Setting up Mame on a computer with no hard drive

[Rok]

My stand alone CP machine runs off of a thin client computer with a hard drive just big enough for XP Embedded. I was planning on using an 8 gig USB drive to store mame and such, but have run into problems.

First off, I couldnt get Key Wiz set up utility to recognize my Keywiz. It would just say connection failure.

Second, I have only ever used MAME32 so have no idea how to use anything else.

Third, I would like to use a front end to boot straight into mame rather than into windows.

I have tried all day and come up with nothing that works, so any help would be appreciated.

(Options considered included using a Linux distribution bootable from the jump drive, but It seems the Ubuntu installation takes up all but 400 megs on my jump drive and I have no idea how different installations work. IE: can I use Wah Cade and MAME in Damn Small Linux?)

[SavannahLion]

If you're hard up for a Windows Intall, there are free utilities that pack specific versions of Windows into a LiveCD type disc. Tools like UBCD4Win create a recovery disc based off of Windows. BartPE just creates a LiveCD Windows based on XP. There are others, such as MultiPE, VistaPE, etc. All depends on what OS you want to derive your Live disc from. If you're careful, you can pack a MAME installation and have the disc boot straight to it.

Just be mindful the PE discs chew up your RAM. The OS has to store the files writeable files somewhere during the process. They also tend to be considerably slower since they're need to read files from optical media where they would otherwise be reading from the HDD.

That's a few of your options.

Good luck.

[Rok]

I don't really care if it is windows or not. I just don't understand Linux very well, so unless theres a sort of complete package download, I don't really know what to do. Right now I'm still trying to get Key Wiz uploader thing to recognize my keywiz. I tried unplugging my keyboard and everything but still no go. It just says Connection Failure