Booting off a USB is IMPOSSIBLE

[vmartelle]

I've tried for over 10 hours now, searching google, taking apart my laptop, trying every type of combination with startup in bios, but it just won't let me do it.

My hard drive is near broken, I have a new one ready to go. How in gods name do I boot off my 32 gb usb? This is what my usb looks like (I downloaded my entire computer backup to it) http://i.imgur.com/6hLGa.png

What should I do? This shouldn't take me over 10 hours and it shouldn't be this freaken complicated -.-. Every website says you have to download a bunch of programs, which I've done, and none of them seem to work and seem useless.

Specs:
HP Laptop, 64 Bit Windows 7

-Victor

 

[te100]

unless you make the usb bootable it will not boot off of it. how did you back it up?

 

[mclovits]

Best tutorial I've found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZVgInbhTAw

Follow that then boot up into your computer BIOS again and disable all of the Boot-drive options besides that thumb drive. Then try to boot into it.

 

[vmartelle]

Best tutorial I've found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZVgInbhTAw

Follow that then boot up into your computer BIOS again and disable all of the Boot-drive options besides that thumb drive. Then try to boot into it.

I don't have a windows 7 installation disc as the tutorial requires.

 

[vmartelle]

unless you make the usb bootable it will not boot off of it. how did you back it up?

used windows backup to do it, also partioned and formatted it in cmd myself.

 

[noidea_77]

And windows backup suggested to create a system rescue disk, didn't it? That would have been helpful now. If you have another pc available, you can create one there and start your laptop with it.

 

[vmartelle]

And windows backup suggested to create a system rescue disk, didn't it? That would have been helpful now. If you have another pc available, you can create one there and start your laptop with it.

cant find anything w/ rescue

 

[vmartelle]

bump

 

[getochkn]

What did you use to back it up? Just because you made a backup, doesn't mean that will boot, it's just a file on your usb key.

 

[smorizio]

make a hirem boot usb stick. the other quick way is put the new drive in the laptop on another pc use the microsoft iso to usb program and let it take your windows 7 cd iso and make a bootable install usb. most vendors laptops now use a bios/f key and a hidden partion on there laptops to hold the restore info for laptops. if you deleted or cant see that hidden partion i would contact the laptop vendor and see if you can buy a set of restore cd.

 

[vmartelle]

make a hirem boot usb stick. the other quick way is put the new drive in the laptop on another pc use the microsoft iso to usb program and let it take your windows 7 cd iso and make a bootable install usb. most vendors laptops now use a bios/f key and a hidden partion on there laptops to hold the restore info for laptops. if you deleted or cant see that hidden partion i would contact the laptop vendor and see if you can buy a set of restore cd.

hirem requires a cd. I have no clue how to use the new drive in the laptop on another pc.

 

[lpedraja2002]

I just typed bootable USB drive on Google and got this result:
http://rufus.akeo.ie/

I've used this before to make a bootable USB with Windows 8 installed and it worked flawlessly and its so easy to use even a toddler can use it.

 

[getochkn]

What did you use to back it up?

 

[vmartelle]

I just typed bootable USB drive on Google and got this result:
http://rufus.akeo.ie/

I've used this before to make a bootable USB with Windows 8 installed and it worked flawlessly and its so easy to use even a toddler can use it.

Ran rufus to my usb doing the freedos. I then inserted my new hard drive and my usb and a message came up saying:

"copyright 1995-2012 pasquale j villani and freedos project. this is free software. illegal partition table drive 01 sector 0"

 

[vmartelle]

What did you use to back it up?

usb, windows backup

 

[vmartelle]

bump

 

[getochkn]

You misunderstand what Windows backup does. It doesn't backup your whole system, just your files that you can restore on a new PC once you have windows installed. That USB key is never going to boot, that's not the purpose of it. The best thing to do is get some cloning software, and clone your current drive onto a new drive. Thats what I just did when I upgraded my hard drive. Connected both drives, cloned them and shut down, removed the old drive and booted up with the new drive running exactly where I left off.

 

[vmartelle]

You misunderstand what Windows backup does. It doesn't backup your whole system, just your files that you can restore on a new PC once you have windows installed. That USB key is never going to boot, that's not the purpose of it. The best thing to do is get some cloning software, and clone your current drive onto a new drive. Thats what I just did when I upgraded my hard drive. Connected both drives, cloned them and shut down, removed the old drive and booted up with the new drive running exactly where I left off.

I tried cloning software - and you clone to a usb? How do you do it