Bartender
December 31st, 2009, 07:32 PM
Hey, this is just sort of a general "maybe this will help" sort of post.
I've always been a little intimidated when reading instructions for creating bootable USB drives. But it's gotten much easier over the last year or two.
Here's a link (http://http://www.pendrivelinux.com/testing-your-system-for-usb-boot-compatibility/) to some instructions for creating a bootable USB stick that will run memtest.
If you're any sort of geek, you've probably got several USB thumb drives. The oldest ones might not have much capacity so maybe you don't hardly use them. I had an old 64 MB PNY drive that wasn't seeing much use so it was the guinea pig.
If you're dual-booting, or have a Windows PC, or can borrow a few minutes in front of a Windows PC, it is very easy to download the USB Boot Tester program and install to a thumb drive. Even I did it without screwing up!
You end up with a handy little tool that can be used to (1) test a computer to see if it'll boot a Linux-based OS or application from USB; and (2) a quick memtest tool. If you spend any time helping people with their computers, memtest can be a handy gadget. If their PC won't boot from USB, you could always fall back to the memtest supplied on Ubuntu LiveCD's.
I've always been a little intimidated when reading instructions for creating bootable USB drives. But it's gotten much easier over the last year or two.
Here's a link (http://http://www.pendrivelinux.com/testing-your-system-for-usb-boot-compatibility/) to some instructions for creating a bootable USB stick that will run memtest.
If you're any sort of geek, you've probably got several USB thumb drives. The oldest ones might not have much capacity so maybe you don't hardly use them. I had an old 64 MB PNY drive that wasn't seeing much use so it was the guinea pig.
If you're dual-booting, or have a Windows PC, or can borrow a few minutes in front of a Windows PC, it is very easy to download the USB Boot Tester program and install to a thumb drive. Even I did it without screwing up!
You end up with a handy little tool that can be used to (1) test a computer to see if it'll boot a Linux-based OS or application from USB; and (2) a quick memtest tool. If you spend any time helping people with their computers, memtest can be a handy gadget. If their PC won't boot from USB, you could always fall back to the memtest supplied on Ubuntu LiveCD's.