What's a Bootloader?
The BOOT LOADER - SYSLINUX or GRUB - help your
PC boot up and load an operating system. Here is the
step-by-step:
- You press POWER ON
- Your BIOS looks for hard drives, CD/DVDs and USB drives
- According to the settings you selected, it will
select a BOOTABLE DEVICE (usually a hard drive) with
a BOOT LOADER (just a tiny file with instructions), and then...
- Load the full operating system: like Windows or Linux.
- The operating system then loads a Desktop and manages
other applications; spreadsheets, internet etc.
Different bootloaders work in different environments. For
example, a Windows bootloader - NTLDR - will not boot
a Linux system. But GRUB is a little smarter. GRUB stands for
GRAND UNIFIED BOOTLOADER and can boot almost anything.
If you can get GRUB to work on your Hard Drive or USB Flash
Drive, its probably the best choice.
SYSLINUX is older and was developed by INTEL. It was the
standard for a long time and usually works well, but sometimes
it freezes and usually takes longer to boot than GRUB.
The big advantage to SYSLINUX is it was specifically made
for booting Linux from a MSDOS/Windows platform. This means
if you can't get GRUB to work, there is probably a good
chance you can get SYSLINUX to do the job.
The Pocket Rocket Linux CLONE USB utility uses GRUB (actually
GRUB4DOS) and makes the USB drive in a Linux environment.
If you need to create a Pocket Rocket Linux USB Drive
with SYSLINUX (because your GRUB version isn't working),
you need to use our
WEB SITE utility to create your new USB drive. Like
SYSLINUX, the web site utility was specifically made for
Windows and MSDOS users and will create a Pocket Rocket Linux
Bootable USB Flash Drive, load the drive up with everything
to boot Pocket Rocket Linux and leave your Windows system
intact.
After booting up with Pocket Rocket Linux,
you can make a GRUB based USB boot disk and you will probably
notice it boots faster and more reliably. But for some
tough PCs, SYSLINUX may be the best choice: its older and
was specifically designed for Windows and MS DOS PCs.
CRASHED LAPTOP OR PC? USE YOUR NEW DISK TO RESCUE YOUR DATA!
Either SYSLINUX or GRUB can be used to create a boot disk, and
then after getting your PC running, you can go fish for your
old documents and photos, back them up and do the job
without ever booting Windows.
In fact, you may never want to boot Windows again!
SMALL PROBLEM: Sometimes SYSLINUX "hangs up"/freezes while
booting, and usually takes longer to boot than GRUB.
If you use SYSLINUX and the screen hangs up, simply turn it off and on and
most of the time SYSLINUX can get the PC booted up.
SMALL PROBLEM: Some Windows PCs (like the E-Machine)
have a hard time recognizing USB drives made with GRUB,
and may not boot with GRUB at all. This is probably
not the best choice if you want to have a PC data recovery
USB Flash Drive that works everywhere on almost any PC.
If your PC will not boot from a USB Flash Drive, then you need
this utility to install Pocket Rocket Linux directly on a C: hard drive.