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    is it possible to boot from SD card?

    Discussion in 'HP' started by thinkwierd, Feb 14, 2007.

  1. thinkwierd

    thinkwierd Notebook Evangelist

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    I lost my thumb drive and have a spare SM card from my camera.
    Is it possible to boot from that SM card if I write the boot system into it? Or it has to be a USB drive?
     
  2. CeeNote

    CeeNote Notebook Virtuoso

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    I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that for some reason, windows can't boot from flash memory cards. I don't think windows can boot from a USB drive either though I'm not 100% sure.
     
  3. Znender

    Znender Notebook Evangelist

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    It's possible to boot from a USB Drive. But I'm not sure about the SD, haven't tested that one yet.
     
  4. NetBrakr

    NetBrakr Notebook Deity

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  5. SideSwipe

    SideSwipe Notebook Virtuoso

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    It could work if the bios recognises it as a removable drive like a USB for example. You can boot from USB hard drives and flash drives (i assume) so as long as the bios thinks its USB or something like that and can recognise it as a bootable device then why not. Not sure if the built-in readers are seen as USB drives in the bios though. However I do recall once plugging my PSP (with memory stick in as well) and using windows setup and it recognised the PSP as a possible drive to install Windows on.
     
  6. thinkwierd

    thinkwierd Notebook Evangelist

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    I tried yesterday but it didn't work. Because SD reader is not even recognized by bios.
     
  7. mtor

    mtor Notebook Deity

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    No you can't there is no option in the bios that will allow you to do this
     
  8. SideSwipe

    SideSwipe Notebook Virtuoso

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    it might work if u use an external media reader. the bios might recognise it as a usb device. like it did with my PSP
     
  9. jmsnyc

    jmsnyc Notebook Consultant

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    I remember some while ago I figured out how to make this work yet I forgot what I did. Now whenever I try booting from a supposedly bootable flash card (there is an HP utilty that formats USB drives as bootable) I see nothing in bios. I have an old sd reader at work - maybe that one will work. Its been driving me crazy - next time I figure something like this out I better write it down :)

    Ironically it boots from a usb floppy no problem.
     
  10. SideSwipe

    SideSwipe Notebook Virtuoso

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    yes if u connect the card through a USB cable/interface then it is possible as the BIOS will see it as an external drive. But i dont think itll work on the built-in card reader.
     
  11. jmsnyc

    jmsnyc Notebook Consultant

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    I tried a bartpe usb disk and an hp usb formated disk - i can get neither to be recognized by bios - i tried a usb thumb sized card reader and a card reader that is cabled...... this is so frustrating - i updated the bios too to phoenix f.27 - i dont remember what i did in the past to get it to work