Make a USB Bootable

I assume that you are using either Vista or Windows 7 to create a bootable USB.

1. Insert your USB stick to the system and backup all the data from the USB as we are going to format the USB to make it as bootable.

2. Open elevated Command Prompt. To do this, type in CMD in Start menu search field and hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter. Alternatively, navigate to Start > All programs >Accessories > right click on Command Prompt and select run as administrator.

3. When the Command Prompt opens, enter the following command:

DISKPART and hit enter.

LIST DISK and hit enter.

Once you enter the LIST DISK command, it will show the disk number of your USB drive. In the below image my USB drive disk no is Disk 1.

4. In this step you need to enter all the below commands one by one and hit enter. As these commands are self explanatory, you can easily guess what these commands do.

SELECT DISK 1 (Replace DISK 1 with your disk number)

CLEAN

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

SELECT PARTITION 1

ACTIVE

FORMAT FS=NTFS

(Format process may take few seconds)
ASSIGN

EXIT

Don’t close the command prompt as we need to execute one more command at the next step. Just minimize it.

5. Insert your Windows DVD in the optical drive and note down the drive letter of the optical drive and USB media. Here I use “D” as my optical (DVD) drive letter and “H” as my USB drive letter.

6. Go back to command prompt and execute the following commands:

D:CD BOOT and hit enter. Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.

Or Go to the path where Win-7 setup files exist.

Eg: CD E:\SOFT\WIN7\BOOT

Type BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 H:

(Where “H” is your USB drive letter)

7. Copy Windows DVD contents to USB.

You are done with your bootable USB. You can now use this bootable USB as bootable DVD on any computer that comes with USB boot feature (most of the current motherboards support this feature).

Microsoft Boot Camp 2009

Day - I

Microsoft All India Boot Camp was on from March 6-8 2009 @ Microsoft IDC, Hyderabad. The eligibility criteria for this camp was that you had to be confrimed as a permanent MSP , by completimg all the eligibility criteria like taking sessions , spreading the word about Imagine Cup , Submitting a project for Imagine Cup , etc, which we the new Bangalore MSPs were able to do in time by taking some technical sessions in Microsoft Signature Building and Passionately spreading the word about Imagine Cup 2009 to our College mates . So, we got our most deserving invitation to this wonderful completely sponsored trip to Hydrebad by Microsoft.

Once we got the invitation we booked our train tickets to Hydrebad . Left Bangalore @ 7;00 PM on 5th March 2009, reached the Kacheguda station at 5:00 AM on 6th March 2009 . Once we set our foot in Hydrebad, the cameras were out and started clicking endlessly till we reached the station again. So, here is our first photo of Boot Camp 2009 .

Thanks to Pavan , he had got two high quality rooms booked for us in the Railway Sation to get refreshed.The Chennai MSP's arrived here about an hour later. Then we had breakfast at some kind of Andhra Darshini near the railway station. Abishek had arranged some kind of Mini-Bus for all of us to move about Hydrabad! Some how the 15 Banglore MSPs and 15 Chennai MSPs got inside the Bus and visited the historic Charminar !


After spending almost an hour at the Charminar , exploring it from corner to corner, Climbing all the way to top and checking out the view from all the angles. Taking photos and videos , we were back on the Bus to continue our site seeing. From Charminar , we went to Snow-World where Laxman , Raveesh and Anil made a surprising appearance who added much more fun ,frolic and glamor to our trip. It was a different kinda Camp altogether when the THREE MUSKETEERS joined us :) Then all of us took a 3 in 1package to Snoworld , Living Dead and Rainforest.

Snow-World was gr8 fun was like being in a different Planet all together . Outside it was steaming hot with 38 deg and Inside it was almost or maybe below freezing point. There were slides , Igloo , Ice-Cream and Soup restaurant , Softballs, Basketball, Polar Bear, The Yeti ( Abominable Snowman ) ,etc . The other two packages Rainforest n The Scary house weren't as good as expected , but they did try to Scare us !

By 2 PM , we had Lunch at Kamat Hotel , lost our way a bit and reached Ella Suites at about 4 PM . The Seniors had internship test and had to refresh and rush to The Microsoft IDC building by 5 PM .Once the Keynote by Pratima ( Director of Microfot Acadamia ) was over , we were taken to the open theatre outside and asked to prepare a MAD-AD on any technolgy and present it before the crowd. We were divided into 4 groups, One group consisting of the experienced MSPs which eventually went on to steal the show , The other three groups divided among the new MSPs with a good mixture of MSPs from all around India. Our group had a brilliant Idea of combining Photo-Synth , Surface-Technolgy and Robotics but we couldn't execute the idea well, but could put up a decent show !

Once the Skit was over , it was time for Dinner. I called up Nandanna ( My cousin who is a Microsoft employee @ Microsoft Hydrabad ) and he took me to a field trip and showed me the whole Microsoft Campus . The we went to his office , had Hot Chocolate there and had a great game of Snooker. Then we had a look around the sports arena and walked all the way back to the Microsoft Building - I form Microsoft Building - II, which is a quite a good distance and u got to corss a hill to reach the other side. After this all of us walked back to Ella Suites !!

This was the first time I got to see my room. My roomie was Puneet from Delhi. We spent about an hour exploring all the utilities provided in the room like the two huge Plasma TV's with cable, A huge vathroom with a bath-tub and shower room. There were complementory cookies and Cold drink kept for us in the refrigerator.We had gr8 fun in the room then we spilitted to meet our fellow MSPs and expand our network.

All the Bangalore MSPs met in one of the rooms where Raveesh , Laxman and Anil had arranged for a cake for Sahitya as it was her Birthday that day, we clebrated it and all of us decided to watch a comedy movie of Jim Carey called "YES MAN !!!" , as the movie progressed we all left the room one by one and rested our tired bodies in our respective room at about 2:00 Am . Yes, it was finally the End of Day-1 of Boot Camp 2009 !


DAY-II

We were all dressed up and ready to go to Microsoft Building by 7:00 AM . This day was filled with some great technical sessions by the Microsoft Employees like Windows Embedded , SQL Server , Live Azure , Cloud Programming, Live@EDU , etc. These sessions went on till evening and in the evening the Disco Dance floor was open and we Pool Side Dinner after which we played Dumb-Charades where the Mumbai, MP and Chennai MSPs joined us.

Later , till late night all of us decided to explore the whole of " ELLA SUITES" . It was a huge area and took us a lot of time to explore it !


TO BE CONTINUED ........................