[manvscomputer]

I want to have a flash drive or thumbdrive ready for different OS installs, for example, a w7 install, ubuntu netbook install, possibly osx( havent tried installing it yet), maybe even throw in a windows xp installl too.

Is there a way I can do so by splitting partitions and editing a custom mbr? If so what software should I check out for this. Thanks for looking

[holmes4]

Nope. Not only can't you have multiple partitions, but Windows won't install onto a flash drive.

[rrfranczak3]

Originally Posted by holmes4

Nope. Not only can't you have multiple partitions, but Windows won't install onto a flash drive.

I dont think he wants to install Windows on the USB, just the Win Install onto the USB which can be done, not sure if you can have multiple installations on a USB drive, although a guy I have talked to down at my local Staples says he has multiple installations on a single flash drive, I have never tried it, but I dont see why it cant be done just create a folder called Win XP, and dump all the install files into it, then create another folder called Win 7 and dump all the install files into that and do that for any other OS you want..theoretically it sounds like it should work, the only thing is that when windows goes through the install process and reboots the machine several times, I dont think that it would return to the folder that you started in, it probably would go to the root of the USB..I guess the way around that would be to copy the install files that you want from their respective folder in to the root, say you wanted to install Win 7, copy all the Win 7 files from Win 7 folder into the root then do the install, when the system reboots it should continue the install, when you are done just clear out the root directory, the original install files will still exist in the Win 7 folder ready for another install another day....you could probably do that for any OS..Gonna try it someday myself.......

EDIT: I think that the hitch would be to have the proper boot files in the root for the OS you want to load, possible keep them in a sub-directory within the respective directory (ie. drive letter:\Windows XP Setup\Windows XP Bootfiles) and make sure that you copy both directories Windows XP Setup and Windows XP Bootfiles into the root before you start

Also make sure that the USB drive is formatted for I guess NTFS would be the best generally

[Impreza.STi]

I've seen multiple OS install CDs and DVDs, they usually have specified written booting menu themselves. I guess you need some programming skills to make them onto a single flashdrive...