Can I put multiple bootable partitions on one flash drive?

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firewolf

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 27, 2005
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I want to put every tool I have on a 4GB flash drive. So far I have my XP SP2 install, which I would like to be bootable for install like the CD, Ultimate Boot CD for tools, and maybe Hiren's boot cd as well. I also want to install Ubuntu or some form of linux onto the flash drive.

I was thinking I could partition it out, if that works on flash drives, and put each program in a separate partition. Then would I be able to choose which one from the BIOS before hand?

I know all of those will fit, I'm considering installing an nlited version of XP too if all this works out.
 
You sure?

What if I put everything in the main registry on the same partition and had some kind of DOS loader, then I could type in XP.exe or bootcd.exe or something like that? I can't code but that might work off a DOS boot drive with everything there.
 
The "best" and most recommended method would be to find a way to modify the UBCD4Win (as it's entirely customizable) to load the particulars you're interested in. Once you get it set up the way you want, you can use the PE2USB tool which ports over an entire UBCD4Win installation on CD to work off a USB stick exactly the same way. In fact, PE2USB can do that with any WinPE bootable disc you have as long as the disc was created with BartPE. You have to create it with BartPE to begin with, and then it's a snap to just use PE2USB to transfer it over.

As far as ''partitioning" off Flash media, it doesn't work like regular hard drives do because you don't have the ability to do Primary/Extended partitions, that sort of thing. I do know from experience that it is possible to "hard partition" a Flash media device in Linux as I've done it before accidentally and never figured out how I did it - and by "hard partition" I mean it 'split' the available storage and I was able to use one 'side' of it while unable to use the other except in Linux. In Windows the Linux-side wasn't even seen anymore, so... I can't help there.

I do know things like U3 capability also treat a portion of a Flash media device as a CD-ROM actually, it's kinda weird how they manage it, and I'm not sure if it's something you could actually do on your own either.
 
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