ilko_t

What service pack is the XP you are installing? Make a note of a few of the files missing and check if they are missing indeed from the USB.

USB Repair line in boot line is added by default when installing from USB using the methods in this subforum. It's been like this since the beginning. In the latest releases of WinSetupFromUSB this line is not included due to the number of complains "why there are two boot options on my new installation". Well, as far as I remember you are the first or the second person rising up this issue, compared to hundreds of thousands of downloads. How do you add it if not present- BartPE/UBCD4Win, bootcfg from recovery console, Linux live CD with NTFS support...

As I get it on the 20GB disk you did manage to perform repair install from the USB stick, right? For the 80GB disk- add to boot.ini the following line and try repair again: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="USB Repair" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

1) Was that installation made from USB stick? 2) Post here or attach boot.ini on the hard disk 3) Post here or attach \windows\system32\$winnt$.inf on the hard disk 4) Post here or attach \$win_nt$.~bt\winnt.sif on the USB stick

Version 0.2.3 released. Please refer to the first post for download links.

Have a look at this thread: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=135202

You are getting "j" when you boot from USB on that computer, or when you boot from its hard disk? If it's from the USB- how large is the USB stick? What tool did you use to format it with? In what file system? The windows version has nothing to do with the problem.

You may extract the ISO somewhere rather than burning it. 7z from http://www.7-zip.org/ is a great tool, supporting ISO format too.Other way around is to mount the ISO- the freeware ImDisk is perfect for the purpose. http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.html#ImDisk Because syslinux.exe, used to save syslinux bootsector as a file, which can be chainloaded by grub4dos doesn't seem to like NTFS, using the latest 3.82: Not sure how and where you installed syslinux, maybe more details could help You can use external USB disk, but x64 versions of XP and 2003, as well as 32bit 2003 cannot be installed using this program, not without some manual interventions during setup. Cannot help here.

Dells are known troublemakers, have at look at the FAQs thread, Q3/A3: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=116766

Happy both of you made it

It is too many to list, basically the most of the compressed files (filename.ex_, filename.dl_ etc.) which are copied during Text mode part.

I am not sure colors could be changed per menu entry. In any case you need to post in another topic your menu.lst, otherwise how one could guess what you have tried?!

@$hitblast Quick comparison of speed- Fat32 vs FAT16 vs NTFS: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=125116 About booting- post a screenshot of Disk Management console showing all partitions. If my guess is right your Windows partition is logical, whereas it should be primary and set active.

Welcome to the forum Please avoid needless quoting, especially of lengthy posts. And your question is?

@Tulert Since your motherboard refuses (for now) to present USB stick as HD, are you willing to experiment another way of installing XP when stick is seen as FD? Would be easy to do it with very few changes... If you need urgently to install XP from USB stick and not so much to experiment and make it work as it's supposed to, just say. @steve6375 Glad to see you around About ISO booting of XP setup: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=135083 About winnt32.exe - you maybe know already- there are a few switches, which make copying of XP source to the destination hard disk unnecessary: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...st&p=679830

Not really Ilko_t wants first to ensure booting in HD mode is impossible indeed, then to move on experimenting in FD mode, which in his opinion would involve much more work to get the applications needed to work correctly. Plus ilko_t doesn't want to interfere with the work here, just assisting/clarifying when the main technician is absent, being afraid that after all the work the "lab mouse" does, replies may be delayed while he is waiting on "standby" The lenghty post #19 was crossposting, if I knew you were in the building, I would have preferred to stay in "reading mode" Nice weekend from me too, back on duties sunday evening/monday

What didn't work? Wrong topic?

Lets elaborate a bit on this subject. You can claim "successful boot" in case the boot loader loaded by either bootsector or MBR gets loaded. When you see grub4dos prompt => successful boot Grub4dos boot menu entries (blue screen as you describe it, means grldr found menu.lst and processed it)=>successful boot When you see boot menu from NTLDR presenting the entries in BOOT.INI=> successful boot (Blinking) cursor=> unsuccessful boot Stuck at motherboard logo=> unsuccessful boot Stuck with other symbols on screen (_h etc.)=> unsuccessful boot With your Asus MB you have another problem to resolve- in case of successful boot the USB stick is presented as Floppy Disk, which is bad for our needs- XP setup won't start from such device, so will BartPE and many other, can't recall if Vista/7 setup would like being started from FD or not. So we need to format it in such way, so: 1) boot is successful (boot loader/manager is executed and loaded) 2) USB stick is seen as hard disk You know now what 1) means, to check 2): The easiest way I can think of is to have grub4dos launched and check from its command prompt how the USB device is seen as: To launch grub4dos: 1) Install grub4dos bootsector (grubinst (hdX,0) where X is the disk number found by trying grubinst -v -l (hd1) hd2 and so on) and copy grldr to root of USB stick 2) Install grub4dos MBR (it seeks for grldr file which is grub4dos loader on all available devices and executes it) - grubinst (hdX) and copy grldr to root of USB stick 3) If you formatted the USB stick under XP/2000- copy NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM and the following BOOT.INI: [boot loader] timeout=30 default=c:\grldr [operating systems] c:\grldr="Start GRUB4DOS" c:\nothing="Dummy line NOT to be used" To avoid confusion if you have grldr on other disks create a blank file on the USB stick root and name it tagfile.tag. Once in grub4dos CLI use the following command to find out how the USB stick is seen as: find /tagfile.tag If the output is fd0 or 1 then stick is seen as Floppy disk- bad. If the output is hd0 then you are good to go. Next you can use WinSetupFromUSB without reformatting USB stick and copy whatever you want to.

You have HD option for USB emulation in BIOS as far as I remember, right? I don't see anywhere in your tests setting USB emulation to hard disk, or did I miss it?Don't forget this post of Jaclaz:

You need to use HP USB format tool and FAT32 / NTFS (preferably for speed) on such large drives. Have you tried?

You need to boot from your USB stick, choosing the appropriate BIOS option. On the USB stick you need to have XP setup files prepared for install from USB. Then you stall normal setup procedure until you get offered repair installation. You do NOT start from your hard disk choosing the option USB repair, it would be in use only by Setup.

1) You need to disable/disconnect USB card reader if possible during setup 2) The second partition on the hard disk must be PRIMARY, not logical inside extended, and set active in advance. Then boot files will be placed on the second partition, where your windows will be. You can use PartedMagic to delete the second partition, make a new one as primary type and set it active. Then you can reinstall. Backup any important data you have. In this case you should be using again "Second part of XP Professional setup from hd 0 part 2". I guess Setup deleted grub4dos bootsector, that's why you don't have first part now. Quick workaround is to add this line at the bottom of boot.ini on the USB stick: c:\grldr="Start First part of setup" I guess you copied boot.ini to C: manually, didn't you? Are there NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM too?

1. When using command prompt and every other tool mentioned below open it with administrator rights. Do you know how? 2. Null the first sectors on the USB: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...st&p=852517 3. Unplug and replug your USB stick after every write operation, using safely remove hardware icon 4. Format USB stick manually in NTFS using HPUSBFW.EXE in \WinSetupFromUSB\files\tools\. Keep in mind about admin rights. 5. Replug USB stick. 6. Close any windows explorer instances opened and any other program which may be accessing the USB stick. Disable antivirus program if you have such. 7. In CMD go to \WinSetupFromUSB\files\grub4dos\ 8. Type fsutil volume dismount H:replacing H: with the drive letter of the USB stick 9. Immediately after that issue grubinst -v (hd1,0)assuming you have only 1 internal hard disk and no other USB disks plugged in. 10. If you see "write error" run fsutil again and grubinst right after it. 11. If still no luck- run fsutil again, but after it put grub4dos MBR- grubinst -v (hd1) 12. If you succeed run WinSetupFromUSB (the test version above) and check only these 2 options: -syslinux boot sector (ignore the warning about syslinux and NTFS) -test in QEMU 13. Do you see grub4dos command prompt in QEMU? 14 If yes- close QEMU and put XP setup files or whatever you wanted to put on the USB stick. You should be good to go.

Just a page back in the same thread:http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...st&p=864845

Did you open CMD with admin rights when you issued the command above? Try formatting in NTFS, unplug any unnecessary USB disks and do not plug them until you finish preparing your USB stick. If still no luck- try the version below: http://www.datafilehost.com/download-ec54f0ab.html