I successfully installed xp from a USB hard drive Options

[xclusiveimage]

So I may be late on this, but I found it difficult to find the information via google. The following is the method I used to make this happen.

I have a Fujitsu laptop with a 60g disk drive. I got a bunch of spyware and a couple virus' that I couldn't get rid of, so I needed to do a fresh XP install. The dvd controller went bad on the motherboard and I didn't have a floppy drive or external cd drive so I used a 20G USB drive instead. It was really quite simple. (provided your bios supports booting from USB devices.)

*NOTE - after doing this, my root drive on the laptop is now D, instead of C. I followed directions on M$ support page, but this caused issues and had to reinstall.

So here it is:

Tools/Hardware needed:

1 external USB drive large enough to hold the contents of the WIN XPSP2 disk and space for the setup files when you initialize the fresh install.

1 WINXP SP2 setup disk. (i used my backup copy that i'd made from the original)

1 WIN98SE boot disk IMG (i obtained mine from bootdisk.com)

Boot files from an XP machine or disk (NTDETECT.COM, NTLDR, BOOT.INI)

A program to view the contents of the WIN98SEC.IMG. (i used the trial version of MagicISO)

HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool

Steps:

On a working xp computer, connect your USB disk drive

Open your WIN98SEC.IMG and copy the files to a directory on a working 2k/XP computer.

Use the HP USB format tool and format using FAT32. Select the option for the DOS startup disk and point it to the directory where your WIN98SEC files are.

***after the format is complete, you should have a bootable USB drive with the needed commands to format the hard drive needing the fresh XP install. you should test this now to be sure***

*Note, You may need to manually copy over the other files from the WIN98SEC to your USB hard drive as the HP program only adds the MS-DOS startup files (i think). Either way, if they're not there after the format, copy them over.

Make a folder on the root of the USB drive called "WINXPPRO" Copy all the files/directories from the WINXP SP2 disk into this folder.

Connect your USB drive to the computer you will install XP on.

Make sure you set your bios to boot from your USB drive.

Boot your computer to the command prompt. (my option was pressing Shift+F5)

***at this point your USB disk will be drive C, drive to install windows on will be D, and will be referred to as such***

From C:\ type SMARTDRV. Do this from the command prompt everytime you reboot. This will help things run quicker (i think).

We now need to format and partition D. (we'll have 2 partitions. A Primary (D:), and an Extended (E:) From C:\ type FDISK

Create a primary partition on your D: drive (mine is 6G)

Create an extended partition of 900MB (will be known as drive E:)

Leave the rest alone for now

Reboot

Format both D: and E: as FAT32 partitions. (from C: type FORMAT D:, reboot, then FORMAT E:)

Reboot

We now want to get the WINXP SP2 setup disk files to E:

At the command prompt, type E: to make sure you're on that disk

type MD WINXPPRO

type XCOPY C:\*.* /A /E. This will copy everything over to your E drive. (this took a couple hours when i did it since it copied over 7,000 files including directories)

Reboot

Now you have all the files you need on your E drive to run setup without worrying about the USB drivers loading when you setup XP.

from the C:\ prompt, type E:

E:\>

type SMARTDRV

type CD WINXPPRO

type CD I386

type WINNT

*Note - you'll need to keep your USB drive plugged into the computer until after Windows is installed completely.*

WINXP setup will now run. It should automatically show that E:\WINXPPRO\I386 is the location of the windows files. If not, change it so it is.

let setup do its thing. when the computer reboots, you'll see 2 choices to boot to. 1 is XP upgrade/setup, the other is WINDOWS. Always choose the XP UPGRADE/SETUP option.

Choose the 6G partition (D:) to install Windows on. When asked to format, choose FAT32 (you can upgrade to NTFS later).

Setup will get to a point that asks for file "asms" on the SP2 CD. it will give a default option of GLOBALROOT\.....\.....\DEVICE\.....\I386 (or whatever).

Type E:\WINXPPRO\I386 (you may want to highlight and press ctrl+c so you can paste it from here on out) and press enter.

Whenever a dialogue box pops up asking for a file, just paste the E:\WINXPPRO\I386 in there and press enter.

Once windows setup completes, you will be able to use your C: to boot to WINXP. Once you have verified this, log on to Windows XP, take your XP boot files (NTDETECT.COM, NTLDR, BOOT.INI) and paste them on the root of D. Then go to Disk Management, select D and make the partition active. This will allow you to boot XP without your USB drive attached.

You can then go in through disk management and delete the E: partition and create a large extended partition for all non-system files and programs. This keeps everything separate in the event that you should have to reload the OS at a later time.

Voila! should be done now. Install your drivers and programs and let it roll.

Like I said earlier, you're windows root is now D: instead of the normal C, so keep that in mind when installing new programs.

I tried changing the root drive letter from D: to C: using instructions from the M$ support site, but hosed my install and had to start over from setup.

Hope this is useful to some people. Email me with questions/comments.

Thanks.

[jaclaz]

Well, you went through a lot of work, most of which is not really needed (mind you I do not want to criticize your work, just simplify the steps.
1) use (on another working PC) the Hp format tool (or an alternate means) to format the USB stick, the utility will ask for the DOS files, point it to a location where following files are:
IO.SYS
MSDOS.SYS
COMMAND.COM
(these are the system files for Windows 9x)
2) Check that the stick boots ok on the target computer
3) Take the stick back to the other PC and add to its root the following files:
SYS.COM(not needed, thanks to UwOrtWaLt)
FORMAT.COM
FDISK.EXE <-Note these are the files from FREEDOS FDISK 1.21
FDISK.INI <- that you can find here: http://www.23cc.com/free-fdisk/
XCOPY.EXE
XCOPY32.EXE
XCOPY32.MOD
4) Now make a \i386 directory in it and copy to it all the contents of an already SP2 slipstreamed XP
5) Boot the target computer from the stick
6) At the DOS prompt C:\ > type FDISK [ENTER], then select 2nd hard disk (i.e. the one inside the PC) and FDISK it with a Primary FAT32 partition of appropriate size
7) Reboot and, at the dos prompt, type FORMAT D: [ENTER]. (not needed, thanks to UwOrtWaLt)
8) Reboot and, at the dos prompt, type SYS C: D: [ENTER] (not needed, thanks to UwOrtWaLt)
7) Reboot and, at the dos prompt, type FORMAT D: /S
9) type MD D:\i386 [ENTER] (not needed, xcopy will make the directory)
10) 8) Type xcopy c:\i386 d:\i386\ /S /A /V [ENTER]
11) 9) Reboot after taking the stick out
12)10) Type c:\i386\winnt.exe [ENTER]

This way your fixed drive will remain C:

The above is done assuming that:
1) You are ok with a System partition FAT32
2) You do not want to use third party tools (except the said FREEDOS FDISK)
(hint, since all files in the \i386 directory comply with 8.3 naming, and since the problem is the extreme slowness of the USB stick, zipping the \i386 directory, copying the zipped file, then unzipping it can save you a lot of time)

Using SMARTDRV is strongly advised as it will quicken the file-transfer noticeably.

There is an alternate way to do the above, hinted here:
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=61384
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...533;entry426494
by directly starting the XP setup though setupldr.bin renamed to NTLDR
and another one using BartPE (link in last post i the above thread).

UPDATE:
The method above has been finalized and several ways and tools can be found here:
http://www.msfn.org/board/install-windows-usb-f157.html
Freedos Fdisk can be found here:
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/...iles/dos/fdisk/
where also the new (25-Nov-2008) fdisk 1.31 version can be found.

jaclaz

P.S.: if you want to change the drive letter of a XP install (mind you, it is tricky business) the instructions are NOT these ones:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307844
but these ones:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=223188
which, if followed will lead you to a system to which you will not be able to log in, unless you do what is suggested here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/249321/
After having (hopefully) rebooted OK, you will still need to use a tool like registrar lite to find occurrences of D:\ in the Registry and change them to C:\, otherwise some utilities will not work.

[xclusiveimage]

Word...your way is much easier. I just did it to mine so I could have the root drive be C:. This was my first attempt at doing anything like that so thanks for the info...really helped. Less steps = better.

[UwOrtWaLt]

we can make one step lesser

7) Reboot and, at the dos prompt, type FORMAT D: [ENTER].
8) Reboot and, at the dos prompt, type SYS C: D: [ENTER]

instead this type FORMAT D: /s [ENTER]
this copy systemfiles too

[xclusiveimage]

so why when i do all that and reboot without the usb drive attached does it say "Operating System Not Found"? The dos boot files are there, but i can't boot and am unable to set the partition on my laptop drive to active since it's not the first drive.

[jaclaz]

hmmm, overlooked that one!

I forgot that my bootdisks always use the FREEDOS one instead of the original MS one.
(I am editing my previous post too)

FREE FDISK 1.21, that allows that, here:
http://www.23cc.com/free-fdisk/

(but there are a number of other available utilities that can do the same, such as Ranish Paretition Manager)

we can make one step lesser

7) Reboot and, at the dos prompt, type FORMAT D: [ENTER].
8) Reboot and, at the dos prompt, type SYS C: D: [ENTER]

instead this type FORMAT D: /s [ENTER]
this copy systemfiles too

Yep, you are right, correcting above post.

jaclaz

[xclusiveimage]

thanks for the heads up on Free Fdisk. I used it and now my laptop drive is booting and lists as c:

thank you to everyone for the help...made a world of difference. added to my knowledge too! i love learning new things.

thanks.

tommy

[pmshah]

Well, you went through a lot of work, most of which is not really needed (mind you I do not want to criticize your work, just simplify the steps.
1) use (on another working PC) the Hp format tool (or an alternate means) to format the USB stick, the utility will ask for the DOS files, point it to a location where following files are:
IO.SYS
MSDOS.SYS
COMMAND.COM
(these are the system files for Windows 9x)
2) Check that the stick boots ok on the target computer
3) Take the stick back to the other PC and add to its root the following files:
SYS.COM(not needed, thanks to UwOrtWaLt)
FORMAT.COM
FDISK.EXE <-Note these are the files from FREEDOS FDISK 1.21
FDISK.INI <- that you can find here: http://www.23cc.com/free-fdisk/
XCOPY.EXE
XCOPY32.EXE
XCOPY32.MOD
4) Now make a \i386 directory in it and copy to it all the contents of an already SP2 slipstreamed XP
5) Boot the target computer from the stick
6) At the DOS prompt C:\ > type FDISK [ENTER], then select 2nd hard disk (i.e. the one inside the PC) and FDISK it with a Primary FAT32 partition of appropriate size
7) Reboot and, at the dos prompt, type FORMAT D: [ENTER]. (not needed, thanks to UwOrtWaLt)
8) Reboot and, at the dos prompt, type SYS C: D: [ENTER] (not needed, thanks to UwOrtWaLt)
7) Reboot and, at the dos prompt, type FORMAT D: /S
9) type MD D:\i386 [ENTER] (not needed, xcopy will make the directory)
10) 8) Type xcopy c:\i386 d:\i386\ /S /A /V [ENTER]
11) 9) Reboot after taking the stick out
12)10) Type c:\i386\winnt.exe [ENTER]

This way your fixed drive will remain C:

The above is done assuming that:
1) You are ok with a System partition FAT32
2) You do not want to use third party tools (except the said FREEDOS FDISK)
(hint, since all files in the \i386 directory comply with 8.3 naming, and since the problem is the extreme slowness of the USB stick, zipping the \i386 directory, copying the zipped file, then unzipping it can save you a lot of time)

There is an alternate way to do the above, hinted here:
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=61384
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...533;entry426494
by directly starting the XP setup though setupldr.bin renamed to NTLDR
and another one using BartPE (link in last post i the above thread).

jaclaz

P.S.: if you want to change the drive letter of a XP install (mind you, it is tricky business) the instructions are NOT these ones:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307844
but these ones:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=223188
which, if followed will lead you to a system to which you will not be able to log in, unless you do what is suggested here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/249321/
After having (hopefully) rebooted OK, you will still need to use a tool like registrar lite to find occurrences of D:\ in the Registry and change them to C:\, otherwise some utilities will not work.

Will this work in unattended mode if the winnt.sif is included in the I386 directory?

I have always used this cd copying to d: drive aproach for 98 & ME. With this aproach the system never ever asked for the installation CD again.

[jaclaz]

Will this work in unattended mode if the winnt.sif is included in the I386 directory?

Well, heck, no, you will have to use the WINNT.EXE parameters:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServe...028b811033.mspx

http://www.quepublishing.com/articles/arti...qNum=6&rl=1

jaclaz

[Nathalia]

Hi,

I've been following xclusiveimage's instruction on installing windows from USB but I'm stuck, so can anyone please help me?

My computer itself IS the problem. It won't read the PRIMARY SLAVE OR SECONDARY MASTER. It ONLY reads Primary Master. However, I still have to put a HDD in the SECONDARY MASTER slot, otherwise it won't read and when i start my computer, it only says 'Detecting IDE Drive'. So I put my HDD that I want to install my Windows on PRIMARY MASTER but it said that DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that my DVD is multifunction or maybe the computer cannot read it (who knows) so using the DVD is out of question for me! And also, it won't even read the USB Thumb Drive that I had the WINXP SP2 and WIN98SEC IMAGE on it. It ONLY reads either of them....HDD that I want to install windows OR USB but not both of them. Oh, by the way, if I want to boot from the USB thum, do I choose USB-FDD, USB-HDD, USB-ZIP or HDD-0? Sorry I know it's a stupid q but I'm confused which one to choose. I would assume it's USB-HDD?

In conclusion, Yeah, I know....my computer is a mess....can someone please help me because it drives me insane already...Is it possible to put the Bootable in the HDD that I want to install Windows in it? Thank you so much in advance...

This post has been edited by Nathalia: Sep 16 2007, 04:17 AM

[jaclaz]

Yes, it is possible, but you need to have at least two partitions on that harddrive, and of course the hard disk must be prepared on a second (working) PC.

Typically first partition is a FAT16 or FAT32 partition around or below 2 Gb (where you install DOS and a copy of the \I386 directory of your XP setup) and the rest one (or more partitions) where the actual XP will be installed, that could be anything you want FAT32 or NTFS.

However, it is important that we find a way to avoid the conflict that you are having, as most probably the XP setup won't like a "messed up" sustem and could refuse to install.

From the little you say, it seems to me like a cable/jumper problem on the hard disks and/or a wrong BIOS setting.

Please post following information:
1) type, model and make of hard disks
2) type, model and make of MB
3) whether the BIOS is Award or AMI or ....
4) if you are using (if IDE/PATA) 40 leads cables or 80 leads ones
5) Whether you checked or not jumpers on hard disks

jaclaz

[Nathalia]

1. Hard Drive ==> WD80 0BB-53DKA0 USB Device. I put this one on PRIMARY MASTER with no jumper. I put it on the first IDE cable on black. The second one is MAXTOR and I put this one on SECONDARY MASTEr with no Jumper and again this one on black second IDE cable.

2. For the question 2 to 4, can you please tell me how could i find it out? can i found it through BIOS since I couldn't start the Windows?

5. Yes, I checked the jumpers on Hard Disks. I think it's the motherboard??

Also, when I tried to format my WD HDD, I put the first one on Primary and the second one on Extended then I have to format it as a Logic. Both of them is NTFS because I can't choose FAT. It just has a NTFS when I select them.

Thank you very much for your help!

EDIT: Sorry, forget what I post above about my formating my WD HDD, I've now formatted 2 partitions both PRIMARY PARTITIONs. And then I format it again with HP tool. It CAN BE FAT32. But I HAVE to install them both together so I cannot have 2 partition. Can it be done in the Command Prompt? And also, what can I press to get into command prompt for the PC? I tried Shift F5 but it didn't work?

This post has been edited by Nathalia: Sep 16 2007, 07:49 AM

[jaclaz]

Sorry, forget what I post above about my formating my WD HDD, I've now formatted 2 partitions both PRIMARY PARTITIONs. And then I format it again with HP tool. It CAN BE FAT32. But I HAVE to install them both together so I cannot have 2 partition. Can it be done in the Command Prompt? And also, what can I press to get into command prompt for the PC? I tried Shift F5 but it didn't work?

Whooa! Hold the horses .

One thing at the time.

1. Hard Drive ==> WD80 0BB-53DKA0 USB Device. I put this one on PRIMARY MASTER with no jumper. I put it on the first IDE cable on black. The second one is MAXTOR and I put this one on SECONDARY MASTEr with no Jumper and again this one on black second IDE cable.

If you use 80 leads IDE cables, they are colour coded:
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confCable80-c.html

Blue: The blue connector attaches to the host (motherboard or controller).
Gray: The gray connector is in the middle of the cable, and goes to any slave (device 1) drive if present on the channel.
Black: The black connector is at the opposite end from the host connector and goes to the master drive (device 0), or a single drive if only one is used.

But read the full article.

Notwithstanding the Cable Select features of these cables, do set the jumpers on the Hard Disks properly.

2. For the question 2 to 4, can you please tell me how could i find it out? can i found it through BIOS since I couldn't start the Windows?

When you boot the pc you might either see:
a. A graphical screen
b. A screen similar to this:
(Award BIOS)
http://wirelessimage5.pbwiki.com/f/1award-1.jpg
or to this:
(AMI BIOS)
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Articles/S.../bios/boot1.jpg

If a. you need to press the key (usually DEL) to access the BIOS settings and disable a setting that may be listed as "Enable Boot Image" or something similar.
If b. press (quickly) the PAUSE key and jolt down whatever is in top and bottom left corners.
Do read the entire page here:
http://www.bristolwireless.net/wiki/index.php/boot

Now, disconnect all drives, including CDs/DVDs, disconnect also all IDE cables from motherboard, and re-connect just the WD one, set as Master, on First IDE channel (it goes to the Black connector).

Try to boot, enter BIOS settings and see if the BIOS detects the drive properly.

If yes, set the MAXTOR drive as Master on second IDE channel (it goes to the black connector).

Try again to boot, if it does not work, as you reported, set the MAXTOR as slave with jumpers and connect it to Grey connector on first IDE channel.

Try again, if it does not work, try the MAXTOR as slave and connect it to Grey connector on second IDE channel.

If it still does not work, you need to enter the BIOS, WRITE DOWN ALL your current settings, and select ot "Reset Configuration Data" or something similar.

You will need to re-enter, after having reset the configuration data the values you had before, excluding those related to hard disks/boot devices.

Please note that by "booting" in this particular context I mean just that the BIOS does not throw any error and when accessing it's settings, drive(s) are recognized properly.

Once you have succeeded in the above, re-connect the CD/DVD drive, of course setting it properly as master or slave as required and check it is detected correctly by BIOS.

Finally set boot order in BIOS to boot from CD first and try a bootable CD in it. (maybe it actually works)

If you want to try USB booting, of course you need to choose USB-HDD, since it is somewhat a problematic PC, I would try first thing with a USB stick, formatted with the HP format tool and with DOS (win9x) files on it, do review my FAQ's, expecially #4 and #10:
http://home.graffiti.net/jaclaz:graffiti.n...SB/USBfaqs.html
(The HP format tool will NOT be able to create more than one partition nor a small FAT16 one on a big-sized HD)

jaclaz

[Nathalia]

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH, GUYS....I've finally be able to fixed it!!! I really appreciate the help.....One problem is done and one more DVD problem to go....God Bless you, everyone!! Thank you once again..... (I really can't thank you enough)

[jaclaz]

Happy everything went well.

jaclaz

[Asim Parekh]

PLEASE HELP HELP
I followed these directions to the word. I start installation from e:\xppro\i386\winnt (d: being the primary partition). Install copies files (a whole bunch of 'em) to the USB drive, and asks me to reboot (so the installation can begin). Anyway, when I reboot, I get "Attempting to boot from USB device. Disk error. Press any key to restart". I have also tried to do what JACLAZ mentioned in the next post (a more streamlined process) but same result.
PLEASE HELP PLEASE

THANKS

This post has been edited by Ed_P: Nov 17 2007, 04:04 PM

Reason for edit: Removed needless quote.

[jaclaz]

@Asim Parekh

I have the feeling that there has been a misunderstanding.

This tutorial is for installing a 2k/xp from a USB device to a "normal" internal ATA device.

This simply does not sound "right":

Install copies files (a whole bunch of 'em) to the USB drive, and asks me to reboot (so the installation can begin). Anyway, when I reboot, I get "Attempting to boot from USB device. Disk error. Press any key to restart".

When you run WINNT.EXE:

9) Reboot after taking the stick out

there is NO USB device connected in this tutorial, see also this:
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=82856

Or maybe you are trying to do something else?

Can you describe exactly what you are trying to achieve?

Maybe I could point you to a more "proper" way.

jaclaz

[Asim Parekh]

@Asim Parekh

I have the feeling that there has been a misunderstanding.

This tutorial is for installing a 2k/xp from a USB device to a "normal" internal ATA device.

This simply does not sound "right":

Install copies files (a whole bunch of 'em) to the USB drive, and asks me to reboot (so the installation can begin). Anyway, when I reboot, I get "Attempting to boot from USB device. Disk error. Press any key to restart".

When you run WINNT.EXE:

9) Reboot after taking the stick out

there is NO USB device connected in this tutorial, see also this:
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=82856

Or maybe you are trying to do something else?

Can you describe exactly what you are trying to achieve?

Maybe I could point you to a more "proper" way.

jaclaz

I am also trying to install XP Pro from a USB (2 GB, Kingston) to an internal drive(35GB) of a machine (HP D530)
This is what I did

Option 1:
1) formatted the USB drive with win 95 system files using Hp USB utility.
2) Copied the XP I386 dir to the usb dir
3) Booted machine using the USB (my computer has the option to boot from a USB device)
4) FDisk the "internal" drive. Created a Primary(D:) and an extenbded DOS partition(E:).
5) Copied the I386 folder to E:
6) started Xp installation from e:\XPPro\i386\WINNT
7) installation said that it is copying files from e:\XPPro\I386 dir. Noticed that it copied the files to the USB drive by creating some special folders (I think it created 2 folders on the root of my USB drive. win$ something something).
8) After done copying files, installation asked me to reboot my machine. When I rebooted, it gave me an error saying "Attemptung to reboot from USB. Disk Error. Press any key to restart". I was expectiong the installation to continue after rebooting from USB as installation copied all the files (necessary, I think) to the USB drive.
I have followed directions from the person who started this thread, to the word (I think) but this is where it got stuck.

Option 2:
Anyway, I tried your suggestion as well (i.e. formatting the primary DOS partition with /S option to make it bootable, copying the I386 folder directly to the primary dos partition, let's call it D:). When i remove USB drive and reboot, I get non system disk error.

Option 2 TEST:
Another variation I tried on your (i.e. jaclaz) method was I formatted Primary partition with /S option, removed the USB and tried rebooting. And amazingly, I got the same "non system disk" error. So in a nut shell, I wasn't able to boot from my HD's primary parition.

I am not sure what am I doing wrong here? Am I suppose to have some very special WIN9X boot files for me to do this. I thouhght the whole purpose of the WIN9X system files was to that it helped me boot from a USB, which I was able to boot from.

Please help....

Thanks

[jaclaz]

I think you are making the "typical" error most people do, i.e. introducing variations to an already proved to work method.

And of course you should start from the LATEST instructions, not from the initial ones.

I understand that the tutorial may not be "exactly" what you need, but you should NOT introduce variations of ANY kind to it, unless you really know what you are doing, and you have understood fully what each step does.


Try doing EXACTLY just the following:
1) use (on another working PC) the Hp format tool (or an alternate means) to format the USB stick, the utility will ask for the DOS files, point it to a location where following files are:
IO.SYS
MSDOS.SYS
COMMAND.COM
(these are the system files for Windows 9x)
2) Check that the stick boots ok on the target computer
3) Take the stick back to the other PC and add to its root the following files:
FORMAT.COM<-Note this is the "normal" files from Windows 9x
FDISK.EXE <-Note these are the files from FREEDOS FDISK 1.21
FDISK.INI <- that you can find here: http://www.23cc.com/free-fdisk/
XCOPY.EXE
XCOPY32.EXE
XCOPY32.MOD
4) Now make a \i386 directory in it and copy to it all the contents of an already SP2 slipstreamed XP
5) Boot the target computer from the stick
6) At the DOS prompt C:\ > type FDISK [ENTER], then select 2nd hard disk (i.e. the one inside the PC) and FDISK it with a Primary FAT32 partition of appropriate size
7) Reboot and, at the dos prompt, type FORMAT D: /S
8) Type xcopy c:\i386 d:\i386\ /S /A /V [ENTER]
9) Reboot after taking the stick out
10) Type c:\i386\winnt.exe [ENTER]

You should be able to boot the PC WITHOUT the stick connected to a normal DOS prompt, if you cannot, there is something wrong in the way you implement the procedure, which is simply a "Howto make a new drive DOS bootable".

You did not, by any chance, use the FREEDOS FORMAT.COM did you?

If what you need is a way to install XP from a USB stick, you can try this almost fully automated procedure:
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...1384&st=423
using usb_prep7.cmd.

jaclaz

[Asim Parekh]

First of all, thank A LOT for helping out Jaclaz. I implemented this procudure (option # 2 from my previous post) until step 9 and can not get the machine to reboot using HD Primary partition. I have made sure that HD is set up as a 2nd boot device (First being the USB). I think making a HD DOS bootable is a simple enought procedure but, I am failing. Oh yes, the "format" came with the WIN95 bootable image, I am not using free dos format tool. I will try searching for instructions to make a new drive DOS bootable on google, to see if I am missing something? I have the primary partition as 15 GB, may be DOS has problems with it? I don't know. May be, the win95 bootable image is bad, but if that was the case, I wouldn't be able to boot from a USB, either?
Dang, just a simple process, but I am not sure what am I doing wrong?

-AP

This post has been edited by Ed_P: Nov 19 2007, 10:48 PM

Reason for edit: Removed needless quote. Please use the Add Reply button.