can you put windows xp on a usb/flash drive stick?

Question

i have heard can you put windows xp on a usb/flash drive stick is this true how to do it

Answer 1

if your trying to install xp onto a computer that doesnt have it then yes.

the links below

Answer 2

It's a long and complex procedure but can be done....



Install XP from a USB drive.



What you'll need:

USB_PREP8 http://www.2shared.com/file/2581432/a65c092a/usb_prep8.html

PeToUSB http://www.2shared.com/file/2581436/a131cd33/PeToUSB_3007.html

Bootsect.exe http://www.2shared.com/file/2585881/5ad9ef68/bootsect.html

Special Note: If you use the program Nlite be sure to keep the manual installation files as the USB_prep8 script relies on these files.



Extract the files in Bootsect.zip

The next step is to extract USB_prep8 and PeToUSB.

Next copy the PeToUSB executable into the USB_prep8 folder.

Inside of the USB_prep8 folder double click the executable named usb_prep8.cmd.





Press any key to continue





These settings are preconfigured for you all you need to do now is click start.

Once the format is complete DO NOT close the window just leave everything as it is and open a command prompt from your start menu (type cmd in the search bar or run box depending on your version of windows.).



Inside of the command windows go to the directory you have bootsect.exe saved.

(use the cd directoryname command to switch folders)



Now type "bootsect.exe /nt52 R:" NOTE R: is the drive letter for my USB stick if yours is different you need to change it accordingly. What this part does is write the correct boot sector to your USB stick, this allows your PC to boot from the USB stick without it nothing works.

Please note: When running the bootsect.exe command you cannot have any windows open displaying the content of your USB stick, if you have a window open bootsect.exe will be unable to lock the drive and write the bootsector correctly.



If all went well you should see "Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes."



Now you can close this command prompt (don't close the usbprep8 one by mistake) and the petousb window.



You window you see now should look like this:



If it doesn't try pressing enter.



Now you need to enter the correct information for numbers 1-3.

Press 1 and then enter. A folder browse window will open for you to browse to the location of you XP setup files (aka your cdrom drive with xp cd in)

Press 2 and enter a letter not currently assigned to a drive on your PC

Press 3 and enter the drive letter of your USB stick

Press 4 to start the process.



The script will ask you if its ok to format drive T:. This is just a temp drive the program creates to cache the windows installation files. Press Y then enter.



Once it's done formating press enter to continue again, you can now see the program copying files to the temp drive it created. Once this is done press enter to continue again.



Next you will see a box pop up asking you to copy the files to USB drive yes/no you want to click yes.



Once the script has completed copy files a popup window asking if you would like to USB drive to be preferred boot drive U: select YES on this window.



Now select yes to unmount the virtual drive.



Ok we are done the hard part, close the usbprep8 window.



Now make sure your PC is configured with USB as the primary boot device.

Insert your USB drive and boot up the PC.



On the startup menu you have two options, select option number 2 for text mode setup.



From this point on it is just like any other windows XP installation delete/recreate the primary partition on your PC and format it using NTFS. Make sure you delete ALL partitions and recreate a single partition or you will get the hal.dll error message.



Once the text mode portion of setup is complete it will boot into the GUI mode (you can press enter after the reboot if your too excited to wait the 30 seconds)



Once the GUI portion of setup is complete you will again have to boot into GUI mode this will complete the XP installation and you will end up at you XP desktop. It is very important that you DO NOT REMOVE THE USB STICK before this point. Once you can see your start menu it is safe to remove the usb stick and reboot your PC to make sure everything worked.



This method has advantages over all current no cdrom methods of installing XP to a PC. You do not have to copy setup files in DOS to the SSD and install from there. It gives you access to the recovery console by booting into text mode setup, and it gives you the ability to run repair installations of XP if you have problems later on.

Answer 3

What you may attempt to do is tho insert your flash rigidity right into a working laptop or laptop with xp pass to the laptop folder and appropriate click on the flash rigidity an format it and decide the make bootable decision then positioned your records on it that worked for me.

Answer 4

hi cath

yes,no problem however check your computer supports booting from usb devices... some support several usb devices... however you will know if your usb flash drive is supported... insert the flash drive then turn on your pc and enter the bios.. then go to advanced bios features and boot order... your flash drive and its drive letter assignement should be clearly visible in their... then move this up to the first bootable device... then remember to save and exit set up to save the changes you have made

you firstly need a program called "Bart PE Builder "( http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ ) ..using this you can correctly install xp on to any flash drive with at least 256mb of capacity..however i recommend at least 2gb just to be sure

also the following requirements are needed :

# Most new motherboards recognize USB flash drives as valid boot media. But conventional motherboards that are more than two years old aren't likely to boot from a USB flash drive. But in many cases, this omission can be remedied through a BIOS update for that board.

# 1.5 GB of unused disk space is the maximum needed for the tool to do its job, particularly if you want to pre-install Service Pack 2 and RAM disk capabilities. 190 MB of unused space is all that's needed to use PE Builder and the applications described in this article, however. Additional plug-ins will increase storage requirements, as will additional tools or software.

# 512 MB of USB flash drive storage space is needed only if boot-up works from a RAM disk. Otherwise, 256 MB is big enough.

# Access to a USB 2.0 port is not mandatory, though booting with a USB 1.1 port takes about five times longer.

# A Windows XP Setup CD works fine as a foundation for PE Builder to generate the USB flash drive's contents.

Installation requires the use of HP's freeware tool HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool instead. Once installed, you can run the program through this sequence of menu choices: Start, All Programs, HP Company. Select the USB flash drive you wish to format from the Device entry, then select FAT as the target file system for that device. Click Start to launch this process. Once complete, you must then copied the Windows XP boot files to the USB flash drive - namely,%systemdrive%\boot.ini, %systemdrive%\ntldr, and %systemdrive%:\ntdetect (if you know the drive ID where these files live, use that instead - it's normally C). To make Windows Explorer display these files (they're ordinarily hidden), choose Folder Options... from the Tools menu, then click the View tab in the Folder Options window. Finally, in the Advanced Setting pick list, click the radio button underneath Hidden Files and folders that reads "Show hidden files and folders." Finally uncheck the box next to "Hide protected operating systems

(Recommended)," so you can select and copy these all-important Windows XP files to the flash drive. The USB flash drive is now ready to boot your system.

Normally, the hard disk precedes the USB flash drive (which falls under the heading of USB-HDD in most BIOS menus) in the boot order. If the hard disk contains a viable boot sector, the PC will start up automatically using the information it contains. Only when the hard disk suffers from a boot sector defect or an operating system can't be found will the PC boot from the USB flash drive instead.

Change this boot order. Plug the flash drive in, boot the computer and enter the BIOS setup utility. Normally, this means holding down the DEL or F2 key just as the computer powers up and begins the boot process. If you read the initial startup screen on your PC carefully, it will tell you exactly what you must do to access and alter your BIOS settings.

If your PC uses AMI-BIOS from American Megatrends, there are two possible ways to alter the boot device sequence. Each varies depending on the version of AMI-BIOS that's installed.

For the first variant, there is no menu entry named "Boot." Navigate to the sub-menu named "Advanced BIOS Features." Navigate to the item named "Boot Device Select... " and designate the USB flash drive as the first device in the "Boot Device Priority" list by selecting "1st" as its value. Then, hit the Esc key and set both the "Quick Boot" and "Full Screen LOGO Show" items to "Disabled" (this lets you see the BIOS messages during startup on the monitor). Exit the BIOS Setup utility using the "Save and Exit Setup" item in the main menu.

For the second variant, use the "Boot" menu to select the USB flash drive. It will show up under one of the following headings: "Hard Disk Drive", "Removable Device" or "Removable Storage Device. " Next, select the USB flash drive as "1st Drive" in the first position, then hit the Esc key. That device should appear in the menu named "Boot Device Priority" which might also show up as "Boot Sequence". Inside that menu, designate the USB flash drive as the "1st Boot Device", hit the Esc key

Answer 5

I don't know, but I really doubt it.