How can I create bootable DOS usb stick?

I need to use this utility to change one of the parameters of my new WD hard drive: http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=609&sid=113&lang=en

It has truly unreadable instructions:

• Extract wdidle3.exe onto a bootable medium (floppy, CD-RW, network drive, etc.).
• Boot the system with the hard drive to be updated to the medium where the update file was extracted to.
• Run the file by typing wdidle3.exe at the command prompt and press enter.

I understand that this bootable medium should be some version of DOS? How can I make my USB stick a bootable medium compatible with this utility (I don't have a diskette drive)? I have Windows 7 and Debian Linux installed.

Solution 1:

Here's instructions for putting a bootable FreeDOS image on a USB flash drive. A similar post detailing other methods is at the FreeDOS wiki. A modified form of the first link's instructions:

1. Download FreeDOS. The fdbasecd.iso is probably all you need (direct link).
2. Download the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool.
3. Extract the ISO contents to a directory. (7zip will do this if you don't have another tool. You can also mount the ISO and copy the files from the virtual drive.)
4. Run the HP tool. Format your flash drive in FAT format (FAT32 is reported as incompatible by the HP tool even though FreeDOS supports it), and make sure to tell it you want to make a boot disk. Point it at the "\FREEDOS\SETUP\ODIN" subdirectory of FreeDOS files.

Now you can follow the instructions your WD tool gave: extract the files to your now-bootable flash drive, boot to the flash drive, and run the utility.

Solution 2:

I had trouble with getting the accepted answer to work as of August 2012.

I found this page: http://goebelmeier.de/bootstick/ which was very quick and worked perfectly from Windows 7.

Solution 3:

I'm adding another answer as I just discovered an even better solution. Rufus! Here's the link:

http://rufus.akeo.ie/

Rufus is a small utility that helps format and create bootable USB flash drives, such as USB keys/pendrives, memory sticks, etc.

From version 1.2.0, a single version of Rufus is provided, that includes FreeDOS support.

It's small, fast and includes a FreeDOS bootable image. It's like Unetbootin but better (if you're on Windows).

Solution 4:

You might want to try UNetBootIn.

For other ways of doing this, see here