Bootable USB flash drives

[chipzoller]

I'm looking to buy a 2gb or 4gb usb flash drive that can be a bootable drive with some build of linux, but I don't know if booting from a flash drive is only a function of the BIOS or if it also depends on the particular USB flash drive itself.

So my question is can any new(er) USB 2.0 flash drive be made a bootable drive or are there only certain ones that can do this?

Specifically, I've been looking at a few drives:

Patriot PSF4GUSB
Patriot PEF4G200USB
Transcend JetFlash V30

I recently purchased a Kingston DataTraveler Elite Privacy edition for super-cheap (4GB) but haven't yet received it.

Any comments or thoughts on this matter would be appreciated.

[ilovejedd]

I believe it's a BIOS feature.

[Doom9]

it's the bios and of course you need to make the device bootable by writing the appropriate boot sector..

[chipzoller]

But as far a special type of usb flash device...all pretty much universal in this case?

[AVIL]

Hi,

As all usb flash device I know works "as is" in Windows XP, I suppose that logical structure that computer views is the same, regardless brand or size.

In my case, time ago, I write a floppy boot record over my 128 Mb flash memory and minimal MSDOS files, and (after directing bios to boot from USB device) my computer boots flawlessly.

You have purchased yet your flash memory, so "alea jacta est" (the phrase Cesar says when cross river Rubicon to conquest Roma), no further choice.

Good luck.