I used my usb drive to install xp w sp3 using the usb_multiboot tool so thank you for that!

however, I was wondering if there is anyway to multiboot with backtrack as well.

i have a 4gb usb so my only options for formatting are fat32 and ntfs -- but fat32 has the problem of being very slow in installing xp -- on the other hand, i dont think i can boot syslinux or backtrack from an ntfs formatted disk

is there anyway to create two partitions on the flash drive and have my ntfs formatted xp install run from the second partition? how would i set up the bootloader to do this, while keeping the usb drive recognized as a usb removable, and not a usb fixed drive.

basically i want:
partition 1 - fat32 - backtrack usb - 3.0gb
partition 2 - ntfs - xp w sp3 install - 1.0gb (or less)

and when I plug the drive into an xp computer, only the first partition will show (since xp can't show multi-parititioned usb sticks); however when I boot off the stick, I can still run the install.

is this feasible/possible?

It is possible to make two partitions on the USB-stick using first INSTALL_DUMMY.cmd and Restart.
It seems possible then to Install XP from the first Active partition.
When I try to Install XP from the second partition (Set Active) of my USB-stick,
I get the boot.ini menu and can start TXT Mode of Setup, but I get BSOD 0x0000007B during text mode of Setup.

So the configuratuion that you propose seems to give trouble.

But it is not necessary to MultiPartition the USB-stick.

You might boot with BackTrack from the stick Indirect using GRUB4DOS, selected from the boot.ini Menu.
I suggest you follow the same kind of procedure as used for Puppy Linux, for which you find
an entry in the menu.lst editable GRUB4DOS menu file in the Root of the stick.
Something similar might work for BackTrack and you have Install of XP from USB still available from boot.ini Menu.

This post has been edited by wimb: Jun 21 2008, 02:05 AM

Thanks

i will try puppy linux out (i see the command in menu.lst)

and then see if backtrack can do the same ... though i don't think it can since it only has ntfs read support (puppy has read/write according to the menu.lst entry)


Update:

so puppy linux worked fine, but definitely is missing too many features as compared to backtrack
tried booting backtrack and it started successfully, but the ntfs read/write support isn't as good i guess since it started stalling after a while -- will need to fool around with it some more

thanks for your help

This post has been edited by ng12345: Jun 22 2008, 11:58 PM