Installing Windows XP from a USB pen

66 Responses to “Installing Windows XP from a USB pen”

1. Shawn on January 23rd, 2009 1:48 pm

   Nice tutorial!
   Thank you very much for including a reference back to my site.

   Shawn from scartech.net

2. Jason Lee on January 29th, 2009 1:29 am

   hmm i thought my RSS reader was lying but you did update your post. last time it didnt work but this did the trick!
   nice tutorial mate and cheers

3. prateek on February 3rd, 2009 7:25 am

   in BIOS Setting
   my system shows following option, these are:
   USB-HDD
   USB-ZIP

   which option is correct for first boot device setting….plz let me know

   will it work…

4. Frank on February 5th, 2009 12:18 am

   prateek, Set to USB-HDD that should work for you. If it does not work you can always change it back to the original setting.

5. amitsahu on February 5th, 2009 8:34 pm

   actually after plugging the pen drive to my lappy n setting the bios configuration n starting the lappy ,i found the dos option some hoe like ….. find/menu.list
   find /boot/grub/menu.list
   find /grub/menu.list
   command line,
   reboot.
   halt.

   now wot to do next …..or i m going wrong any way……..

   plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz help me…………..

6. Frank on February 6th, 2009 12:57 am

   okay this means 2 things:

   1. Your pc IS capable of booting from usb.

   2. There is a problem with the usb install you have created.

   This could either be due to:
   - A broken USB pen
   - Something has gone wrong when you created the usb install.

   It is likely that the windows setup files were not copied to the usb drive for some reason…

   Try remaking the usb install.

7. Aaron on February 7th, 2009 6:00 pm

   Hi,

   This is not working right from the start for me. When I get to format with PEtoUSB I get the error:

   “FormatEx Error[11]: An Error Occurred Formatting the Drive.”

   If I check the drive its is now not formatted (windows asks to format when you click on it) – the HP format tool doesnt work either because it asks for DOS files which I dont have, and the use system DOS files is greyed out.

   Any help appreciated
   Aaron

8. Jyot on February 8th, 2009 5:07 pm

   Hey I did it the exact way but when i choose the the primary boot device to USB – FDD nothing comes.

9. Jyot on February 8th, 2009 5:30 pm

   I tried the USB FDD but it is still not booting

10. Frank on February 8th, 2009 5:32 pm

    Jyot, Try USB HDD

11. Frank on February 9th, 2009 12:01 am

    Aaron,

    I have not encountered this problem personally but i did a little research for you.

    I have concluded that:

    1. This may/may not work in windows 2000
    2. Anything above a 2 GB UFD (unversal flash device) will cause errors with this method.
    3. Anything above 4GB will simply not work.

    This is due to the fact that we have to use FAT16 in LBA mode which is limited to a partition size of 2GB. Although, it has been reported that up to a 4GB partition is supported but is known to cause issues.

    I am currently investingating Partitioning larger usb pens in order to make them compatible with the process.

    Референтен:

    http://74.125.77.132/search?q=cache:x1DeKhOcDSQJ:www.msfn.org/board/lofiversion/index.php/t110779.html+FormatEx+Error%5B11%5D&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk

    http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?act=ST&f=82&t=69211&st=0#entry474505

12. Jyot on February 12th, 2009 3:14 pm

    Франк. thanks a lot. In my PC there is no such option as HDD but i remade the whole thing and now its working fine with FDD.
    GR8 Work

13. sheffrem on February 15th, 2009 2:21 am

    Thanks, it worked but when starting stage 2 i mean where it has to start the install process it say there is this hal.dll file missing. pls help

14. Frank on February 16th, 2009 3:43 pm

    sheffrem,

    Check your boot order in the bios. The hard drive you want to install too should be set up as the second boot device.

    Boot order should be

    1. usb pen
    2. hdd you are installing too.

    The reason you are getting this error is because instead of booting the second part of set up it is trying to boot your previous windows install.

    If your boot order is not the problem try remaking the usb installer from scratch. Some files may be missing from the pen drive.

15. vikas on February 17th, 2009 11:58 am

    hi,

    very thanks to show up this tutorial

    i made my kingston 4gb pen drive bootable according to this tutes but the problem is when it is in first phase shows “now windows is starting ” like searching ur hard disk it shows blue screen and stop working

    plz tell me what is this

16. Frank on February 17th, 2009 4:43 pm

    Vikas,

    Can you try re-making the usb install. It is likely that some of the files may not have copied over from your xp cd or image.

    Please report back with the result.

17. vikas on February 18th, 2009 10:57 am

    thanks for answering frank

    actually i had 160gb sata hd in my pc and c: is preformatted from ntfs

    is this ntfs partition is the problem or not
    because in first phase when “setup is installing windows”
    is running then it shows blue screen

    i think the software has problem with ntfs

    tell me
    thanks

18. Frank on February 18th, 2009 1:33 pm

    vikas,

    You are going to have to either delete any pre existing partitions or use another HDD. The existing partition is the problem.

19. vikas on February 19th, 2009 6:11 am

    hello frank

    thankx for ur cooperation

    i fully installed my xp into that pc without any problem through usb pen drive

    this is very user friendly and more fast than installing from cdrom.
    thankx alot frank nice tutorial

20. k p a nair on February 20th, 2009 5:52 pm

    very good and usefull software,as CDs get spoiled fast and often
    thanks

21. Deepesh Shah on February 21st, 2009 9:15 am

    Simlpy Superb… Thanks & its really useful…
    Thanks a lot Frank

22. Joe on March 14th, 2009 9:23 am

    Thanks Very Much Frank.

    I am only 15 and have been looking to make my acer aspire one on linux boot xp for ages now. i have torrented various xp-usb files and none of them have worked…then there is this wonderful tutorial and software. FAB. thanks!

    (oh, if any of you want to boot ANY linux distro from a usb stick then google: UNetbootin download. then download it from the sourceforge website. its great – i firstly replaced linpus lite with fedora 10. (a match made in heaven) not as good as xp on it tho:D )

    Joe

23. Joe on March 14th, 2009 5:58 pm

    Can i appologise for the mass of my comments?!
    Well, im not sure if this was meant to happen, but i cant get the xp to boot from the hard drive. i have to boot it from the usb stick and click on option 2 then repair usb – it doesnt repair it…if it was even broken, but runs xp as normal, viewing all my files and the 150gb hard drive in the netbook.

    i have actually copied the usb stick files onto my hdd and im gunna see what happens then! – sorry for all the comments

24. sifun on March 15th, 2009 6:26 pm

    Thank u for showing this tutorial,
    I have done it, i mean, i have installed xp on my desktop,
    it was not so easy without your help,
    thank you so ooooooooooooooooooooooooo much.

25. Frank on March 17th, 2009 3:27 am

    Hi joe,

    Try deleting all your partitions once you get to the part of the installer where you format drives and choose where windows will install etc (its in part 1 at the beginning). Restart the pc once you’ve cleared all the partitions and start the process again.

    If your still having problems try remaking the usb install as sometimes files dont copy first time round. Giving your usb pen a full format will also help.

26. Rups on March 20th, 2009 6:19 am

    very good …..

27. vimk on April 9th, 2009 5:29 pm

    Hey great guide works great hehe

    I had some problems getting it to work… but it was my mistake hehe didnt read the whole guide before starting

28. Rojin K Mathew on April 12th, 2009 10:57 pm

    thanks mate i was looking for this tool… now i want to do some extra work on my instalation like oem disk … i found asus ee pc dont have cd drives ..it works great for that type laptops

29. pratikroom.blogspot.com on May 20th, 2009 7:09 pm

    thanx , its really works

30. shubhi on June 30th, 2009 6:24 am

    thanks for your valuable advice
    my computer starts working succesfully

31. Rohit on July 27th, 2009 10:31 pm

    great work man.
    thnku lolz

32. João Pedro on August 1st, 2009 6:11 pm

    Very good tutorial! Thank you very much for the help…

    I am having a problem when using the program… I have followed all your steps, but when I try to execute the first part of the installation, the following message shows up:

    “Filesystem type is fat, partition type 0×0E chainloader (hd0,0)/$WIN_NT$.~BT/SETUPLDR.BIN

    Error 15: File not found”

    I don’t know what to do! I hope someone can help me…

    Thank you very much…

33. JerwinFilipino on August 2nd, 2009 10:05 am

    it really works!!!! thank you very much for your time and effort in sharing this tutorial!! Mabuhay ka Author nitong tutorial!! ( Long live to the Author of this tutorial!)

34. JerwinFilipino on August 2nd, 2009 12:14 pm

    hey frank i have a problem,, the installation just kept on repeating,,, windows start menu just dont came out after 3 or for installation.. pls help..tnx

35. Frank on August 2nd, 2009 12:30 pm

    Try rebuilding the usb installer. Sometimes some of the windows installation files do not copy onto the usb properly and can cause the problem you are having. Also, formating of the usb pen a few times may help.

36. Gaurav Srivastava on August 6th, 2009 1:41 pm

    Nice one.
    Thanks a lot
    it really solve my problem.

    thanks !!

37. Sunil Kumar DT on August 25th, 2009 9:05 am

    Nice tutorial sir. keep moving. thank you……..

38. jeff on August 26th, 2009 5:45 pm

    hey frank. when i try the USB install on the 1st part of the setup where windows shows you the partitions on your hard drive it does not show any of mine but just the one FAT16 flash drive as the only possible install destination.. Im not sure what to do. are the partitions on my HDD corrupt? I slipstreamed the storage drivers into the install so Setup should be able to recognize my partitions.

39. Frank on August 27th, 2009 1:11 am

    Hi Jeff,

    It could be a raid issue. do you have a raid controller and if so did you load the raid drivers when windows setup asks during the first part of the install? I think its F6 to start the raid driver loading about 20 seconds into the install.

    If not then it could be to do with the order your hardrive is in in the bios. Try making the harddrive the first device and the usb the second or vice versa.

    Also you could put the hard drive in a working computer and formatt it on that from within windows. You would have the added bonus of knowing wether the drive works or not if you do this.

40. jeff on August 27th, 2009 7:41 pm

    Ok. I seem to have gotten around this issue. I made another custom XP install with updated storage drivers for my computer slipstreamed. Now when i start the setup it can recognize my partitions, however; when i select a partition to install on and format it, setup wont get past the copying files stage. First it stopped at around 20%, then the 2nd time i tried it stopped around 76%. I thnk i can get around this issue by wiping my ENTIRE hard disk clean and re-partitioning. But i have valuable data on another partition that i dont want to lose. Is there any way around this? Thnks for the quick reply…

41. jeff on August 27th, 2009 7:52 pm

    Nvm mind that. Thank God for ubuntu! I booted off the live CD and im currently fishing out evrything on thqat partition onto my flash drive.. So should i wipe my enitre hard disk clean, re-partition and retry the USB setup?

42. Frank on August 27th, 2009 10:28 pm

    Yeh jeff sounds like a good plan. If the setup continues to fail during the file copy give the usb pen with ur custom install on it a good formatt too because somtimes not all of the windows setup files copy over to the usb pen drive.

43. jeff on August 29th, 2009 6:53 am

    Ok, after several attempts i managed to successfully install windows xp via USB as u outlined in this article. (it finally worked after i used the updated version of WinSetup From USB) However, when windows boots for the first time after setup, it stays on the Windows XP boot screen with the bars passing back and forth. So, im not sure what the issue is. it has has been on the screen for quite a while. I also left the USB in after setup. Could this be why it cant get past the bootscreen? Because to my understanding, with the USB install the device must remain in for the 1st time Windows starts up, and after that it is no longer necessary. Once again, thank you for ur help.

44. jeff on August 29th, 2009 7:13 am

    Sorry for all the comments. But I think I know what my problem is. I changed the boot order in my BIOS as you instructed to have USB devices first and my HDD second. However, being the idiot that I am, I tried booting of the HDD when the setup finished and automatically restart instead of booting of the USB! So I will wipe the hard disk clean (again), re-partition and retry the install, and allow it to boot to the USB during the 1st system start. When I do this, I just select option 2 of setup (2nd part of Windows setup + 1st time starting Windows)?? Please correct me if my are assumptions are wrong. Once more… thank you for all your help!

45. Frank on August 30th, 2009 9:59 am

    That sounds about right jeff. Its good to make assumptions it can help you get a result quicker. call it strategy. the reason i ask users to keep the usb pen in the pc untill you see the start menu is because windows expects its default directory to be on a specific drive letter. If you remove then pen drive the hard drive letter can change and this will cause the windows installation to have the wrong windows directory in the registry which is what causes it to stall on startup as you have observed.

    just to explain that further say u had both ur hard drive and the pen drive in ur pc. depending on the boot order ur computer will assign drive letters. So say the pen drive was C: and the hard drive was D: if u remove the usb pen the hard drive will become C: and this causes the issue ur experiencing.

46. Mayur on September 6th, 2009 7:25 pm

    I have written posts on same topic-

    Post 1-Installing Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7 from USB (GUI Tool) : This post tells use of a GUI tool. Handling of tool is described in detail.
    URL-http://compupodia.blogspot.com/2009/09/installing-windows-xp2003vista20087.html

    Post 2-Installing Microsoft Windows XP from USB (CLI Tool) : This post describes a command line tool for making pen drive bootable for installing XP. This tool is nothing but the very good integration of all the tools described in above post.
    URL-http://compupodia.blogspot.com/2009/08/installing-microsoft-windows-xp-from.html

    I have read many comment of your post. I found some have wrote problem of missing hal.dll file. It may cause by selecting GUI mode of installation when you boot from pen drive for first time. To help yourself just read the procedure and follow it correctly.

47. Frank on September 7th, 2009 2:24 pm

    This looks very good im going to have a play with it tonight. Well done and thanks for posting this valuable information.

48. RISYAB on September 14th, 2009 4:56 am

    m trying your tips but after booting “file\$win-NT$.~BT\biosinfo.inf” not found this error see.
    how can solve this problem .

49. bhavtosh on September 15th, 2009 1:42 pm

    very helpful; thanks a lot; you saved my hours

50. Frank on September 15th, 2009 10:20 pm

    Risyab,

    This means the file is missing. Try making the usb install pen again. You could also try using a different xp cd or image.

    you could also try Mayur’s method (see comment from Mayur). however from what I have experienced this method is faster.

51. Иван Иванов on October 17th, 2009 5:42 am

    Понравилась статья. Обязательно буду ждать продолжения. Данная тема безусловно интересна всем.

52. Mazhar on November 2nd, 2009 11:32 am

    Hi Frank, you say that there should not be any partition while installing from usb. So in other words,one cannnot use it to repair already installed xp on pc.

53. Mazhar on November 2nd, 2009 12:09 pm

    And one more thing Frank, since i did not try it, will i get the option of hard disk partitioning and formating from usb in the beginning as we get when we use installation cd , if i remove partition and format hard disk completely.

54. santosh gupta on November 9th, 2009 5:18 am

    sir,
    i have usb pen drive of fat32 system…and is not recognized by the soft you are provided…what to do to solve this problem…do i need to have only fat16 pendrives

55. Frank on November 10th, 2009 2:25 pm

    Mazhar,

    The reason i suggest a clean hard drive is because its quight easy to break ur partitions using this method. It is possible but i wont support you because ive never done it with an existing partition.
    The install is controlled by a different bootloader to initialise the different parts of the windows install. (part 1 the copying process (bluescreen) part 2 the graphical install so no i dont think it would be possible to repair using this method. hope this helps,

    Франк

56. Frank on November 10th, 2009 2:26 pm

    Santosh,

    Try formatting your pen first using the windows drive manager found when you right click my computer icon and go to manage… if that doesnt get it showing up format it to fat16 using PetetoUSB…

57. Mazhar on November 15th, 2009 8:01 pm

    Thanks for your reply, I was referring to a clean hard drive in my second query. Will I get the option of hard disk partitioning and formatting from usb in the beginning if i do it on clean hard drive or do I have to use external dos command separately to partition.

58. Jerry on November 15th, 2009 9:00 pm

    Thanks Frank, for the great support . I followed you instructions to the dot and was successful in booting the system.The blue screen came up and all went well till the screen where we get to see the partition details.

    Issue:

    1. The screen displays only one partition (USB flash drive).
    Internal HDD is not detected.

    Eagerly looking forward to know how to solve this issue.Thanks once again.

59. Frank on November 17th, 2009 6:11 pm

    Jerry,

    It’s possible you have the bios boot order wrong. Make sure your usb pen drive is first and the hard drive you want to install to is second.

    Also, you could try formatting the hard drive and creating a new blank (NTFS) partition by attatching it to another computer. Then put it back into the computer you are working on and see if it shows up then.

    Its also possible the hard drive isnt actually being detected. check to make sure its showing up in your bios.

60. Frank on November 17th, 2009 6:17 pm

    Mazhar

    yes, like the normal windows installer, you do get the option to partition and formatt the drive early in the install.

61. Anup kattel on December 1st, 2009 3:18 pm

    Hi, i have different sort of error. Everything is fine upto selection of which partition to install windows. After i selected drive, it formats But when it is time to copy files to destination disk it says – theFollowing value in the .SIF file used by setup is missing. : value 0 on the line in section (sourseDiskFile) with key “sp2.cab”

62. Anup kattel on December 2nd, 2009 2:16 am

    To jerry.

    There is a option in bios under hard disk section normally it is falled “Enable native SATA support” – on/off . Change this and then the windows setup will detect internal hard disk. This issue in seen when installing from bootable cd, even on desktop computers.

63. Mada on December 7th, 2009 1:56 pm

    Hey Jeff,
    I want to install win xp pro on the 2nd partition of my hdd. But the problem is that I had windows 7 before on the D: drive and Vista on the C: Drive. I then re-installed vista and in vista it says that the system partition is D: when it’s actually C:! (i wiped out windows 7).
    So in the xp installation it shows the vista drive as C: and in vista my computer it shows the system partition as D:. So now when i proceeded with the txt mode it worked fine but then the gui mode isn’t even loading. I assume that it’s because of the drive letter confusion and I don’t want to erase the vista partition.
    So, how am I supposed to install xp now?
    Thanks in advance

64. Frank on December 12th, 2009 9:57 pm

    mada,

    you should take out the hard drives with important data and go find urself a cheap one to install windows on.

65. Raghav on December 19th, 2009 1:19 am

    When i press GO it says “the copy of your Source is not SP2 or SP3(although its SP2) and it also remarks to copy the missing files afterwards how to do that

66. Gzone.cs on December 19th, 2009 8:17 am

    I tried with XP SP3 first. Everything went fine and I successfully installed XP SP3 with this method. Later I wanted to install XP SP2.
    But this time, it shows ‘windows is starting’ and then a blue screen is shown (Fatal error screen) and the system hangs. !!

    Please help !!

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