Make USB stick bootable.

[Surreal Killa]

I've used about 50 CDs testing out nLite, and so I'm wondering is there a simple utility that will let me make my 1GB Sony USB memory stick bootable? It would help a lot and save me buying more CDs.

[Legolash2o]

I dont know of an utility but have you heard of VMWare its great for testing out your installs and saves alot of CD's! Fast to...

Edited October 24, 2007 by legolash2o

[Surreal Killa]

Yeah, I've heard of it. But it's not what I'm looking for.

[extrabigmehdi]

well,

your motivations are not clear (what's wrong with vmware ?)

Anyway, after a quick search:

http://www.msfn.org/board/Install_XP_USB_t...amp;hl=usb+boot

good luck

[Arie]

Yeah, I've heard of it. But it's not what I'm looking for.

Why?

[Surreal Killa]

Because if I can make a USB stick bootable I will be able to save on a lot of CDs for the future, but it doesn't matter anyways, all the info I find on it is very complicated. I managed to make my USB stick bootable but it took the image of a floppy disc and so instead of being able to hold 1GB it would only let 1.44MB of data onto it, so that's no good.

[jaclaz]

Well, you don't seem too motivated.

Making a USB stick bootable is actually not difficult, just use the method in FAQ #4 here:

http://home.graffiti.net/jaclaz:graffiti.n...SB/USBfaqs.html

Installing XP from a USB stick is a bit more tricky, but if you care to read the "main" thread about it, you will see how wimb posted a batch capable of doing it:

http://www.msfn.org/board/boot_install_USB...html&st=404

(but do read the thread to better understand the procedure)

If you do not remove WINNT.EXE support with nlite, you can still use the good ol' DOS method:

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=16713&hl=

jaclaz

[mushu13]

CD-RW

[BikinDutchman]

There is an old HP utility that does the trick: search for SP27608.exe.

Under Vista it is very easy: make the partition of the USB drive active, see the WinPE 2.0 guide

If you have no Vista you can download the WAIK here, obtain a WinPE 2.0 iso, make a WinPE 2.0 CD, boot from that CD and do the above.

Making WinXP (installation) bootable from USB is quite a challenge, see extrabigmehdi's post. I think that, eventually, someone will figure it out but it will take a while; MS will not be happy.

Good luck,

[jaclaz]

Making WinXP (installation) bootable from USB is quite a challenge, see extrabigmehdi's post. I think that, eventually, someone will figure it out but it will take a while; MS will not be happy.

What you missed is that in the referred thread:

http://www.msfn.org/board/boot_install_USB...html&st=404

someone ALREADY figured it out, the method is tested, working, scripted, and is currently in final refinements (SATA drives, etc.) and betterings/adding features.

jaclaz

[DeepAnger]

I've used about 50 CDs testing out nLite, and so I'm wondering is there a simple utility that will let me make my 1GB Sony USB memory stick bootable? It would help a lot and save me buying more CDs.

Hi All,

Despite the fact that I haven't "burned" a CD-R for years, I recently felt the need to use USB (flash or external HD) for faster UBCD4WIN loading. And I've been afraid of what I found, long, complicated procedures, using bits of linux, DOS, Windows, etc. I couldn't decide myself to waste so much time in something that seemed so easy. And I found a (almost) one click solution:

http://gocoding.com/page.php?al=petousb

The drawback is that there's no easy solution to have several partitions on a USB Flash Disk. And whith this program, you'll have at best a 2 GB FAT partition (I waste 1/2 of my 4 GB flash disk space). But it's really easy to use.

Greetings.

[neo]

Nice !dea...4...nLite

[BikinDutchman]

Well, I did a small experiment

I made a bootable WinPE 2.0 usb stick, using WAIK.

After that I copied my customized, and nLited "WinXP" folder to the root of that stick.

I booted WinPE 2.0 from the USB stick, and executed M:\WinXP\i386\winnt32 /s:M:\WinXP\i386 /syspart:C /tempdrive:C /udf:ComputerName,UdbFile /unattend:AnswerFile

M: is the drive letter of the stick; C: is the drive letter of the target partition. The arguments after tempdrive depend on what and how you want to customize.

I already had two different RAID drivers integrated in the WinPE 2.0 image, and in the WinXP installation.

Making it ready for the usb was a 30' job; works like a charm ; WinPE 2.0 is free, easy to use and customize, and for the first time ever, offers easy and consistent mass storage driver integration.

The catch is: the WinPE 2.0 image takes 100 MB stick space .

And btw the Vista installation is also based on a WinPE implementation.

[jaclaz]

The catch is: the WinPE 2.0 image takes 100 MB stick space .

Yep, since WinPE is BORN as a Pre-installation Environment, using it to install a NT based system works allright, the point is to minimize the "catch", see this:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=644

but it seems like noone wants to take the challenge.

jaclaz

[shajunxing]

Virtual machines such as VMWare and VirtualBox is the best testing suit. You can use .iso to emulate so that you will not waste CDs any more.