USB Flash Drive Booting & Installing Windows XP in your Netbook, Laptop and Desktop
It took a couple of hours to figure out there is a simple and new way to boot and install OS using USB flash drives in Netbooks, Laptops and even our desktops.
Note : Hardware that are older or that doesnt support Booting from USB ports cannot be used. So make sure your hardware's BIOS has support for booting through USB Floppy, USB Disk options. Consult your hardware's manual to find out.
Items needed:
1. USB Drive (more than 1 GB)
2. Your Windows XP installation Disk
3. WinToFlash - Free utility to make a USB drive bootable (NT, XP, Vista and Windows 7). Also it copies the OS installation files
4. Obviously a prep hardware - a working desktop or laptop with CD Drive.
How to make a bootable USB Flash drive?
Earlier, creating a bootable USB flash drive involved a tedious process of downloading a HP flash drive format utility and working with BartPE utility. But now, WinToFlash has been launced. The 0.5 beta version is really good and conveniently stable, such that it works as a final release version. WinToFlash saves the cumbersome process of formatting USB drives and copying disks with its own Wizard.
Phase 1 - Preparing USB Flash drive with OS install files
1. Download WinToFlash and run it
2. Proceed ahead with the default wizard option. It will automatically detect the USB drive and confirms with you to format it. Once permitted, it will format the USB drive.
3. It will ask for OS CD or the folder where OS installation files are stored. When the folder / CD Drive is selected, it will create the bootloader in USB drive and copy the OS installation files (In my case, I tried Windows XP). Thats it! Your USB flash drive is ready.
Phase 2 - Booting and Installing OS using the USB flash drive
4. Plug-in the USB flash drive into the target netbook, laptop or desktop's USB port (this is the computer you wish to boot with USB flash drive and install OS)
5. Make sure the computer supports booting through USB and you have changed the BIOS settings such that the boot sequence order is set to USB Floppy or USB disk first.
6. Restart / Switch on the target computer.
7. As per BIOS settings, the BIOS will try to locate the presence of a USB disk, floppy drive. When it finds the boot loader in the USB drive, it will start booting from USB drive. Once booted, an option screen will be displayed.
8. Select "Text GUI setup" option (usually #1 in the list) to install XP or the OS from scratch.
9. Untill the first set of files are copied, the process is very slow because the USB ports in 99% of hardware works in only in USB 1.1 mode. It may take nearly 20-40 minutes to see the welcome screen of Windows XP Graphic installation. From there it goes in rocket-speed and things get installed in less than 12 minutes. :-)
10. Thats it!
Hope this quick and dirty guide gives you a good idea. Booting and installing OS using USB Flash drives comes in handy when you have a failed CD Drive or to replace Linux OS with XP / Vista in Netbooks.
Note : Hardware that are older or that doesnt support Booting from USB ports cannot be used. So make sure your hardware's BIOS has support for booting through USB Floppy, USB Disk options. Consult your hardware's manual to find out.
Items needed:
1. USB Drive (more than 1 GB)
2. Your Windows XP installation Disk
3. WinToFlash - Free utility to make a USB drive bootable (NT, XP, Vista and Windows 7). Also it copies the OS installation files
4. Obviously a prep hardware - a working desktop or laptop with CD Drive.
How to make a bootable USB Flash drive?
Earlier, creating a bootable USB flash drive involved a tedious process of downloading a HP flash drive format utility and working with BartPE utility. But now, WinToFlash has been launced. The 0.5 beta version is really good and conveniently stable, such that it works as a final release version. WinToFlash saves the cumbersome process of formatting USB drives and copying disks with its own Wizard.
Phase 1 - Preparing USB Flash drive with OS install files
1. Download WinToFlash and run it
2. Proceed ahead with the default wizard option. It will automatically detect the USB drive and confirms with you to format it. Once permitted, it will format the USB drive.
3. It will ask for OS CD or the folder where OS installation files are stored. When the folder / CD Drive is selected, it will create the bootloader in USB drive and copy the OS installation files (In my case, I tried Windows XP). Thats it! Your USB flash drive is ready.
Phase 2 - Booting and Installing OS using the USB flash drive
4. Plug-in the USB flash drive into the target netbook, laptop or desktop's USB port (this is the computer you wish to boot with USB flash drive and install OS)
5. Make sure the computer supports booting through USB and you have changed the BIOS settings such that the boot sequence order is set to USB Floppy or USB disk first.
6. Restart / Switch on the target computer.
7. As per BIOS settings, the BIOS will try to locate the presence of a USB disk, floppy drive. When it finds the boot loader in the USB drive, it will start booting from USB drive. Once booted, an option screen will be displayed.
8. Select "Text GUI setup" option (usually #1 in the list) to install XP or the OS from scratch.
9. Untill the first set of files are copied, the process is very slow because the USB ports in 99% of hardware works in only in USB 1.1 mode. It may take nearly 20-40 minutes to see the welcome screen of Windows XP Graphic installation. From there it goes in rocket-speed and things get installed in less than 12 minutes. :-)
10. Thats it!
Hope this quick and dirty guide gives you a good idea. Booting and installing OS using USB Flash drives comes in handy when you have a failed CD Drive or to replace Linux OS with XP / Vista in Netbooks.
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