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    SZ - One time boot from USB pen drive?

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by zii, Jul 18, 2006.

  1. zii

    zii Notebook Consultant

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    I have a Linux dist on a USB pen drive that I would like to boot off.

    Does the BIOS in the SZ Vaio support USB booting? I have tried rearranging the boot preference in the BIOS but it goes straight to the HDD each time. MY colleagues Dell (and other Dells I have tried it on) can boot off the pen drive with out any problem. They simply press F12 during the BIOS startup and enter a "one time boot" menu.

    Is something similar possible on the SZ Vaios?

    Rgds, z.
     
    zii, Jul 18, 2006
    #1
  2. Tiger-Heli

    Tiger-Heli Notebook Evangelist

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    If not, you could always burn the linux distro to a CD and boot to it that way.

    Google Knoppix for more info.
     
    Tiger-Heli, Jul 18, 2006
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  3. zii

    zii Notebook Consultant

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    Thank-you, but no. I want to boot from the USB drive. The CD burning does not solve the USB problem.

    USB booting ought to be possible since its a standard feature on other laptops.
     
    zii, Jul 18, 2006
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  4. zii

    zii Notebook Consultant

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    Has no one ever booted off a USB device on the SZ?
     
    zii, Jul 20, 2006
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  5. Lyshen

    Lyshen Notebook Evangelist

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    USB booting on the SZ does work. I've tried booting off a an IDE HD that was placed in a USB enclosure. Worked perfectly fine.

    Just make sure you toggle in BIOS, external boot device to enabled/yes.
     
    Lyshen, Jul 20, 2006
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  6. dougzz

    dougzz Notebook Enthusiast

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    Am I right in thinking that USB boot is dependant on the type of USB device. Some USB sticks emulate a hard disk, others a ZIP drive, or a floppy disk drive. I think the SZ series only support USB-HDD.
    Would be interested to here if anyone has booted off of a USB stick and if so which model of USB stick
     
    dougzz, Aug 13, 2006
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  7. zii

    zii Notebook Consultant

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    I have tried booting of a Dell USB floopy drive and a Kingston USB 521mb pen drive and the SZ could not boot.

    The same devices and medium would boot of another Dell laptop.
     
    zii, Aug 16, 2006
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  8. jassalmithu

    jassalmithu Notebook Guru

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    he has already given the answer. VAIO's support all kind of booting. i have just found this out. was trying to get sometin' in BIOS about and when seen the above mentioned option and enabled it. it shud be enabled by default and as well as many things in vaio's
     
    jassalmithu, Oct 21, 2007
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  9. Y0tsuya

    Y0tsuya Notebook Enthusiast

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    USB booting is hit-or-miss for me. I have a bootable Sandisk Titanium (works on other PCs) but no amount of toggling BIOS options could get it to boot from that. Interesting thing is if I have a non-bootable USB HDD (NTFS) attached, and if "boot external" is toggled, XP will boot to a certain point and throw a 0x7B stop error. I was in panic mode for an hour before I noticed that.
     
    Y0tsuya, Oct 22, 2007
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  10. zii

    zii Notebook Consultant

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    I realise that this thread is old, but I have decied to take a plunge and buy another USB device to boot from. (I had a few in the home that I never managed to get working that I either gave away or through into the bin...)

    Would someone be so kind as to list USB pendrives that they have successfully booted from with a Sony SZ. This way I know what ought to work.

    Best regards, z
     
    zii, Jan 23, 2008
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  11. pdudas

    pdudas Notebook Consultant

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    You have to enable the external device boot in the bios.
    Then you can press Escape at boot and this will show the boot menu.

    I usually boot from my kingmax superstick (minipe) or external usb drive (acronis true image)...
    Last week I installed OS X on my external drive. I can boot it from...
     
    pdudas, Jan 23, 2008
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  12. cruchot_

    cruchot_ Newbie

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    Hello,

    What about booting this way but from a (recent) TZ ? I think it's the same.

    Thank you :)
     
    cruchot_, Mar 15, 2008
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  13. pdudas

    pdudas Notebook Consultant

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    AFAIK you have to press escape at boot.
    This will show you the one time boot menu...
     
    pdudas, Mar 16, 2008
    #13