phantasmagoria or something like that (a Sierra game?!) !?
Looks good !