Just bought a PNY pen drive for DSL...

Forum: USB booting
Topic: Just bought a PNY pen drive for DSL...
started by: tawalker

Posted by tawalker on Dec. 19 2004,21:10

First post

I've been using Linux for about 18 months, and like what I've seen of DSL, especially as a possibly more secure means of private communications (SSH, Web, etc. on other PCs), so I would like to experiment further.

My wife just bought me a PNY Attache 256Mb USB pen drive (which I chose - it was the only "famous name" drive in the store) as an early CHristmas present, and I would like to install DSL on it, either the bootable or embedded version (or both, if possible).

I should've read this forum a bit more, as when I came back home I found here that PNY pen drives sometimes won't boot with DSL. Maybe it's only with certain motherboards or BIOSes, but if there's a good chance I won't be able to get a bootable system on the PNY drive (and a better chance of other makes of drive working), then I wonder if I should take the PNY back to the store and look elsewhere.

I would rather not open the packaging before I hear from people's experiences here, as it's easier to take the drive back to the store if it's untouched. In short, what do you think: Should I stay or should I go?

Many thanks for your thoughts...

Tim

Posted by Gio on Dec. 20 2004,20:48

I've got exactly that problem - a PNY Attaché thats seems to only be recognised every now and again (on two different systems - one Windows, the other Linux).

I'd take it back if I were you - I've only had mine a few days so I should be able to get a refund/exchange (I hope)

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Dec. 20 2004,21:22

Yeah, if you want reliable, grab a Sandisk or Kingston. They usually do pretty good.

Just stay away from Lexar. They are flakey.

-J.P.

Posted by tawalker on Dec. 21 2004,09:48

The drive is still unopened, so I'll try taking it back. I've always had a good experience of Kingston (well, I worked for them a few years back

), but they don't seem to sell direct to stores much, at least in the UK.

Quote

Just stay away from Lexar. They are flakey.

I have first-hand experience of this

I had a Lexar JumpDrive Pro 256Mb drive for a while, and one day it just stopped working - unable to mount, recover data or anything. Thankfully there wasn't anything important on it, but I don't think I'll risk a Lexar again.

Fingers crossed - I'll post back here at a later date with any important updates, though my wife's expecting our first baby any time now, so I may be some time

Many thanks for your suggestions, and happy Christmas!

Tim

Posted by Gio on Dec. 21 2004,12:58

Took the PNY back to PC World and swapped it for a Disgo and some DVD+RW blanks - at least that way I have something to show for events...

Posted by tawalker on Dec. 21 2004,13:12

Coincidence: I bought the PNY from PC World...

I was thinking of the Disgo - do you think a 256Mb one would work (i.e. boot)?

Posted by tawalker on Dec. 21 2004,22:41

To follow this up: I returned the PNY drive to PC World and got a refund, then shopped around and finally picked up a Sandisk Mini Cruzer 256Mb for the same price.

Hope I got it right this time...

Posted by mctt on Jan. 10 2005,23:53

Hi, Just wanted to add some info that would have been useful for booting a 256mb PNY USB key. I understand that tawalker already got a replacement usb key but if anyone like me still have such a key all is not lost. You can do a frugal install which works if your BIOS supports booting from something other than a hard disk.
< Boot 256mb PNY Attache >

I know this is a moot

point that it would have been possible to do something Damn Small with the PNY Attache. Any feedback is welcome.

Posted by batman on Jan. 21 2005,03:32

I have the PNY Attache 1GIG and it is working just fine. Have had a few hiccups but all were out of ignorance by me. Using the HP USB format utility and syslinux.exe I have gotten it to work. You must have the right version of DSL tho. The plain version which you get for the CD wouldn't work for me. The embedded version or the bootusb version online process worked fine. Also had complete success using embedded version with HP format utility and syslinux.exe all of the latter executed under windows first. Then changing bios to boot off key. Hooray!

Posted by eggman37 on Feb. 11 2005,03:15

I got my PNY attache 512 to work nicely with 0.9.3 and these steps:

< http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/talk/node/67 >

Good Luck