How to Install Windows xp using USB Flash Disk

In a computer with a defective CD drive ,naturally no CD can be read.In that case,the launching of operating system such as Windows XP in that computer becomes a matter of worry. Windows XP can still be installed with the help of USB or any flash disk but this flash disk must be of 1GB capacity. There are certain other prerequisites that are required to be fulfilled to complete the procedure.A original CD of the Windows OS along with a spare PC or a laptop is required.usb_prep8 and bootsect are the two files that must be downloaded.

When your computer has a defect with its CD Drive and you are unable to read any CDs on it, you can choose to install Windows XP from a USB/ Flash disk and this is done quite easily. Below is what you need to do :

• Step 1: Purchase a flashdisk that has a capacity of more than 1 GB.
• Step 2: Download usb_prep8 (search in google and download the file)
• Step 3: Download bootsect (search in google and download the file)
• Step 4: An original licensed version of Windows XP on a CD as well as a spare computer or laptop.

Now, you will have to follow the procedures below:
1. extract usb_prep8 and bootsect.
2. In usb_prep8 folder. Double click usb_prep8.cmd. A command prompt will open.
3. Press any key to continue. A PeToUSB window will open;
4. Don’t change anything in the PeToUSB window, just click “Start”. Formatting of your USB will then start. It will only take a few seconds.
5. DO NOT close the two windows (PetoUSB and usb_prep8). Now open a new command prompt by typing “cmd” in the Start->Run box. In this NEW command prompt, go to the directory where bootsect.exe is saved. Now type “bootsect.exe /nt52 R:“. Change “R” with the letter drive directory of your USB drive. NOTE: When running the bootsect.exe command you cannot have any windows open displaying the content of your USB stick. If all went well you should see “Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes.” Now close this command prompt (Still, Do not close usb_prep8).
6. Now close PeToUSB window. You should see the usb_prep8.
7. Now you need to enter the correct information for numbers 1-3.
Press 1 and then enter. A folder browse window will open for you to browse to the location of you XP setup files (aka your cdrom drive with xp cd in it)
Press 2 and enter a letter NOT currently assigned to a drive on your PC, say T
Press 3 and enter the drive letter of your USB stick
Press 4 to start the process.
8. The script will ask you if its ok to format drive T:. This is just a temp drive the program creates to cache the windows installation files. Press Y then enter.
9. Once it’s done formatting, press enter to continue again, you will now see the program copying Windows XP files from your CD to the temp drive it created. This will take around 3-5 minutes. Once this is done press enter to continue again.
10. Next you will see a box pop up asking you to copy the files from temp drive to USB drive. Of course, click “Yes”. This will take around 15 minutes, depending on the speed of your USB. In my case, it took around 30 Minutes.
11. Once the program has completed copy files a popup window asking if you would like to USB drive to be preferred boot drive U: select YES on this window
12. You’re done with this part. Now select yes to unmount the virtual drive.


Procedure 2 (Installing XP into your PC without CD-ROM using USB thumb drive)
1. Insert your USB then start your PC, then go to BIOS set-up. Set USB as your primary boot device. For EEE PC, if it did not boot on the USB after doing this, there is an option in the BIOS where you can change the primary and secondary memory, set USB as the primary. When doing this, I also changed the OS installation from “finished” to “start” just to make sure that the installation will work.
2. On the startup menu you have two options, select option number for text mode setup.
3. From this point on, it is just like any other windows XP installation. When prompt, delete all the partition, including the one with labeled “BIOS” for EEE-PC. Recreate the primary partition on your EEE pc and format it using NTFS.
4. Once the text mode portion of setup is complete, the computer will reboot. This time, boot into the GUI mode.
5. Once the GUI portion of setup is complete you will again have to boot into GUI mode to complete the XP installation until you end up at your XP desktop. It is very important that you DO NOT REMOVE THE USB STICK before this point. Once you can see your start menu it is safe to remove the usb stick and reboot your pc to make sure everything worked.
That is all, I didn’t encounter a problem during my installation of XP for my Asus EEE-PC 4G. Just strictly follow the procedures discussed above.