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"Slax" is a stripped down verision of "Slackware" that will boot and run from a USB 'Memory Stick'.

This document explains how to get yourself up and running. - And it's really quicker than you think!!!

This tutorial assumes that you are using a MS-Windows PC (with ~200Mb of free HDD space) to prepare your memory stick. - I use a PC with Win-XP-Pro and it worked fine. - I'm guessing that Win-2K, Vista, and others should work okay as well. - Would appreciate feedback from others using those flavors of Windows.

Requirements:

• A PC that will allow you to boot a USB 'device'.
  Almost all newer PC's have this 'feature' built into their BIOS. - If your's does not, I'm afraid your 'dead in the water'. - Don't even bother continuing until you can find a PC with this capability. - Sorry.
  
  
• A 'Memory Stick' (duh!!) - The 'Slax' install needs about 193Mb of space. - So a 256Mb 'Memory Stick' should work fine. - Of course, the bigger, the better. - Especially if you wish to use the memory stick for additional Windows storage when not running Slax.
  
  
• One (or more) downloadable file(s). - We have the following mirrored here at Jtech (you'll need at least the last one in this list):
  
  
  • (Optional) ChaosMD5_2.5.002.zip (~ 200K) - Use this if you want to generate a 'local' MD5 checksum to verify against the checksum we provide for each of the following files.
    
    
  • (Optional) winzip90.exe (~ 2.3 Mb) - MD5 checksum: 1CD42E01482E3FC4304B094025EDD51D - Good 'ole Windows 'Winzip'. - Use to unzip and extract files from an archive. (If you don't have something similar.)
    
    
  • (Recommended) SP27608.exe (~ 2K) - MD5 checksum: 0EFDD4F7C091583FE5A0B4BCB7AAF76E - 'HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool'. - Use this instead of the one that's shipped with Windoze. - The Windoze one sucks!!
    
    
  • (Required!!) slax-6.0.7.zip (~ 193Mb) - MD5 checksum: 44123731855C8AFEC2A2E8AA4A9DD0B6 - The "Slax" distribution. - Note that this file is BIG! - Give it some time to download.
    
    

Let's get started!!

• Step 1 - Plug in your 'memory stick' and make sure you know what 'drive letter' Windows recognizes it as (Something like 'E:\', 'F:\', etc.).
  
  
• Step 2 - You're going to be re-formatting this 'memory stick' in the next step so make sure you BACKUP any data it contains to someplace like a temporary folder on your "C:\" drive!! - You've been warned!!
  
  
• Step 3 - Format your USB 'Memory Stick' - Using the 'HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool', format your 'Memory Stick' for a FAT 32 file system (see below).
  
  
  
  

  Please note the following:

  A - Device: - MAKE SURE - you have the correct device (drive letter) selected!! - A screw-up here can possibly format something you don't want formatted. - You've been warned!!
  
  B - File System: - Ensure that you have FAT 32 selected.
  
  C - (Optional) - Volume label: - If you wish to give your volume a name/label, do it here. - NOTE: - If you enter too many characters or use characters the formatter doesn't like, you'll be told at the end!!
  
  D - Format options: - DO NOT check any of these options!
  
  Once your happy all the above settings are okay, click "Start" ('E') to start formatting. - You'll get a warning box telling you that you're about to wipe out all the data on the memory stick. - Click 'Yes' to continue.
  
  If you get an error message (i.e. 'Bad Volume label'), you'll have to go back, fix it, and try again.
  
  Don't continue until you get a message telling you that the memory stick was successfully formatted.
  
  Once you've got a formatted memory stick, move to the next step.
  
  
• Step 4 - Extract the files from the Slax 'tar' file you previously downloaded to the 'root' of your 'memory stick'. - ('WinZip' works fine for this purpose.)
  
  
• Step 5 - Make your 'memory stick' bootable - Warning!! Make SURE you are working with the correct DRIVE LETTER when doing the following. - Jtech.net WILL NOT be responsible if you screw up and change the boot sector on your PC's hard disk drive!! - You've been warned.
  
  
  Navigate to the drive letter where your memory stick is located (see above). - In our case, it's drive "F:\" (Since we gave it no volume lable when we formatted it, Windows reverted to "Removable Disk"). - Now open the 'boot' sub directory.
  
  Double Click on "bootinst.bat" - You'll get a command-line box that looks like this:
  
  
  
  Make SURE the installer program is preparing to write to the correct device!! - In our case it's the 'F:\' drive, so we're okay. - If your NOT SURE, press 'x' to exit. - If it looks okay, press any other key to continue.
  
  If you installed the 'boot loader' on your 'memory stick', you should see this screen:
  
  
  What your looking for is what I've outlined in yellow. - If you see this message, just press any key to exit the command box.
  
  

You're Done!! - Contrats!!