Hey -

I've done some digging around, and I can only find one comment on booting to install XP Pro from a USB key. That's on the http://www.experts-exchange.com forum, which is a PAY for information one ... As Stallman says, information should be free

Given that CDs only hold around 700meg, maybe 800, and that 2G USB keys are now common, I would like to set up an XP Pro installation on a USB key. Pop in the key rather than a CD, set to boot from USB-HDD, and install away, with more room for apps etc.

Note - this is not actually running XP from the key - I've seen lots of examples of that. This is basically emulating a normal CD install, just sourcing it from a USB key rather than CD.

Any ideas ?

D.

You'd need a BIOS that is capable of using the USB key as a boot device - I know this is common in newer machines, but not quite sure how widespread this is yet.

However, if your BIOS supports USB booting, it is possible:
http://www.aaltonen.us/archive/2004/03/01/...b-key-addendum/

Yup - I've seen that page. Actually booting from the USB key is not the problem. It's setting up the files, boot image etc, on the key that's the hiccup.

The CD normally boots via the Microsoft Corporation.img bootimage. That's a tiny program that then loads up setup.exe, which in turn is only 1.3k in size. I'm guessing that Microsoft Corporation.img also does the "press any key to boot from CD" msg ...

It's a pity that syslinux doesn't support cluster sizes greater than 16K, which limits it to 1G filesystems. That would be ideal to have a generic installation USB key, able to install XP Pro, Linux etc, all right from one device.

D.

You might consider putting WinPE (or bartPE) on the USB key to kick off the installations - that might be a better road to take than installing directly from the USB key. From the PE you could format the hard disk(s), copy the files to the disk, and start the installation using your unattended file.

This post has been edited by cluberti: Nov 26 2005, 12:04 PM

Here are some instructions you may find helpful:

WeetHet USB Boot setup

Oh, yeah, can I ask you where?

As far as I know, the ONLY project that ever succeeded in booting XP from a USB key/drive is Dietmar Stoelting's one, published first time at the end of October 2005, still VERY experimental:
http://home.graffiti.net/jaclaz:graffiti.n...SB/USBfaqs.html
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=14181

However as I see it, the easiest way to achieve what you want is to install some kind of DOS/Win9x OS on the stick then run the 16 bit install program WINNT.EXE.
There are some known problems using it if you use nlite with it and there could be some problems about drive lettering also, but it shoul be possible to find some workarounds for these latter ones.

Using a BartPE install on the USB pendrive and using the 32 bit install program WINNT32.EXE has no known problems, but you will need enough space for the BartPE install and it's booting will be slow.


jaclaz

So how exactly is the CD starting the install ? It doesn't need any 32bit OR 16bit environment ... The Microsoft Corporation.img loader comes up and starts up setup.exe. There must be an emulation for the MasterBootRecord of the USB drive that can hold and properly load up in the same way ...

If syslinux could handle larger than 16k clusters, it would work fine. Use memdisk, and point the initrd at Microsoft Corporation.img. memdisk requires diskette images, so it may not work that way, so perhaps isolinux - that takes no-emulation boot records.

Heh, I take back the lots - I did see Dietmar's page, and a few others as I recall. All via google and a couple of hours of digging around. But definitely more than one. I skimmed them looking for examples of installing via USB drive, but no luck.

D.

Setup.exe is a 32 bit program and is not used when booting from a CD. Microsoft Corporation.img loads setupldr.bin. Setupldr.bin does the text mode setup based on txtsetup.sif and winnt.sif.

....and as you can rename setupldr.bin to NTLDR as when building a WinPE/BartPE:
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
http://www.prime-expert.com/flashboot/down...s/UserGuide.pdf

....or rename NTLDR to setupldr.bin as seen here:
http://daniweb.com/techtalkforums/showthread.php?t=4644

...you should have a good start.

Also, have a look at this, seemingly completely unrelated but useful if you want to make a multi-install hard-disk (as the multi-install DVD depicted):
http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-cre...multi-os-cd.htm

Just for the record, the answers on the "pay for site" you mentioned can be viewed, at least at the moment, here:
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:2c_1H..._21475584.htmla

It seems like you got same or better answers here for free....

jaclaz

If the USB device in question supports booting from it, it would have come with a utility to make it bootable including selecting emulation ( usb : floppy, hdd, cdrom, zip, ls-120 or what ever else your bios might support), the boot image & all the files you want on it. If you do this & manage to boot from it all you have to do is to select the option of copying the installation files to the HDD & you are all set.

check out ...
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...6&mode=threaded


i have bartpe on a usb stick....so any pc that supports usb booting...i can just pop in my usb stick and load my bartpe without a cd. works pretty good also when i need to update the image, i don't waste any more cd's.

This post has been edited by net_user: Nov 29 2005, 07:47 AM

Just to keep things together, a small howto to boot from BartPE (CD) to install XP has been posted here:
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=68252
adapting it to USB drive/key (a BIG one, ) should not be a problem.

jaclaz

Isn't there a way to transfer the boot sector from the cd onto a usb flashdisk, without getting into BartPE?

I'm looking for a way in essence to install xp from a usb stick with the absolute same look and feel as if it were being done from cd.

Look here:
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=81537
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=81788

jaclaz

Just scroll down... I always wonder if that site was purposely setup to see how many lusers would actually pay for the equivalent of scrolling down...

Greetings. I feel I'm verrrrrrrrrrry close on this one, but that may be naive confidence. I believe I've reduced it down to an issue of pointing the right part of the setup to the location of the setup files on my USB key. Forgive me if I'm actually way off.

I'm using WinXP slipstreamed with SP2 and most of the subsequent hotfixes with the command script found at http://smithii.com/node/12. My flash drive is a Lexar Firefly 2GB.

Steps taken:

1. Run the smithii command script and build the slipstreamed installation and burn to a CD
2. Copy CD contents to a working directory C:\WINSET on my HD
3. Follow Flyakite's instructions at http://flyakite.msfn.org/ to copy installation files to C: by running C:\WINSET\I386\WINNT32.EXE /NOREBOOT
4. Copy installation boot directory C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT created in step 3 to C:\WINSET
5. Delete winnt.sif, migrate.inf, and bootsect.dat from C:\WINSET\$WIN_NT$.~BT
6. Use CodeBeetle's PeToUSB from http://gocoding.com/page.php?al=petousb to format and load my USB stick by pointing it to C:\WINSET

Results:

The stick boots, Windows Executive and the drivers load, and I make it all the way to the "Press Enter to install/press R to repair" screen. When I press Enter, I am prompted to "Insert Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 CD". It doesn't see the setup files on the stick.

Troubleshooting:

I've tried modifying the TXTSETUP.INF file in both the \minint directory that PeToUSB creates (its the I386 files from the setup CD) as well as the one in \$WIN_NT$.~BT to point the SETUPSOURCEPATH to \minint. Same result, asks for the CD.

I've also tried hex editing the SETUPLDR.BIN file in both \minnit and \$WIN_NT$.~BT to replace i386 strings with minint. Asks for the CD.

Conversely I've tried editing the two SETUPLDR.BIN files to replace instances of minnit with I386, and renamed the minint directory to I386. Got a message that TXTSETUP.SIF was missing or corrupted, so obviously the boot sector created by PeToUSB wants that file (or chain via SETUPLDR.BIN) to be in the \minint directory.

The first time I tried all of this I forgot to delete the 3 files in step 5. Instead of asking for the SP2 CD, I got an error message that installation files were not found where setup thought they had been copied, so one of these files must point to where a continued installation would expect to find them after reboot.

Next Step(s)?:

How can I correct the problem of setup asking for the SP2 CD and not knowing that the setup files are on the USB stick in the \minint directory?

I am considering not deleting the 3 files in step 5, and instead copying the C:\$WIN_NT$.~LS directory created by the setup in step 3 to the USB stick. Perhaps it will then consider this a continued installation and find the setup files.

Any ideas? Be gentle on the rookie...

Cannot really say, but that error should come out if the "root" files on CD are not found:
WIN51
WIN51IP
WIN51IP.SP1
WIN51IP.SP2


See these threads here:
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16381
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=17425&hl=

Putting those files in the root of the stick should make no harm.


No, it should not be needed to hexedit SETUPLDR.BIN, but is it possible that the version you are using has a CHECKSUM ? :
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=58410&st=0

jaclaz

This post has been edited by jaclaz: Nov 9 2006, 02:43 PM

Update edit - still not fully working yet, see post below.

I GOT IT!!!
I am successfully running a Windows XP SP2 installation off of my USB stick.

I don't really know what I am doing, so this is a brute force method, but it works for me. Please help me to make it more elegant.

For this procedure you need:

Your USB drive
Your Windows installation source and
CodeBeetle's PeToUSB from http://codebeetle.com/page.php?al=petousb

For the steps below I am assuming you are working from a PC with windows loaded on C:

1. Make a copy of your C:\boot.ini to boot.bak

2. Navigate to your windows installation source and run a noreboot setup. For me from my CD it was

Start->Run and type E:\I386\winnt32.exe /noreboot
When prompted, choose Installation Type "New Installation"
At Setup Options - Advanced Options Check the box for "Copy Setup Files" to directory \WINDOWS
At Get Updated Setup files choose No

Thanks to FlyAKite and gosh at http://flyakite.msfn.org/ for this part. Once all of the installation files have been copied. the installation will simply stop without a reboot. You will now have two new hidden directories on your PC, C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT and C:\$WIN_NT$.~LS . If you can't see them, go to Tools->Folder Options->View in Windows Explorer and choose to show hidden and operating systems files.

3. Once the installation has finished, delete C:\boot.ini and rename C:\boot.bak to C:\boot.ini

4. Build with PeToUSB as follows

Insert your USB stick
Start PeToUSB
In PeToUSB, choose your USB stick drive,
Make sure Enable Disk Format is checked, and
Point Source Path to your installation source (for me it was my CD drive, E:\) then
Click Start, Yes, Yes to run PeToUSB.

5. When PeToUSB is finished, delete everything off of the USB stick EXCEPT

NTLDR
NTDETECT.COM
WIN51
WIN51IP
WIN51IP.SP2

Your WIN files may vary depending upon the service pack level of your install source.

Yes, even delete the \minint directory. All we really obtained from this build is NTLDR, this is where someone smarter than I could simplify the process and save some time if they could help obtain a proper NTLDR another way.

6. Copy the directories C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT and C:\$WIN_NT$.~LS onto your USB stick

7. Create a directory \minint on your USB stick

8. Copy C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\TXTSETUP.INF to the new \minint directory on your USB stick

Steps 7 and 8 are another place where a proper NTLDR file that does not point to \minint would help create a more correct method.

9. Delete the following files from the \$WIN_NT$.~BT directory on your USB stick (thanks again to FlyAKite):

BOOTSECT.DAT
migrate.inf
winnt.sif

10. On your PC hard drive, rename C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT to C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT.OLD and C:\$WIN_NT$.~LS to C:\$WIN_NT$.~LS.OLD

We're hanging on to these files for now in case there are any problems, but we need to change the names. Otherwise when running from your USB stick you may actually be copying the setup files off of your hard disk instead of the stick. I found this out when one time I pulled out my stick during installation - and it kept running!

11. Try it! It if works, delete the two directories in step 10 to clean up.

Hope this works for you, please give it a shot. Any suggestions and improvements are more than welcome, I could really use help with the NTLDR issue so that the time-consuming PE build would not be needed. I'll be glad to answer any questions I can, but like I said, this was a blind squirrel/acorn "hit and miss" for me!

Pat

This post has been edited by porear: Nov 9 2006, 09:04 PM

Of course, for all I know, this may get you to the exact same place as making a DOS bootable stick, copying the setup disk to it, and running winnt.exe...

So, so sorry guys. Still a step away. I just tried a full run through and got all the way to where setup would start copying files to the hard disk, and got the message

"Setup cannot access the CD containing the Windows XP installation files".

This is right after you pick a partition to install to.

My successful run must have been before I renamed the two directories on the hard disk. Something in the setup is still pointing there. So close... any help?

Again, I apologize profusely on jumping the gun calling total success.

Also sorry jaclaz, I didn't address your post.



Yes, I had these files on the root earlier during my first try, but it didn't seem to be looking there.

This post has been edited by porear: Nov 9 2006, 09:03 PM