Cannot Boot From Classmate 2011 USB Drive to Image

[EHaskins]

Please verify these things:

1. On the root of the flash drive, "F:\" assuming the drive letter is F:, there will be a file INSTALL.wim. IIRC it should be at least 1.5gb.
2. In the "sources" directory there will be a file BOOT.wim it should be somewhere between 200mb to 500mb

If both of these are true for your drive please continue. Otherwise post your issue.

Option 1: Attempt a minor repair, which may be the root issue

Before continuing remove all other flash drives from the computer.

• Open the command prompt on a Windows Vista/7 computer by pressing Windows Key+R, typing "cmd", and clicking ok.
• Type "diskpart" and press enter. Type "list disk", press enter. There will be a list of drives attached to your computer. Find the one which has the same size as the flash drive, remember the drive number listed to the left of this size.
• Type "select disk [NUMBER]" where [NUMBER] is the disk number identified above, press enter.
• Type "list partition", press enter. There should only be one partiton listed, if not STOP NOW, and verify what you have done so far!
• Type "select partition 1", press enter.
• Type "active", press enter.
• Type "exit", press enter.

Option 2: Use different boot media
You will need a Windows 7/Vista DVD to complete this option, but we will put the FIRST image on the classmate.

• Boot from the Windows Install DVD.
• Select default options until you get to the page which has the big "Install Now" button. DO NOT CLICK IT!
• In the lower left corner of this page there is a link which says "Repair my computer". Click it.
• After a moment there will be a window with several repair options, select Command Prompt.
• Plug in your FIRST imaging flash drive.
• In the command prompt window type "notepad", and press enter.
• Select File>Open, and verify your FIRST flash drive is deteced. Remember what drive letter it appears as. Close notepad.
• Type "cd [DRIVELETTER]" where [DRIVELETTER] is the drive letter of your flash drive.
• Type AutoInstall, press enter.
• The imaging will begin, and proceed as intended.
• Reboot the Classmate.

If neither of these options work, please post what error message you receive.

[daltore]

Thank you EHaskins, but that's really not the problem. The issue is that the disk was mostly blank, it only had a couple of files on it (I verified this on both Windows and Linux with a couple different messages, there was a lot of free space on the disk), and there was not enough information to boot or install with.

I think my team is going to borrow the disk from one of the other teams in the area and install from that. There has to be a better way to do this than rewritable flash drives next year...