BackTrack 3, usb, windows 200 dell laptop

I used the following guide to install BackTrack3 on my usb stick: http://maddhat.com/?p=16. The guide was for windows xp so I assumed some issues would come up but now I' am thinking it may be impossible to boot BackTrack from this laptop. Its a dell with windows 2000. Has a Pentium 3 processor (or at least thats what it says on the lap-top). From one of spyware's posts I understood this was going to take a while and google hasn't rendered any results except for a few guides saying it may be impossible. So any tips for me guys? (If I left out any information needed then please inform me).

WHAT, WENT, WRONG?!

You seriously didn't tell us what you tried, and what didn't work. Seriously.

My bad. I restarted the computer, used the F12 option to select a destination to boot from. TravelDrive wasn't on there or E: or any thing that resembled the drive. So I tried booting from them all, one by one. Cd/dvd drive booted windows, the Diskette drive booted the same, etc. The option isn't there….

Edit: I tried booting the normal way, obviously didn't work. Tried different options from the F8 menu but they all had something to do with Windows. I tried booting from a different OS but the only option on there was Windows.

O think je means if it is possible to boot with his laptop from the usb.

I depemds on the bios. If you have a new one it will work.

You meant that,didnt you???

Update your BIOS so it has an USB boot option. If you can't do this, you're stuck to a cd.

You can save sessions to a rewritable cd/dvd though. Check out page 4 of this paper (requires flash to run).

NoPax wrote: O think je means if it is possible to boot with his laptop from the usb.

I depemds on the bios. If you have a new one it will work.

You meant that,didnt you???

I don't believe you even read the post, please use proper grammar so I may understand what your talking about. I said I' am using an older version, windows 2000. I' am curious if it will be bootable from this machine or if it is hopeless.

Thank-you Spyware.

When i wrote my answer your second post wasnt there so i was perhaps a few seconds before you posted it on this tread.

I am sorry that the answer was unreadable i hit the wrong keys(that happens when i write to fast on my iPod).

NoPax wrote: I am sorry that the answer was unreadable i hit the wrong keys(that happens when i write to fast on my iPod). Get a keyboard that doesn't require surgical precision.

Wasn't mentioned yet, but have you tried the bootable USB stick in a more modern system that has USB boot capability? The most likely cause is the BIOS version not being able to boot USB, but might as well check to make sure everything else is working.

My solution was to simply install Windows XP and boot the system from the Travel Drive. Worked like a charm as there happened to be many more guides on problems like this for newer versions. Thank-you to everyone who pitched in.

K_I_N_G wrote: My solution was to simply install Windows XP and boot the system from the Travel Drive. … How did that help? Were you making the bootable USB using syslinux / isolinux in W2K, then it ended up working when you made it under WinXP? Or was there something else about WinXP that helped?

I had to follow a guide using a floppy disk to get my system to recognize the TravelDrive when booting up. As most guides I've run into it was for Windows XP. So roughly Windows wasn't the direct fix but one of the steps leading to a solution.

I'll just try to sum it up for you…(for future reference) If you have the option to boot from a USB in the "Boot menu" in BIOS, get UNetbootin from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=198821&package_id=264540 Simply pick the OS you want, plug the USB in, and wait a bit, and restart your comp. If you don't have the "Boot from USB" try the OS's live CD and copy the error you get here…