Plop Boot Manager v5.0

Plop Boot Manager v5.0

he Plop Boot Manager is a small program to boot different operating systems. The boot manager has a built-in ide cdrom and usb driver to access that hardware without the help/need of a bios. You can boot the operating systems from hard disk, floppy, CD/DVD or from USB. You can start the boot manager from floppy, CD, network and there are many more ways to start the boot manager. You can install the boot manager on your hard disk. There is no extra partition required for the boot manager.

If your PC or Laptop is old and  doesn't support USB Booting you can use this tool to boot and install OS from a bootable USB drive. 

If your old PC Bios supports  USB 1.0 or USB 1.1 and you are installing OS through a pendrive then the process will be very slow.  In other words if you have USB 2.0 hardware BUT a USB 1.1 BIOS, you may want to try PLoP. This also speeds up the BIOS USB speed on some computers. Some computers only run at USB 1.1 speed during the boot process even though they have USB 2.0 capability. But PLoP loads a USB 2.0 driver that is used instead of the USB 1.1.

• USB boot without BIOS support (UHCI, OHCI and EHCI)
• CD/DVD boot without BIOS support (IDE)
• PCMCIA CardBus support to enable boot from USB PC-Cards
• Floppy boot
• Different profiles for operating systems
• Define up to 16 partitions
• No extra partition for the boot manager
• Hidden boot, maybe you have a rescue system installed and the user should not see that there is another system installed
• Boot countdown
• Hide partitions
• Password protection for the computer and the boot manager setup
• Backup of partition table data
• Textmode user interface 80x50
• Graphical user interface 640x480, 800x600, 1024x786, 1280x1024
• MBR partition table edit
• Start of the boot manager from harddisk, floppy, USB, CD, DVD
• Starting from Windows boot menu
• Starting from LILO, GRUB, Syslinux, Isolinux, Pxelinux (network)
• It can be used as PCI option ROM in your BIOS
• Access the whole USB hard disk (up to 2TB) even when the bios has a 128 GiB limit
• You can run the boot manager over the network
• Start the networkcard bootrom from the boot manager to boot from the network

http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanagers.html

http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/download.html

Click on image to enlarge.

There is also a tool which make use of Plop and can do the whole process more easily. Visit the following site for more details :

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/140412-release-siginets-plop-usb-boot-manager-installer/

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UNetbootin - For Creating Bootable USB Drives

UNetbootin allows you to create bootable Live USB drives for Ubuntu, Fedora, and other Linux distributions without burning a CD. It runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. You can either let UNetbootin download one of the many distributions supported out-of-the-box for you, or supply your own Linux .iso file if you've already downloaded one or your preferred distribution isn't on the list.

 Requirements

• Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7, or Linux, or Mac OS X 10.5+. Note that resulting USB drives are bootable only on PCs (not on Macs).
• Internet access for downloading a distro to install, or a pre-downloaded ISO file

Features

 UNetbootin can create a bootable Live USB drive, or it can make a "frugal install" on your local hard disk if you don't have a USB drive. It loads distributions either by downloading a ISO (CD image) files for you, or by using an ISO file you've already downloaded. 

 

Installation & Screenshots

1. If using Windows, run the file, select an ISO file or a distribution to download, select a target drive (USB Drive or Hard Disk), then reboot once done. If your USB drive doesn't show up, reformat it as FAT32.
   
   
2. If using Linux, make the file executable (using either the command chmod +x ./unetbootin-linux, or going to Properties->Permissions and checking "Execute"), then start the application, you will be prompted for your password to grant the application administrative rights, then the main dialog will appear, where you select a distribution and install target (USB Drive or Hard Disk), then reboot when prompted.
   
   
   
   
3. After rebooting, if you created a Live USB drive by selecting "USB Drive" as your install target, press the appropriate button (usually F1, F2, F12, ESC, or backspace) while your computer is starting up to get to your BIOS boot menu and select USB drive as the startup target; otherwise if there's no boot selection option, go to the BIOS setup menu and change the startup order to boot USB by default. Note that Live USB drives are bootable only on PCs (not on Macs). Otherwise, if you did a "frugal install" by selecting "Hard Disk" as your install target, select the UNetbootin entry from the Windows Boot Menu as the system boots up

Download Link and official Website:
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

You can mail me to abhi.82@aol.in
Please  post any  suggestions or comments.

Universal USB Installer

Universal USB Installer is a Live Linux USB Creatorthat allows you to choose from a selection of Linux Distributions to put on your USB Flash Drive. The Universal USB Installer is easy to use. Simply choose a Live Linux Distribution, the ISO file, your Flash Drive and, Click Install. Other features include; Persistence (if available), and the ability to fat32 format the flash drive (recommended) to ensure a clean install. Upon completion, you should have a ready to run bootable USB Flash Drive with your select Linux version installed.

Universal USB Installer (UUI) Screenshots

IMPORTANT NOTE: Ensure that your USB drive is fat16/fat32 formatted, otherwise Syslinux will fail and your drive will NOT Boot.

USB Flash Drive Creation Prerequisites:

• Universal-USB-Installer-1.8.8.3.exe
• Windows XP/Vista/7 to create the USB (Win 98/2K WILL NOT Work!)
• Fat32 Formatted Flash Drive
• PC with a BIOS that can boot from USB
• Your Favorite Linux ISO

Download Universal USB Installer from link below:

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/downloads/Universal-USB-Installer/Universal-USB-Installer-1.8.8.3.exe


You can mail me to abhi.82@aol.in
Please  post any  suggestions or comments.

Boot Hiren's BootCD From USB Drive

Step 1

Connect USB Pen Drive (1GB or more)

Step 2

Download and Run USB Disk Storage Format  USBFormat.zip (34KB)

Step 3

Download grubinst_gui  grub4dos.zip (179KB) and Run as Administrator

Step 4

Download Hiren's BootCD from the link below

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/files/Hirens.BootCD.15.1.zip

from the site http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

Insert the BootCD in the CD Drive or mount the iso image using any iso mounting software and then  Copy everything from CD to USB Flash Drive

Step 5

Copy grldr and menu.lst from grub4dos.zip (or from HBCD folder) to the usb drive

Step 6

Test Your USB Drive

Make sure you set your computer to boot from USB Flash Drive

To Enter the BIOS press the "Del" button on your keyboard. Alternatives are "F1", "F2", "Insert", and "F10". Some PC's BIOS might even require a different key to be pressed. Commonly a PC will show a message like "Press [Del] to enter Setup" to indicate that you need to press the "Del" key. Some AMI BIOS require you to enable the option "USB Keyboard Legacy support"!

For AMI BIOS:

• Go to "Feature Setup". "Enable" these options: "USB Function Support",
  "USB Function For DOS" and "ThumbDrive for DOS". Go to "Advanced Setup".
  Set the "1st Boot Device" to "USB RMD-FDD".
  Reboot the PC and it now should boot from the Usb Stick.
• Go to "USB Mass Storage Device Configuration". Select "Emulation Type"
  and set it to "Harddisk". Go to the "Boot Menu" and set the "1st boot device" to "USB-Stick". Exit the BIOS, saving the changes.
  you can try "Emulation Type" to "Floppy" or "Forced FDD".

For PHOENIX/AWARD BIOS:

• Go to "Advanced BIOS Features". Go to the "1st Boot device" and set it to "USB-ZIP".

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Troubleshoot

If you cannot install grub4dos (or you get "cannot run background program" message) then use syslinuxto boot grub4dos

You can mail me to abhi.82@aol.in
Please  post any  suggestions or comments.