Booting your OS from a USB drive

To boot your COSMOS OS on real hardware with a USB drive, follow the steps below:

Step 1. In Visual Studios with your project open, on the top bar of the IDE go to “Build -> Configuration Manager…”

Step 2. Assuming your project is called “CosmosKernel1”, in the Solution Explorer, right-click “CosmosKernel1Boot” and select “Properties” and change the Profile from “VMWare” to “ISO Image”.

Step 3. Click “Start” like you normally would to test your OS, and let it build, compile, etc.

Step 4. When it’s done, look in whatever folder your project, and locate the .iso file it generated. Assuming your project was called “CosmosKernel1”, it would be located within your project folder as follows: “…\CosmosKernel1\bin\CosmosKernel1Boot.iso”

Step 5. Download Rufus Portable from rufus.akeo.ie. Rufus is a program for “burning” .iso files to USB drives. (I’ve used many, and this is by far the best I’ve used, and it’s free)

Step 6. Run Rufus Portable, and it will display a WinForms-looking app. Select your Device, change the “New volume label” box to whatever you want it to name your USB. Change it from “FreeDOS” to “ISO Image”. Then, click the disc icon, and select the .iso image you located in step 4.

Step 7. Click start. (Warning, this WILL format the drive!)

When you finish, to go to the same location as Step 3 and change it back from ISO Image to VMWare.