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Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: Lilwolf on July 29, 2009, 05:50:20 pm

Title: install XP from a usb drive?
Post by: Lilwolf on July 29, 2009, 05:50:20 pm: Anyone know how to make an external hard disk bootable? I search through google, and didnt' find much...

I have a notebook I want to use in a cab, but the OS is hosed, and the DVD rom drive is bad... but it can boot from a external drive (I think... bios says boot from removable hard disk).

Anyway, I can copy xp on it... but how, from xp or win7, can I format a disk with system (format /s doesn't work anymore does it??)
Title: Re: install XP from a usb drive?
Post by: Ginsu Victim on July 29, 2009, 05:55:58 pm: The other day I found "Windows XP SP3 Pro. Corp. USB INSTALLABLE! Semi-Unattended" on a torrent site. Look it up. (Can't give you more than that on here)
Title: Re: install XP from a usb drive?
Post by: Epyx on July 29, 2009, 06:05:26 pm: I met an old lady on the bus the other day and she had met some young people who asked her the same question. Her recommendation was to go to this link and use the Nlite utility:

http://forums.vr-zone.com/notebooks-netbooks/210722-how-use-nlite-thumbdrive-install-winxp.html

She added to them "Dears...you should have your own legit copy of Windows XP though..."
Title: Re: install XP from a usb drive?
Post by: boxman on July 29, 2009, 06:07:40 pm: http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

Unetbootin will take any ISO file and make it into a bootable usb stick/drive. I used it for my cab and laptop with no dvd drive.
Title: Re: install XP from a usb drive?
Post by: drventure on July 29, 2009, 07:02:48 pm: Wow. Wish i'd know about that Unetbootin utility about 4 days ago!

Very cool. I'm throwing that in the toolkit.
Title: Re: install XP from a usb drive?
Post by: Kman-Sweden on July 30, 2009, 11:21:50 am: I think your motherboard/BIOS also need to support USB boot...?
Title: Re: install XP from a usb drive?
Post by: boxman on July 30, 2009, 03:04:52 pm: Quote from: Kman_Sweden on July 30, 2009, 11:21:50 am
I think your motherboard/BIOS also need to support USB boot...?

Yep, your PC must support usb boot. Every PC I have tried it with works apart from my main PC which is about 6/7 years old now.
Title: Re: install XP from a usb drive?
Post by: Ginsu Victim on July 30, 2009, 03:14:25 pm: I'd found a program to boot from USB on motherboards that don't support it, but I lost it when my hard drive crashed. Wish I knew what it was....
Title: Re: install XP from a usb drive?
Post by: boxman on July 30, 2009, 06:11:20 pm: Quote from: Ginsu Victim on July 30, 2009, 03:14:25 pm
I'd found a program to boot from USB on motherboards that don't support it, but I lost it when my hard drive crashed. Wish I knew what it was....

That would be really handy. It would save me from burning a ton of cds that I only ever really use once. How did it work? Was it a bootable cd that then boots from the usb drive or something?
Title: Re: install XP from a usb drive?
Post by: Turnarcades on July 30, 2009, 07:47:48 pm: Nlite is definitely the way to go, particularly as you can mod the XP installation to automatically install drivers and copy folders to the hard drive, meaning you could copy all your backed up games/music/movies back to the PC as part of the standard installation.