Why doesn't Windows 7 allow us to format a USB thumb drive as bootable? There's a Format Option to "Create an MS-DOS startup disk" on the format dialog box, but there's no way to select it with a USB thumb drive as the target. I assume that option would be available for things like floppies (if anyone had those any more). I spent most of yesterday scouring the web for a way to do this. The last time I did it, I used HP's old USB Disk Storage Format Tool. But, it looks like they've removed it from their site (I do have a copy of it, I'm just mentioning that it's been removed). Anyway, what's the problem with giving us this option within the format tool included with the OS?

Diskpart

At one point, I had also used the (Diskpart based) instructions at: http://kmwoley.com/blog/?p=345#idc-ctools to create a bootable USB thumb drive. But, that results in a WinPE environment with the entire Windows 7 installation disk taking up most of the space on the thumb drive. I imagine it's possible to mess with that process a bit and end up with just a bootable WinPE stick, but I'm not sure that's suitable for things like firmware updates (i.e., a DOS environment). Also, it's silly to force people to search out those types of instructions, find suitable boot materials, and follow those kinds of steps when there should just be an option under Format when right-clicking on the thumb drive.

Because now we could simply boot to Win PE from USB flash drives, we do not need to make MS-DOS on USB drives. We can only put Win PE on the flash drive. When boot, choose to boot from USB device and you will boot in WinPE. Walkthrough: Create a Bootable Windows PE RAM Disk on a USB Flash DiskArthur Xie - MSFT

Arthur, Thanks for that link. That information is useful and I'll be giving it a try. But, the point is that no one could expect a normal, everyday person to be able to set up that "Technician Computer" and follow those steps. If Microsoft's position is that we no longer need to use DOS to boot a USB flash drive (i.e., we should use WinPE), then why don't they just include the necessary stuff to run the Copype.cmd command noted in your link, and put a check box in the Format dialog to do run it (i.e., "Create a WinPE Startup Disk")? Is it a licensing problem regarding WinPE? As an aside, I'd also like to ask about the steps that are specified across the internet to prepare USB flash drives for making them bootable. Specifically: diskpart select disk 1 clean create partition primary select partition 1 active format quick fs=fat32 assign exit As far as I can see, all that does is format the drive as FAT32 and gives it a drive letter. What's wrong with just right-clicking on the drive, selecting Format, and telling it to format the drive as FAT32? Why go through Diskpart for that? After the drive is formatted, just copy the necessary boot files over as specified in the various instructions.

Ignoring the "why" of it all, I used an HP utility available free that makes (for example) my 16mb memory card bootable. The article I probably found out about it is http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=421469sp27213I guess my point is that it's a lot easier to do than Microsoft, the same guys who think Booti.ini is way better than Config.sys, BCDedit is cooler than "boot.ini"and 031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5 means something (you need a library to figure it out)is easy to remember

Because now we could simply boot to Win PE from USB flash drives, we do not need to make MS-DOS on USB drives. We can only put Win PE on the flash drive. When boot, choose to boot from USB device and you will boot in WinPE. Walkthrough: Create a Bootable Windows PE RAM Disk on a USB Flash Disk Arthur Xie - MSFT You guys are missing a lot of the point here. While your information is helpful and it's generally pretty easy to create a bootable USB drive, MANY firmware updates still require booting to DOS (not WinPE) to run. I think booting a flash drive to WinPE is great, but it's totally useless for the BIOS update I'm in the process of trying to do. Good luck finding a machine with a floppy drive anymore, and using a CD for this is both wasteful and not exactly environmentally friendly.

Pick up a USB Floppy drive, they're cheap. I got one at a thrift store for $4.Rich

As Andrew said, all of these workarounds are missing the point: they're workarounds for something that should be so easy and available that anyone could just do it. Why doesn't Microsoft just add the capability to format a USB thumb drive as bootable?

As Andrew said, all of these workarounds are missing the point: they're workarounds for something that should be so easy and available that anyone could just do it. Why doesn't Microsoft just add the capability to format a USB thumb drive as bootable? Hi DavidThe real point here is that we do technical support (how to fix or workaround an issue) not designing, development, or programming. As soon as someone asks the "why" question this goes beyond the scope of atechnical support forum.The best we can do ispass along requests, recommendations, and other feedbackfrom forum members, and we do this often, but the decision to actually implement a change is made at adifferent level.Thanks for understanding.Thank You for using Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP

Hewlett Packard has aUSB format tool that does it. It's dandyfor BIOS updating.http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/HP-USB-Disk-Storage-Format-Tool.shtml

Hewlett Packard has aUSB format tool that does it. It's dandyfor BIOS updating.http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/HP-USB-Disk-Storage-Format-Tool.shtml

Unfortunately, for windows 7 there are many mysteries like why is there an option on the format dialog "Create an MS-DOS startup disk" that is always grayed out. Not only is there a spelling issue "a" not "an" but a lack of information on what needs to be done to un-gray the option. If the Microsofties here could only shed some light on how to un-gray this option then the answer to the original question would be simple and straight forward, rather than indirect and convoluted.

Bootsect.exe is somewhere on the install disk. The command is: bootsect.exe /nt60 f: substuitute f: for the letter assigned to youre thumbdrive to make it bootable. That old interface to make dos startup disk is outdated.

Bootsect.exe is somewhere on the install disk. The command is: bootsect.exe /nt60 f: substuitute f: for the letter assigned to youre thumbdrive to make it bootable. That old interface to make dos startup disk is outdated.

OK, since you've been picky, I'll be picky too. There's nothing wrong grammatically with "an MS-DOS startup disk." If you imagine that people will pronounce it "em ess doss" it is correct to precede it with "an." If you expect people to think of "MS-DOS startup disk" as "Microsoft-DOS startup disk" then preceding it with "a" would be correct. So, in this case, either "an" or "a" works.

Hello, As to why the option is greyed out, this only works with a floppy disk. So the option is available if you are formatting a floppy disk in a flooy drive.Thanks, Darrell Gorter This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. VAMT - Volume Activation Management Tool - Download link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582&displaylang=en