Install Operating System/Program from USB Flash Drive

by mylestonnies on January 19, 2012

How many of us have a DVD or CD with installation software on it? CDs and DVDs are not as common as they once were. In my opinion, they are becoming obsolete.

However, there are times when we need to install CD/DVD software on our netbooks and our laptops with no optical drives.

Solution = Copy the CD/DVD to a USB

This is not that difficult to do and performing an installation from a USB is extremely quick and convenient.

Instructions

  1. Run CMD.EXE as the admin (i.e. Click start, type cmd, right click, run as admin)
  2. list disk (i.e. Identify what which disk your USB is)
  3. diskpart
  4. select disk # (E.g. If your USB is disk 2, then: select disk 2)
  5. clean
  6. create partition primary
  7. select partition 1
  8. active
  9. format fs=NTFS (or fat32 depending on your needs)
  10. assign
  11. exit

If you are creating a non-bootable CD/DVD then:

Copy CD/DVD ROM content to the USB. This assumes your CD/DVD drive is d:\ and your USB drive is f:\

xcopy d:\*.* /s/e/f f:\

You now have created an installation USB :)

If you are creating a bootable CD/DVD then:

  1. Copy all files from the CD/DVD into a folder on your computer.
  2. Open the CMD.exe program as admin
  3. Navigate to the folder you created with the CD/DVD contents
  4. CD Boot (i.e. enter the boot directory within that folder)
  5. Bootsect.exe /nt60 F: (Where F: is the letter that windows assigned your USB key in step 10.
  6. Bootsect infuses boot manager compatible code into your USB key to make it a bootable device. Thank you to Norman Chan at Maximum PC

Drag and drop all the files in the folder that you created to the USB using Windows explorer.

You now have bootable USB :)

P.S. I am not responsible for screwing up your USB. This tutorial comes with no warranty ;) but it works just fine.

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Chromebooks are dead, they just don’t know it yet

by mylestonnies on January 19, 2012

My feelings about the ZDNet Article

Google’s bet

It’s about putting the CPU power back in the server room rather than on the Desktop/Laptop. Also, Android tablets and Chromebooks are two different markets.

Chromebook – Input/Output
Android Tablet – Output (Consumption device)
One device cannot service all markets. The PC era is coming to an end.

In my honest opinion bandwidth and connection speeds are the bottleneck. I believe that the computing industry will go back to dumb terminals – but they will not be dumb, they will be limitless because the end users can now share and access the power on the central CPU. The original terminals were made to be dumb purposefully.

For all those who disagree, I will eat me words when it doesn’t happen.

Back to Chromebooks and Google’s bet

I believe it makes logical computing sense and logical economic sense. Share CPU cycles on a central server. It’s the way of the web. Does your personal PC serve up web pages or run billions of calculations and store world’s banking information? (just one example) – Most likely not. These jobs are handled by server farms.

It makes more sense to put the muscle in the server rooms and put the access everywhere. Hence cloud computing, tablets, Chromebooks, iCloud, MS 365, smartphones, etc.

Like I said, this is my opinion and when it doesn’t happen and we all pound the keyboards of our basement PCs, I will eat my words.

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The Appearance of Normal v. Abnormal

January 19, 2012

Normal Seeing a person drive a car with a child’s car-seat and no child. Reasoning in the mind of the onlooker – child must be at home. Abnormal Seeing a person walking a dog with stroller and no child in the stroller. Reasoning in the mind of the onlooker – this person just flew over [...]

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He who strives will succeed and so they should

January 19, 2012

I recently received this email and thought it raised some interesting political ideas. This blog entry is an opportunity to respond to the email with my opinions. The email: He who strives will succeed When the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when the Government takes all the reward away, no [...]

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