updating USB flash drive MBR to allow boot

[Javier Perez]

On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 4:45 PM, Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com> wrote:

> Javier Perez wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 2:58 PM, das <dasd.here at gmail.com <mailto:
>> dasd.here at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>    On Thu, 29 May 2008 14:13:25 -0500
>>    "Javier Perez" <pepebuho at gmail.com <mailto:pepebuho at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     > I cannot make a bootable USB drive.
>>
>>    Did you try fdisk to make the partition bootable before using
>>    livecd-iso-to-disk?
>>
>
>   no
>> In theory the livecd_to_usb  program was supposed to make it bootable as
>> part of the process. At least that is my
>> understanding.
>>
>>
> In theory you used "fdisk -l" to see if the partition was bootable or not,
> how about the practice?
>
>
> --
> Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
>  "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
> the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot
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Ok I just arrived back home.
In practice it was marked as bootable.
I downloaded the testdisk program and noticed a couple of interesting
things.

As I said, my flash drive is a Kingston Data Traveler 8GB

Look at this extract of the created log
TestDisk 6.9, Data Recovery Utility, February 2008
Christophe GRENIER <grenier at cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org
Linux version (ext2fs lib: 1.40.8, ntfs lib: 10:0:0, reiserfs lib: none, ewf
lib: 2)
Hard disk list
Disk /dev/sda - 163 GB / 152 GiB - CHS 19929 255 63, sector size=512 - ATA
Maxtor 6L160P0
Disk /dev/sdb - 250 GB / 232 GiB - CHS 30401 255 63, sector size=512 - ATA
WDC WD2500BB-55R
Disk /dev/sdc - 8011 MB / 7640 MiB - CHS 1021 247 62, sector size=512 -
Kingston DataTraveler 2.0

Disk /dev/sdc - 8011 MB / 7640 MiB - Kingston DataTraveler 2.0
Partition table type: Intel

Analyse Disk /dev/sdc - 8011 MB / 7640 MiB - CHS 1021 247 62
Geometry from i386 MBR: head=16 sector=32
BAD_RS LBA=32 62
FAT32 at 0/0/33
Info: size boot_sector 15646688, partition 15646688
FAT1 : 2256-17511
FAT2 : 17512-32767
start_rootdir : 32768 root cluster : 2
Data : 32768-15646687
sectors : 15646688
cluster_size : 8
no_of_cluster : 1951740 (2 - 1951741)
fat_length 15256 calculated 15248
heads/cylinder 16 (FAT) != 247 (HD)
sect/track 32 (FAT) != 62 (HD)
*Current partition structure:
Warning: Incorrect number of heads/cylinder 16 (FAT) != 247 (HD)
Warning: Incorrect number of sectors per track 32 (FAT) != 62 (HD)
 1 * FAT32 LBA                0   0 33  1021 179 28   15646688 [LITTLE OWL]
*

I wonder if that might have something to do with it? maybe if I reformat and
repartition the drive....
This inconsistency might be what makes the drive non bootable, because maybe
the BIOS is
expecting something (cylinders, heads) and the drive is givng it something
that it cannot make sense of.

JP

-- 
------------------------------
/\_/\
|O O| pepebuho at pananet.com
~~~~ Javier Perez
~~~~ While the night runs
~~~~ toward the day...
m m Pepebuho watches
from his high perch.
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