Foo - Booting OS via USB?

I've got three old laptops that I had the bright idea of trying to cobble together a FrankenTop so that the kids could have something (and leave me and mine alone).

One Acer (Vista) refuses to power on , the HP (Vista) doesn't have a power adapter that fits, and another Acer (XP, but Vista compatible) will power on, but crashes during boot. Came upon the idea of swapping the HD out from one of the others- but they all have different connections :crash:.

The one that does power on, I can access the set-up menu. I can load files from disc (from my functioning laptop's restore disc), but then encounter an error that basically states the partition doesn't exist...

Unsure if the HD is shot or the OS is corrupted to the point it's not recoverable. Wondering if I could somehow load a freeware based OS like Linux on a flashdrive and boot that way. However, USB isn't one of the load from options- HD, CD, Floppy, and Network boot are my options.

Depends on how old they are... USB booting has been around a while, but your machines may be too old to have it.

You could also try one of the LiveCD-type Linux distros and use the flash drive for local storage.

You should be able to find a suitable adapter for the HP.

The USB option won't show up unless you have one plugged in.

You should be able to find a suitable adapter for the HP.
Correct, but it was having issues itself; however, it belonged to my wife and she can't remember why it was replaced...

The USB option won't show up unless you have one plugged in.
I did have it plugged in. No joy.

I guess I'll just have to look up Ubuntu and see what options are available. If nothing else, I can always use it on mine and discover the new OS for myself- I have never tried it before...

Okay, just perused the Ubuntu site. Not too bad. Options appear to be either download and burn my own boot/install disc/USB or buy a minimum of 5 discs that appears to be shipped out of the U.K.

Now I've got to make up my mind if I want to play with it first on my own machine or poke around with it on the other one.

The old laptop gave up the ghost right after inserting the disc. :(

But decided to play with Ubuntu on my machine. Still going to have to tweak it some more, but at least Firefox and Chrome will work (wonder if their extensions will as well?). Might just end up installing to the HD and not run off the CD.

Check out: http://www.ubcd4win.com

You build a custom CD that runs Windows. You install the drivers for your particular computer during the customizing process and it boots from CD just like Windows from the hard-drive. Video-drivers work, network-drivers work, even WiFi, etc. You can also bundle your own favourite utilities on the CD so you can run diagnostics once it's up and running.