Jump to content











Photo
* * * * * 1 votes

Best Practices UsbDrive "Swiss Knife"

rmprepusb swiss knife usb drive best practice

  • Please log in to reply
2 replies to this topic

#1 bigdeoz

bigdeoz
  • Members
  • 2 posts
  •  
    Italy

Posted 05 April 2016 - 05:27 PM

Hi all!

I'm new to the forum (but I use E2B and Rmprep for a long time) and I'd like to say hi to everybody, before posting!

To the facts; I'd like to get a suggestion from you guys, I'd like to setup a USB DRIVE TOSHIBA 500GB (465GB real  -  The drive is NOT seen as "removable drive" on OS side [W7Ultimate]) usb drive to become my new "swiss knife" for sys admin and stuff. I've selected a bunch of stuff* that I want in it and I've managed to make them work using NTFS, ISOs, RMPREPUSB end E2B.

 

*(here the list of images I want to add http://txt.do/5wogt- I'll also add some portable tools separately but with those in the txt file, it grows too much and I can't post it)

Now, the issue is that I'd like to create the "perfect" usb drive so it should be:

- bootable from every system
- contain windows as well as linux systems, as well as recovery disks

Thing is, with NTFS, my usb drive could fail to boot on some systems and also from what I've read the actual BEST way to add images is by using imgPTN and not ISOs.

So about that, what are you suggestion regarding the case? So far I was thinking to proceed like this:

1 - use RMPREPUSB to make the usb drive first partition as FAT32 (size 137000MB to avoid usb issues) and add E2B files (v.1.79DPMS)
2 - install grub4dos on both PBR and MBR but leaving grldr untouched (aka it will use the E2B one)
3 - add a second and a third logical partitions (1 NTFS and 1 FAT32 of 137000MB each) using EaseUs or such (which appears as PEXT in drive info and not P2 and P3) leave around 55GB free for persistance (e.g. for knoppix)

4 - now things get confused, how should I proceed? Which method is the best way to achieve this? OR should it be better to have multiple usb drives for different tasks, no matter what? Btw should I manually add the "HDD option" partition (C: 2PTNS)? Is there any issue about coexisting ISOs and imgPTN? Can I make imgPTN files in FAT32 format and place those in an NTFS filesystem?

 

I hope I haven't been too confusing, I'll try to clear everything that it isn't.

 

Thank you all!



#2 bigdeoz

bigdeoz
  • Members
  • 2 posts
  •  
    Italy

Posted 07 April 2016 - 05:03 PM

up

 

anyone can please help? Thanks



#3 steve6375

steve6375

    Platinum Member

  • Developer
  • 7566 posts
  • Location:UK
  • Interests:computers, programming (masm,vb6,C,vbs), photography,TV,films
  •  
    United Kingdom

Posted 09 April 2016 - 06:49 PM

You could do all of that from one partition.

There should be no problem if you make a 137GB NTFS partition.

You can make a 2nd/3rd partition, but it will not be usable/reachable by grub4dos (depending on what BIOS the system has) due to the very common 137GB USB limitation in many BIOSes. It might be handy to store  sysem backup images or maybe linux swap partitions?

Instructions are here.

You can add WindowsToGo VHDs if you wish, or even full live linux installations as .imgPTN files.

Plenty of 'tutorials' here.







Also tagged with one or more of these keywords: rmprepusb, swiss knife, usb drive, best practice

0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users