USB Flash drive- put WinXPPro on it?

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Kil4Thril

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Has anyone done a slipstream install image and saved it to a flash drive? Does it work well? How big does the drive need to be for SP2+updates?
 
It should be able to fit on a 4gb flash stick... I don't think 2 gb will be enough, but I may be wrong.
 
It's been asked on here quite a bit, but it's not really feasible. The performance from USB would be horrible. If you need a windows-like environment without booting from a hard drive, look into BartPE.
 
I guess I should be a bit clearer. I want to use the flash instead of disc to install WinXP. It should be MUCH faster than reading from disc, and I can install to systems (tablets, laptops, etc) that don't even have opticals.
 
Kil4Thril said:
I guess I should be a bit clearer. I want to use the flash instead of disc to install WinXP. It should be MUCH faster than reading from disc, and I can install to systems (tablets, laptops, etc) that don't even have opticals.
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Now that might be possible and even desirable.

Go to 911cd and check out how those guys are getting the BartPE environment to boot from USB. Some of their tricks might just be what you need to do what you are asking.

Also look into Bashrat the Sneaky's driver packs. He keeps getting drivers and slipstreaming them into a BartPE or XP install CD.

Good Luck and let us know how you make out!
 
In that case, it might work, as simply as making a USB drive bootable to a DOS prompt and running the install from there. However, it's still not going to run very fast. I see your point about computers without optical drives, but I think I'd prefer dropping a sysprepped image onto those machines from the network.
 
I read somewhere that it isnt possible for normal old winxp pro to boot from usb because of the way it Initializes the USB bus on startup.

BartPE rocks though.
 
djnes said:
In that case, it might work, as simply as making a USB drive bootable to a DOS prompt and running the install from there. However, it's still not going to run very fast. I see your point about computers without optical drives, but I think I'd prefer dropping a sysprepped image onto those machines from the network.
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I'd use the USB key to boot onto the network to pull the image. Definitely faster than using the key to pull the image. (I'm on GigE.)

I get faster throughput using the Windowx XP stack instead of just DOS, although it is faster either way.

You could easily do a BartPE bootable USB stick with a directory to install XP from on a 1 gig memory stick.
 
nessus said:
I'd use the USB key to boot onto the network to pull the image. Definitely faster than using the key to pull the image. (I'm on GigE.)

I get faster throughput using the Windowx XP stack instead of just DOS, although it is faster either way.

You could easily do a BartPE bootable USB stick with a directory to install XP from on a 1 gig memory stick.
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I have never messed with the BartPE, though I do have it. Do I just make a bootable image on the thumbdrive using BartPE, and then copy over an ISO made with NLite or such?
 
bump.

I have a new 2GB drive, so I'll be trying this real soon. I need to DL all my stuff for a proper new slipstream.
 
Theres a how to over on the NU2 site (BartPE site) on how to get it onto a USB drive, I havent had much luck with it,,,yet
 
dbwillis said:
Theres a how to over on the NU2 site (BartPE site) on how to get it onto a USB drive, I havent had much luck with it,,,yet
Click to expand...


Thanks, I'll check that out. I also have an idea involving the U3 that comes on the stick. When I plug it in, it is recognized as a CD-ROM drive! That MAY be helpful, but probably not since I need recognition pre-Windows.
 
Just to clarify, are you're trying to use the flash drive as a solid-state hard drive or in liu of a CD-ROM to load the OS from?

If using it as a solid-state drive, the flash will wear out rather quickly, would it not? I suppose if you have a hard drive in the system and place your page file there (or mount your swap) instead of on the flash then the life expectancy would be greatly extended (due to the constant rewrites being off the flash memory).
 
The second one there is titled:

"I successfully installed xp from a USB hard drive"

and while that's relatively easy to do, installing from a USB Flash drive isn't the same thing nor is the process quite as simple just because it's a different type of media. The procedure most like works (I've tried it, never had any success) and I'm still looking for an absolutely foolproof method of taking an XP SP2 CD ISO and transferring that directly to a USB Flash drive for use as an installer - meaning the CD is no longer necessary.

Sure, it's possible to copy all the files off the CD to the USB Flash drive and make the Flash drive bootable using some 98SE boot sectors, but that's still not the same as booting off the USB key itself and going right into the installation exactly as you would if you were booting off CD.

I don't think it's possible to do what I myself and many other people would love to do, but it doesn't hurt to dream I suppose.

I've got a 4GB USB Flash drive that I'd love to slap Vista's DVD image on and do some install speed testing, but it just doesn't work that way.
 
bbz_Ghost said:
The second one there is titled:

"I successfully installed xp from a USB hard drive"

and while that's relatively easy to do, installing from a USB Flash drive isn't the same thing nor is the process quite as simple just because it's a different type of media. The procedure most like works (I've tried it, never had any success) and I'm still looking for an absolutely foolproof method of taking an XP SP2 CD ISO and transferring that directly to a USB Flash drive for use as an installer - meaning the CD is no longer necessary.

Sure, it's possible to copy all the files off the CD to the USB Flash drive and make the Flash drive bootable using some 98SE boot sectors, but that's still not the same as booting off the USB key itself and going right into the installation exactly as you would if you were booting off CD.

I don't think it's possible to do what I myself and many other people would love to do, but it doesn't hurt to dream I suppose.

I've got a 4GB USB Flash drive that I'd love to slap Vista's DVD image on and do some install speed testing, but it just doesn't work that way.
Click to expand...

That is exactly what I want to do. I LEGALLY use a volume license, and it would be much easier for me to just carry a couple of good flash drives over a book full of CD's. I haven't had success, yet.
 
bbz_Ghost said:
The second one there is titled:

"I successfully installed xp from a USB hard drive"

and while that's relatively easy to do, installing from a USB Flash drive isn't the same thing nor is the process quite as simple just because it's a different type of media. The procedure most like works (I've tried it, never had any success) and I'm still looking for an absolutely foolproof method of taking an XP SP2 CD ISO and transferring that directly to a USB Flash drive for use as an installer - meaning the CD is no longer necessary.

Sure, it's possible to copy all the files off the CD to the USB Flash drive and make the Flash drive bootable using some 98SE boot sectors, but that's still not the same as booting off the USB key itself and going right into the installation exactly as you would if you were booting off CD.

I don't think it's possible to do what I myself and many other people would love to do, but it doesn't hurt to dream I suppose.

I've got a 4GB USB Flash drive that I'd love to slap Vista's DVD image on and do some install speed testing, but it just doesn't work that way.
Click to expand...

It does work on a flash drive, still the process is not simple nor straight forward. You have to take several steps by hand but it works.
 
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