[How-to] Running the full autobooted XPSP2 in USB-HDD

[DrHoang]

Dietmar made a so great work of making the installation XPSP2 in USB- HD the first time in the world . Due to his sensational work and genial idea, I am so daring to make some little personal modifications to run a full autobooted XPSP2 with a lot of softwares very normally within USB- HD or USB-FD .

That application of mine relying on Dietmar’s work fully, have some importances because we could not use XPE-USB or PE-USB anymore.

There is a big difference between them( PE-USB and XPSP2-USB ) in the following convenient points:

1)In XPE-USB or PE-USB, we had to waste a lot of time to make all plug-ins to install them and some softs not fully working like Office 2003, Nero 70 if they don’t have each efficient plug-in in XPE ..

2)In the contrary, with the XPSP2-USB, we could install any software as we want normally like Office 2003 without any difficulty( the right way in our hard disk ) . Another convenient problem more : from now, we could get rid off making any plug-ins for them .

We could type any DOC file, relax to see DVD, have printing jobs easier than ever within XPSP2 USB. Good bye for making all audio, modem, printers plug-in.

3)The booted time to a full appearance of XP desktop is also very different between them: 5 minutes only for XPSP2-USB contrary to 10 minutes of XPE-USB or PE-USB.

4) Finally if we made success of an autobooted XPSP2 fully running in USB hard disk, XPE-USB or PE-USB become out of dated very soon .

They are still useful only in one point : try working in CD; or in our hard disk next to C .

Following is my personal ways relying on the full Dietmar’s tutorial 3 with a bit of modifications of mine:

1)Download all tools( XPUSB.zip and REG.zip ) from http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OZCVCKR4

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WLD597W2

2)Firstly, from DOS or another windows( 2000) in D partition, try to make a ghost( ghost 32.exe or ghost.exe of 8.2 ) to save the actual C partition to E one’s with a name : XPSP2.gho

3)You could also use Partition magic 805 in CD( from any rescue CD ) or from another windows in D ( 2000 ) to delete this C partition; create a new name XPSP2 again ; format it in FAT 32 or NTFS.

4)Reboot and begin to install a new fresh XPSP2 in your blank C partition. Next, install all necessary driver hardwares and a lot of softwares you want, like Office 2003, WinRAR, InterDVD70, Ulead DVD player 15, Smartcapture 351,.. Opera 805, Winamp 52, Flash get 171 , Cute FTP pro 71 .. Remember to install all these softs in the same C partition only.

5)Disable Pagefile sys file in Performance and reboot to save this configuration.

6)Make a ghost save for C partition with a new name XP0.gho to E partition

7)Make a ghost restore XPSP2.gho form E partition to C one’s . Reboot again.

8)Within XPSP2 , plug your USB hard drive and make a ghost restore XP0.gho to USB hard drive by ghost32.exe. Reboot again.

9)Also in XPSP2 , you begin to make a change to USB hard disk to make it autobootable by copying ntdetect.com; boot.ini to the root folder of USB and all USBSP1 drivers to sytem32\driver ( from XPUSB.zip downloaded ).

Don’t copy ntoskrnl.exe to windows of USB yet ( you reserved it in case of your USB not booted successfully by this way ).

10) Create a temp folder : RETTUNG within system32\config of USB-HD. Copy the file system of config to the RETTUNG folder.

11)Type Regedit on Run ; choose HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and load hive from files. Go to System in RETTUNG folder and create a name subfolder OTTO below the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE .

12)Edit by notepad otto.reg two last lines about USB hard drive identification( Use Check_U_disk.exe to have all ID information of your USB HD ):

- First last line : VID&PID

- Second last line: VendorID, name, productID, productRevision of USBHD

13)Double click on Otto.reg and Otto1.reg to incorporate them to registry of OTTO.

14)Export OTTO as Reg Hive file to RETTUNG as a name OTTO.

15)Close XP registry and reopen it to unload OTTO from XP registry.

16)Delete System and system.log from RETTUNG.

17) Rename OTTO to system. Copy the file system and paste right here and rename Copy of the system to the system.sav.

18)Copy 2 files system and system.sav from RETTUNG to config ( USB- HDD) . Delete the file system.log if it has in config folder. Also delete the RETTUNG folder now.

19)Go to the INF folder of windows ( USB-HDD ), delete 3 files of usb.pnf, usbport.pnf, usbstor. pnf.

20) Open 2 files usb.inf, usbport.inf: Replace Base in LoadOrderGroup to System Bus Extender ONLY for "usbhub", "usbehci", "usbohci", "usbuhci".

Add one more line below StartType = 0 ONLY for "usbhub", "usbehci", "usbohci", "usbuhci", "usbstor"

21)Especially for the file usbstor.inf, open it by notepad and replace the PnP Filter of the LoadOrderGroup = to System Bus Extender

22)Close your PC and reboot . Press on delete to go to CMOS; to change first boot device to “ USB-HDD” , save and exit. Reboot one time more.

23) That time, your PC becomes autobooted by USB-HDD. Don’t be in despair quickly if you see a black screen only : you must wait at least for 3 minutes to have the first appearance of the progress bar and 2 minutes more to see the first XP logo and the final XP desktop.

Wow, you already made a big success autobooted running a full XPSP2 within an USB hard disk the first time.. Make a ghost save of USB hard drive to a new name USB.gho and reuse it in case of USB-HD not autobooted anymore or your seeing BSOD subitely.

24)If you would like you make an autobooted running XPSP2 within any Flash drive( size of 2GB at least ) , you must know to use EWF ( enhanced write filter ) to protect to have the longest life span of your Flash drive. If not, your Flash drive could be died anytime.

25)You could disable pagefile sys in XPSP2 only if your PC had enough RAM ( 526MB ) .

In conclusion, if you make out of running autobooted XPSP2 within USB-hard disk, perhaps, you don’t like to use or make a PE-USB or XPE-USB anymore because of a lot of inconvenience compared to XPSP2 in USB-HD( Dietmar’s ways ).

You see my pic showing the first time my autobooted USB-HDD partition appeared in C ( XPUSB ) and my normal XP is displaced to D partition ( XPSP2 ), my Windows 2000 in D also displaced to E . Those XP-USB corner desktop of mine is full of a lot of softwares those I want to run.

Dr Hoang from Vietnam

Edited February 4, 2006 by Zxian

[DrHoang]

Hi all,

Jaclaz's new suggestions makes my Dietmar's modified method running a full XPSP2 in USB-HDD to have the best application:

1) keep your OS( XPSP2 ) with all personal data in your USB portable box ( laptop size )

2) Easier update all softs than XPE than ever( like Office 2003, IE 7 beta 2. Windows media player 11 ): all of those softs never have any working plugin in XPE ...

Sincerely yours

Dr Hoang from Vietnam

[ronwolfe]

Numerous articles mention "Check_U_disk.exe"

Where do I get this utility?