USBMULTIBOOT is perfect, I think we can put XP source and all necessary files on USB-DISK in one package such as ISO or IMG file and use grub4dos to boot it and install to local hard disk. There two obvious advantages one is safety the other is we needn't to care USBDISK's file format for we can select file type in ISO/IMG package.

Also I think we can boot this ISO/IMG via grub4dos installed on hard disk or usb cdrom or other device.

Maybe one problem is when map ISO/IMG as hd0 or else, is it possilbe? how about the speed?

I will try later.

ANY SUGGESTION?

THANKS.

I wish it was possible, but it is not. XP will bluescreen 0x7B at some point as it will lose connection to the emulated drive since has no drivers for it.
Install from ISO into RAM disk, using 2003 ramdisk.sys is also not possible, as reported a while ago by cdob.

http://www.msfn.org/board/Installing-Unatt...906#entry584906
http://www.msfn.org/board/Installing-Unatt...006#entry588006
http://www.msfn.org/board/How-to-boot-inst...040#entry659040
http://www.msfn.org/board/XP-x64-Install-t...805#entry749805


ilko

But of course nothing prevents from making a "dd-like" image of the smallest possible working USB stick and deploy it to any (same or bigger sized) other USB stick.

All motherboards nowadays "accept" a nx255x63 geometry, so there will be NO problems whatsoever.

Sure, if you use a 1Gb image on a 2Gb stick you will (temporarily) loose 1 Gb of space, and you will have to check to use a "little-less-than-tag" capacity if you use the image on another 1Gb stick, as capacity may vary slightly with different sticks, but that's all.

See this seemingly unrelated thread:
http://forum.winimage.com/viewtopic.php?t=3121

jaclaz