USB booting :: USB-ZIP

I am using DSL 0.9.1. I have a 128MB USB pendrive. Whenever I try to install DSL as USB-ZIP, it always creates two partitions: one is about 50MB and the other is the rest and useless. I wonder if that is the requirement of the USB-ZIP.

I try to use USB-HDD but in that case my pendrive can not boot on either my desktop or my laptop, although I set the booting format as USB-HDD in BIOS on both machines. My laptop reports "missing operating system" and my desktop just ignores the existance of my pendrive.

I can boot with USB-ZIP but I don't want to waste my pendrive. So I backup all files in the USB-ZIP pendrive, reformat the pendrive to only one partition (128MB as FAT16) and copy all files back to the pendrive. Then I try syslinux /dev/sda but the resulting pendrive is not able to boot. It shows "boot failed" on the screen.

Can anybody tell me what I have done wrong?

Thanks,

Lik

Hi Lik,
I'm new to DSL and Linux in general, and came across your post in a search for something else.

I wondered if you might consider upgrading to DSL version 1.5 or version 2 and if that might solve some of your problems? You can even test out the latest release candidate - check the forum at
http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi?act=SF;f=36
for more details
Good luck.
Cheers and Beers,
Sarah

original here.