[brettw.10]

Hi guys,

I have used both the current version of WinSetupFromUSB and 0.1.1 integrated with HP USB in an attempt to create a USB stick to install XP from.

The current version won't recognise my 1G flash drive when I format it manually with HP USB as NTFS, so I have to use RMPrepUSB to format it.

What is more disturbing though is that both versions result in nothing more than a blank screen with a flashing cursor after I have installed the install files onto the NTFS formated flash disk with WinSetupFromUSB. What could be causing this problem?

The one thing that I did differently to some of the tutorials is that I pointed WinSetupFromUSB to my CD drive to find the install files, rather than creating a folder on my machine and copying all the files into that first. Would that have made any difference?

Is the install more likely to work if I format with FAT16 or FAT32?

Regards,
Brett.

This post has been edited by brettw.10: 11 August 2009 - 02:06 AM

[ilko_t]

Quote

The current version won't recognise my 1G flash drive when I format it manually with HP USB as NTFS

What version of HP USB format tool did you use? Is it the one coming with the older versions of the program or you downloaded it manually from elsewhere?
Later versions than 2.0.6 of this tool "forget" to set active partition, hence WSFUSB won't detect it as properly formatted.

Quote

What is more disturbing though is that both versions result in nothing more than a blank screen with a flashing cursor after I have installed the install files onto the NTFS formated flash disk with WinSetupFromUSB. What could be causing this problem?

This has nothing to do with the program, its version etc. USB stick is simply not booting on that particular motherboard formatted in that way. This means what contents on USB stick are is irrelevant.

Try different file system- FAT16, FAT32 etc.
Try upgrading your BIOS if possible.
Test on another machine.

[brettw.10]

ilko_t, on Aug 11 2009, 10:40 AM, said:

Quote

The current version won't recognise my 1G flash drive when I format it manually with HP USB as NTFS

What version of HP USB format tool did you use? Is it the one coming with the older versions of the program or you downloaded it manually from elsewhere?
Later versions than 2.0.6 of this tool "forget" to set active partition, hence WSFUSB won't detect it as properly formatted.

Quote

What is more disturbing though is that both versions result in nothing more than a blank screen with a flashing cursor after I have installed the install files onto the NTFS formated flash disk with WinSetupFromUSB. What could be causing this problem?

This has nothing to do with the program, its version etc. USB stick is simply not booting on that particular motherboard formatted in that way. This means what contents on USB stick are is irrelevant.

Try different file system- FAT16, FAT32 etc.
Try upgrading your BIOS if possible.
Test on another machine.

I was using v2.1.8 when I did it manually, and whatever version was included in WinSetupFromUSB 0.1.1.

The machine that gave me the blank screen with the cursor is a Samsung NC10 Netbook, and I would have thought that it should be able to boot NTFS.

I am doing another image now with FAT16 and pulling the install files from the HDD rather than the CD. Let's see if that works.

Regards,
Brett.

[jaclaz]

Check FAQ #10 here:
http://home.graffiti.net/jaclaz:graffiti.n...SB/USBfaqs.html

The 2.0.6 version works allright, setting the active partition.
The 2.1.8, to be more accurate, appears to IGNORE the status of the partition, i.e. if it is already active (80 at offset 446) it leaves it 80, if it's already non-active, it leaves it like that (00 at offset 446).

RMPREPUSB or any of the other tools listed here:
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...87993&st=17
take care of that part.

Additionally, if using FAT32 there is a 4 byte patch needed to the bootsector, see here:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...=8528&st=21
also taken care of in some of the listed utilities.

jaclaz

[brettw.10]

Formatting with FAT16 and pulling the image from the HDD worked. I am guessing that it was the file system that made the difference.

Thanks for the help,
Brett.