Install from hard drive...

[jhsands]

I am aware of how to copy an entire CD to hard drive, but how do I put the boot record from the XP CD onto the hard drive?

For instance, if i386 is in harddrive:\xpcd\i386 how would I make the bootloader run the setup program?

you know... the one that says ... setup is inspecting your hardware configuration

My thinking is that windows setup will overwrite the boot sector and boot normally after the initial boot.

[jaclaz]

I am aware of how to copy an entire CD to hard drive, but how do I put the boot record from the XP CD onto the hard drive?

For instance, if i386 is in harddrive:\xpcd\i386 how would I make the bootloader run the setup program?

you know... the one that says ... setup is inspecting your hardware configuration

My thinking is that windows setup will overwrite the boot sector and boot normally after the initial boot.

Well, you don't.

The CD bootsector is different from a bootsector on HD.

You can use this batch:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=2362

to create a bootsector invoking SETUPLDR.BIN instead of NTLDR.

Such a bootsector can be chainloaded by an entry in BOOT.INI, but if the drive is NTFS the bootloader name MUST be 5 characters long. (you need to have a renamed SETUPLDR.BIN)

Also, paths are hardcoded, \xpcd\i386 will NEVER work, paths are:

\I386 on CD

\minint on HD

\$WIN_NT$.~BS for Setup after first stage

unless you hexedit/modify the loader

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...3784&st=249

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=17504

Most of the problems have been solved in this thread:

http://www.msfn.org/board/boot-install-USB-key-t61384.html

from which you should get all the info you need.

jaclaz

[drscouse]

I used this method...

http://weblogzz.blogspot.com/2008/01/insta...-pen-drive.html