The hp drive key boot utility can be used to make a boot able usb drive. With this boot able usb drive we can do lots of great things such as use it as a recover tool / BIOS updates / Upgrade Firmware / recover non booting systems This application was developed by HP but can be use on all models of systems, as long the systems supports USB Legacy Boot Support for USB Drives. (USB functionality before the operating system has started.

How To Install The Hp Drive Key Boot Utility

Step one to do is take a copy of all the files in the USB drive as we are going to delete all files in the USB drive.

Next get the hp drive key boot utility from the link in the first line in this guide then extract the tar file on your local hard-drive, then browse to the folder you got and open HPUSBFX.exe.

Now on the gui screen choose the drive letter of your usb drive. Under file system choose fat32. Tick the box “Create a DOS Startup Disk” Then select … then select the folders you unzipped the download to and select to the “BOOT_DISK_FILES” folder. I would advise you use the fast format. Select OK > Start > OK. The program will now format and wipe your usb drive

Using Hp Drive Key Boot Utility

In windows copy the file you want to utilize in to your usb drive. Please Note this file will have to support ms dos mode. When the file is in the usb drive now make sure the usb drive is plugged in your systems and reboot your computer. The usb drive should start in ms-dos mode and you will be able run the programs you copyed to the usb disk

Warning ; certain systems will need to activate usb disk booting in the systems BIOS in this case enter the computers BIOS and activate USB Booting and USB Legacy Booting, Also take a look at the computers IPL and check that USB is 1st in the list.

When you have booted to the computers USB stick you will have a black window, You can enter the command to use your utility you copyied to the USB drive previously. If you are unware of what command you can do spell DIR at the black screen and hit return and the pc will show all the files on the USB disk you can execute

This type of bootable USB disk is usually used to perform system updates and firmware installs on your system as well as a repair tool for Microsoft products...