[Question] - Possible to install XP from usb click drive?

[llloyd]

I have a large number of computers that I need to perform unattended installs on that unfortunately do not have cd-rom drives. The machines are old and are in very small cases that unfortunately do not have room for an internal cd-rom drive so I've been removing the case, hooking up a cdrom, installing windows, then removing the cdrom and putting it back together. It works, but its far from efficient.

I'm wondering if it would work to have a boot disk (they do have floppy drives) with usb drivers on it and then run the install from a click drive?

Title Edited - Please follow new posting rules from now on.

--Zxian

[ColdFusion200]

im guessing that if you have a large number of computers that you are on some kind of network

maybe you could create an image, boot from a floppy and install the image over the network?

[InTheWayBoy]

Well if they are old, then you might not be able to boot from a USB device...if that's the case then you are S.O.L.

If it can boot to a USB device, you're still not out of the woods yet. As far as I know, you can't start the install directly from the device. But, you could try booting to BartPE from the USB drive and then initiating the setup from within BartPE.

I've been trying to do something similar for a while, but my situation is a little different...the only bootable device I have is an SD card, and with the way Toshiba makes it bootable it's not very possible for me to get anywhere.

If you need help booting BartPE, you should look at the official forums:

911cd.net/forums

They have several ways of booting BartPE off a USB device. You'll probably need to test and refine it a lot.

In truth, if you can swing it you should try doing what ColdFusion recommended...network install. Hell, if you have a RIS server setup you probably won't have to carry a boot disk if the computers are PXE capable!

[Zxian]

I think with just XP, you're out of luck anyways. AFAIK, the XP setup re-initializes the USB devices partway through the installation process, thereby loosing connection to the source files (or something of that sort). I think it's been discussed before...

You could also look into RIS installations. They can be installed without CD-ROMs.

[ooky]

I have toyed with this and have heard it is possible, but it did require BartPE (or similarly WinPE). The trick was to replace the ramdrive.sys (or ramdisk.sys) with one from Windows 2003. This creates a ramdrive that the system boots into, thus booting into BartPE, from there you are in a Windows environement where you can initiate an installation. Starting an installation from BartPE is particularly helpful with unattended installs.

I never was able to get this working with a USB drive on some systems, so I resorted to (and I am very glad I did) to booting into Bartpe through the network using PXE. I was able to get this working without RIS or any SIF files. It is just a pure PXE environment that uses syslinux (aka pxelinux) for the menus. With syslinux I am able to create menus for selecting floppy and other images to boot into. This can be hosted on a windows system or Linux system, so don't let syslinux scare you away. This is by far the best thing I did. I work in a server and PC systems building environement where having a single copy of any tool on the network makes things easier for our builders.

Enough about me, here are some links that you might find helpful:

http://www.911cd.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=9685&st=0

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Searching msfn or 911cd might also be helpful.

Edited January 16, 2006 by ooky

[DarkShadows]

If you can boot from a USB-CD-ROM device, and you have no other alternative, you might look into getting an Iomega Rev drive for the job. But this would cost about US $300.00. to get a drive and one 35GB cartridge.

REV comes in a USB model, however if memory serves me it is only be compatible with the USB 2.0 specification, not backward compatible with USB 1.1. So your motherboard will have to have native USB 2.0. The REV can be booted from directly without a PE, floppy, etc (though it is slow). I actually tried this once, but I did not complete the installation. I was just trying to see if I could, and it was so slow that my DVD alternative was much faster. Booting from REV should still work through the various stages of Windows Setup, because the Iomega Rev drive uses the UDF file system and appears like a CD-ROM drive from the system's perspective. So it is essentially, booting from a CD, through a USB bus.

But as others have pointed out, if your machines are that old, you might not be able to even boot from a USB device at all. And to use a REV drive, you must be able to boot from a USB-CD-ROM device (my Gigabyte motherboard has USB-HDD, USB-FDD, and USB-CD as possible boot devices).

Edited January 17, 2006 by DarkShadows

[LLXX]

If the BIOS has the capability to mount USB storage devices so they are accessible as normal hard drives under DOS, you can boot DOS from a floppy, use it to copy the install files from the USB drive to the main hard drive, and run the setup from there.

[TheFlash428]

im guessing that if you have a large number of computers that you are on some kind of network

maybe you could create an image, boot from a floppy and install the image over the network?

Yes, this would work--but keep in mind that you would need to be able to load an image using Ghost or something similar. I know it is possible to actually install windows over the network fresh, but that would require a little more information that I don't have. For information on creating a network boot disk, here is a link:

http://www.netbootdisk.com/

[InTheWayBoy]

If you are looking to load over the network, then you have two choices in my opinion:

1. RIS - M$ Tool that does what you need...requires 2000 or 2003 to run, and needs a functioning Active Directory.

2. Unattended - Looks to be an opensource form of RIS, with some small differences. This is the way to go if you don't have the requirements for RIS.

After you decide which route to take, and there are more, then you'll want to start creating and testing your images. If the machines have a PXE capable NIC, then you most likely won't even have to use a boot disk, if can boot right of the network! That is by far the best feature...

[Angelico_Payne]

Start installing Windows

After first restart turn off computer

Make an image of these files

copy them to other computer

and continue setup

* if u cannot boot, copy ghost diskette (dos boot files + ghost executable) on Hdd

Are you allowed to open these machine, it would be best if you hook up additional HDD or Cd/Dvd Rom via IDE

[Angelico_Payne]

....ergh how do you delete an accidental post...

ACCIDENTAL POST : PLEASE DELETE:

Edited January 21, 2006 by Angelico_Payne

[llloyd]

thanks everyone for the suggestions. Unattended looks interesting so I shall check that out, otherwise RIS it is.