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Portlock Knowledge Base

Using Portlock Drive Explorer to create a bootable USB drive

Date Published: June 3, 2008

USB devices and flash drives have slowly replaced CD/DVD as the preferred portable storage solution for many IT administrators. Portlock Drive Explorer can create a bootable USB device from Portlock SMART Suite. The bootable USB device aids a system administrator with system recovery, system deployment and system maintenance.

Emulating Portlock SMART Suite on a USB device serves as a portable boot device and a backup and recovery solution. Large-capacity USB thumb drives and hard drives allow users to store a system image or partition on a Portlock bootable USB device.

In addition to this sleek new feature, consider the following possibilities:

  • Boot a system with no CD/DVD drive

  • Access all the same tools as running from CD/DVD
  • Carry your USB flash drive at all times
  • No more CD/DVD burning
  • Faster boot time
  • Portability
  • Use as a backup solution to create and store images of system files
  • Create a bootable USB device with any ISO image
  • Copy files and directories to/from USB bootable device
  • Image and restore entire OS platform to/from USB bootable device

Portlock Drive Explorer is found in the Portlock SMART Suite

The USB Drive Wizard, found in Portlock Drive Explorer’s "Tools" menu, is a step-by-step procedure for creating a bootable USB device. Supported devices include USB flash keys, USB disk drives and the Dell USB RD 1000 (Pro-systems RDX).

Portlock Drive Explorer creating a bootable USB driveThe source for the bootable USB device can be from either the Portlock SMART Suite CD-ROM that a system is booted from, or an ISO image file saved from an alternate location such as a mapped drive. Only ISO images from version 5.0 and greater of Portlock SMART SUITE are supported for creating a bootable USB device.

The USB Drive Wizard provides three options for file-system type when formatting your USB device. The following rules apply for each file system:

  1. Less than 2GB = FAT, FAT32, NTFS

  2. Greater than 2GB = FAT32, NTFS
  3. Greater than 20GB = NTFS

Portlock Drive Explorer creating a bootable USB driveIf a system has multiple USB devices, each device will be displayed in the drop-down menu. This will overwrite existing data on the USB device. Select the desired file system format for the USB device and select "Next."

After the Wizard completes, Portlock Drive Explorer will create a bootable USB drive. Next, ensure that the BIOS is set to boot from a USB device. This is performed from the boot order in the BIOS settings.

Portlock Drive Explorer creating a bootable USB driveNote: Not all systems have USB-boot capabilities. Before booting from a USB device, ensure that the system’s boot order, found in the system BIOS, supports booting from a USB device.

You now have a bootable USB device with Portlock SMART Suite directly on it. This feature is sure to be a favorite as you now have a solution to hurdle many obstacles. If a new version of Portlock Storage Manager or Portlock Drive Explorer is released there is no need to purchase a new USB device, just overwrite your existing one following the same steps from above. 

* = The price of Portlock Storage Manager will be increased to $595 per license on June 19, 2008.