install to usb, when bios does not see usb?

[Kam Leo]

On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 11:54 AM, John Austin <ja at jaa.org.uk> wrote:
> On Wed, 2009-04-08 at 11:21 -0800, Kam Leo wrote:
>> On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 10:26 AM, jackson byers <byersjab at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Please bear with me on this newbie question,
>> > my install experience is quite limited.
>> >
>> > Is it possible to install to usb external disk when bios does not see usb?
>> >
>> >
>> [snip]
>> >
>> > thanks for any help
>> > Jack
>>
>>
>> You have two problems to overcome:
>>
>> 1. You cannot directly boot from a USB device if the BIOS does not
>> support that feature.
>>     Worth a try to see if there is a BIOS upgrade for your system that
>> allows booting from USB. (Highly unlikely.)
>>
>> 2. A device driver needs to be loaded in order to access the device.
>>    The driver and boot manager need to be installed on an accessible
>> device such as a floppy disk, CD/DVD, or hard drive.
>>
>> Time to upgrade to new system or get a USB add-in card with BIOS extension.
>
>
> I do it on my old laptop but only to provide an emergency fall back
>
> 1. As my main disk is dual boot windows, f10 (/ and /boot)
>        I can write vmlinuz and initrd to /boot on the hard drive and boot my
> USB stick using these
>
> 2. Also it is possible to create a bootable CD with the correct vmlinuz
> and initrd for the F10 USB stick

Alluded to in my item 2.

> Spending money is more fun though

May not  be more fun, but certainly easier.

> John