Unable to boot from Memorex 2 GB USB flash drive

[rmockler]

My dilemma is not a show stopper, but it certainly is a minor source of aggravation. I have advanced through several releases of Puppy, I am currently at 2.13 on my Compaq desktop. Many of my earlier obstacles are now eliminated with much research on this great forum, a little sweat, and a good measure of perseverance. The first big one was my Lexmark X1185 printer. Printing is a priority with me, and Lexmark is certainly not the most friendly printing device to tackle. But, with some effort, lots of research and the Lexmark Z600 Linux driver, it now works perfectly with CUPS, and I even have it networked so my wife's laptop can access it successfully. The network itself caused some grief, but ndiswrapper with the laptop Belkin wireless card driver solved the problem. The Belkin router on my desktop was a simple and immediate setup, the only stumbling block was with the wireless card on the laptop. My wife now shares my Internet access without problem.
Now, the source of my current aggravation:
I have two USB flash drives, both Memorex, one is 1 gigabyte, the other one is 2 gigs. In my first attempt to be able to boot from a flash drive, I put the 1 gig drive into the USB port, and ran the Puppy Universal Installer. The install appeared successful, so I corrected the boot order in the bios to boot first from the USB. I then rebooted, and it was SUCCESSFUL! However, it resulted in a pristine boot, which was what I expected. After all the configuration and customization that I had done over the last couple of months, I decided that I would try copying my pup_save.3fs file to the flash drive. Because my save file is 1 gig in size, it was impossible to copy it to the 1 gig flash drive, so I started all over again with the 2 gig drive. After running the universal installer again, I decided to try a reboot just to see if it would work. Surprise! The flash drive was NOT FOUND for booting, and I went right into Window$. My question is simple (although I'm sure the answer probably is not). With two flash drives by the same manufacturer, one 1 gig and other 2 gig, formatted identically, why will the small one boot up and the larger one will not? The 2 gig drive will mount properly after I boot from live CD, but will not boot on startup. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. I will gladly try to provide any further information, it needed.
~Dick

[brad_chuck]

I don't know why this is but I think it has to do with the FAT file system. Have a look at your drives and see if the file system is the same. Your BIOS may only be able to handle some types of FAT file systems.

I have NO idea if this is correct or if your computer will blow up but you could try to format your 2 GB drive with ( for example ) a 100 MB partition fat 12 ( your BIOS can read this i think ) and put the main files there.

Then format the rest with ext3 ( mkfs.ext3 /dev/yourdrive ) and put your pup_save there.

you could make the FAT part. bigger if you need to store files on a windows computer because this would be the only place that windows can use.

[robert]

Puppy uses Syslinux.

http://syslinux.zytor.com/faq.php

{ What Bugs are Still in SYSLINUX? }
SYSLINUX is unsafe to use on any filesystem that extends past cylinder 1024. This is a fundamental limitation of the standard BIOS API.
SYSLINUX will not work (and will refuse to install) on filesystems with a cluster size of more than 16K (typically means a filesystem of more than 1 GB.)

Using grub should solve this problem.

[Flash]

Puppy uses Syslinux.

http://syslinux.zytor.com/faq.php

...
SYSLINUX will not work (and will refuse to install) on filesystems with a cluster size of more than 16K (typically means a filesystem of more than 1 GB.)
...

Would partitioning the 2 GB flash drive into several partitions of less than 1 GB work? (Or at least one partition of less than 1 GB, and put Puppy in it.) I believe each partition is seen by an OS as a separate filesystem even though all partitions may use the same filesystem.

[Everitt]

Couldn't you just format the whole thing with a different cluster size? I know XP lets you change the cluster size, but I don't know if there is a limit ( and no-one will buy me a 2GB drive to test )

[rmockler]

I sure appreciate the contributions, and I tried two of the suggestions with no joy. First, I changed the cluster size on the 2 GB drive to 16 KB, reran the universal installer, rebooted, no good - just booted into Window$. Second, I reformatted and repartioned the drive to a first partion of 128 MB, FAT16, and a second partition of 1840 MB, ext3.
Reran the universal installer, rebooted, and again no good. I have not approached the Grub possibility, will look into that later.
Again, thanks for your suggestions. I'm sure that sooner or later the magic key will be found and it will work fine. I'm also sure that this problem will resurface again for someone else, and if they can find the answer here, that's just great.
~Dick