Earlier, we have covered some tutorials: 1.How to install windows XP From

USB Drive 2. How to install Windows 7 From USB Drive. Both the processes

work fine and the readers feedback was positive. But there were some

drawbacks with those procedures:

1. Previous methods of creating of the bootable USB drive for Windows XP

involves numbers of steps and takes lot of time to complete.

2. You are to use the similar Operating System to prepare the USB disk. i.e if

you want to prepare your USB drive to install Windows XP, you’ll have to use

Windows XP to apply the preparation method. The similar condition is

applicable when preparing the USB drive for Windows 7.

3. Those methods do not have any option to prepare the USB disk in such a

way that it would install both Windows XP and Windows 7 after spending one

time effort.

But we found an awesome free utility WinSetupFromUSB which comes

across  drawbacks and allows you to create a Multiboot USB drive to install

Windows XP and Windows 7 from the same USB drive. No need to prepare

your USB stick separately. Even the tool works in both Windows XP and

Windows 7.

Creating the Multiboot USB Drive for Windows 7 and XP

Creating the multiboot USB drive is too easy and involves four simple steps.

Before getting into the process, make sure that the USB drive that you have,

is minimum 4 GB of volume (recommended 8 GB) and formatted with FAT32

file system. Once you are ready, downloadWinSetupFromUSB and extract at

any location of your computer.

Then follow the steps below:

1. Insert the formatted USB drive in the USB post of your computer and run

theWinSetupFromUSB_1-0-beta7.exe.

2. Make sure that the the utility has detected your USB drive.

3. Now enable the option Windows 2000/XP/2003 Setup selecting the

check box and browse to the Windows XP installation file location. Next,

enable the option Vista/7/Server 2008 Setup/PE/RecoveryISO and

browse to the Windows 7 installation files’ location. In both of the cases, if

you have the ISO images, extract them by WinRar or 7-Zip.

4. Click the Go button to get started. It might take several minutes.

Though we have discussed the process for only Windows XP and Windows 7,

you can also add Windows Vista as well as Linux.

You might have installed Vista, Windows 7 from your USB flash drive. But if

you want to install Windows  XP from  USB flash drive then you should face

some problem because the Windows XP does not have the feature of booting

from a USB flash drive. But you can still install windows XP from  USB flash

drive. This becomes very useful if your CD/DVD ROM is not working properly.

Tip: Fix USb problems

Update: Create multiboot USB drive to install both Windows XP and Windows

7.

Actually, the installation CD of XP is a bootable cd. When you insert the disk

in your CD/DVD-ROM then the machine detects that it is a bootable cd and

prompts for “Press any key to boot from cd”. By then you can format your

hard disk,make partitions in it and over all then you can  install Windows XP

also Vista and Windows 7 in your system. The same task you can perform

with your USB flash drive. But generally it is not easy to make a bootable

USB flash drive for XP. I shall discuss the process in two parts. The first

process has been discussed in this post and the second process is discussed

in  Install Windows XP From USB Flash Drive Part-II. I refer to follow the

Part-II version.

How to install Windows XP from USB flash drive Part-I

At first download the softwareWin to Flash . It does not need the installation.

After running the setup file the following screen will appear.

From Task tab you can choose your task.

After choosing task press next .

Select the source path of the windows installation disk or copy and then the

path of your USB flash drive.

Now the exact bootable copy will be made in the USB Flash drive.

You can now install Windows XP from Flash drive. It is pretty easy method to

install Windows XP from your Usb flash drive. If any problem arises then

contact us. You can also manually build your USB flash drive enabled for

installing XP in it.

But that process is quite complex and so I recommend the process Install

Windows XP from USB Drive(part-II). Any question or suggestion is always

welcome.

I previously wrote an article Install Windows XP from USB Flash/Pen Drive

part-I. This process allows you make a USB flash disk/drive bootable and

exactly the same as the XP installation CD. To make the whole process you

should have a PC/Computer/Laptop with CD/DVD Rom. Once you make your

USB drive ready to boot windows  XP setup from it then you can start

Installing Windows XP from that USB Disk/drive in any computer.

Also read how to Install Any Software You need In Your USB Flash Drive With

Mojopac.

I shall describe the process how to make the USB drive ready to install XP in

your computer step by step.

Requirements:

1. At first you have to get a USB flash drive/disk(at least 1 GB).

2. XP_FROM_USB.rar from the given link below:

Download link

Update: You should have XP installed computer for this process.

The procedure

1. Extract the XP_FROM_USB.rar archive in a folder named Softslas(Say)

in C: drive. Now navigate to C:SoftslasPeToUSB and double-click on the

peToUSB.exe.

The appearing window will be like this:

Set the following values:

select “USB Removable as Destination Drive”.

select “Enable Disk Format”.

select “Quick Format”.

select “Enable LBA (FAT 16x)”.

Finally, put  XP-Softslas (or whatever you want) as Drive Label and

click Start.

A message appears and click Yes.

Another message box will again appear and click Yes.

Immediate after that the USB disk will be formatted. Wait for few seconds

and then click on “Ok” and “Close”.

3. Open the windows Command prompt by typing cmd at the Run box. The

cmd.exe console appears.

Now type the following syntax and hit the Enter button from your keyboard.

cd c:softslasbootsect

Again, type the following command and press “Enter”.

bootsect /nt52 I: 

Type “cd..” and press “Enter” and also type cd usb_prep8 and press Enter.

Now type usb_prep8 and press “Enter”.

4. Press any key to continue.

Now the command prompt window will look like this.

Prepares Windows XP LocalSource for Copy to USB-Drive:

0) Change Type of USB-Drive, currently [USB-stick]

1) Change XP Setup Source Path, currently []

2) Change Virtual TempDrive, currently [T:]

3) Change Target USB-Drive Letter, currently []

4) Make New Tempimage with XP LocalSource and Copy to USB-Drive

5) Use Existing Tempimage with XP LocalSource and Copy to USB-Drive

F) Change Log File – Simple OR Extended, currently [Simple]

Q) Quit

Enter your choice:_

Insert the XP installation CD in you CD/DVD ROM and in command prompt

window, type 1 and press “Enter”. A “Browse For Folder” window will appear

and here select the CD/DVD drive and then click OK.

Similarly, for the choice field enter 2 and if there assigned the letter “T”

for your computer then change it otherwise do not alter it. After typing 2 in

the choice option it will prompt “Enter Available Virtual Drive Letter”.

Here, type a letter that is not any drive letter of your computer.

Let us say S is not a drive letter in your computer. So put S then press

“Enter”.

Now it will get back to the Command prompt and then type 3 where it

prompts for the choice. Then it will prompt “Please give Target USB-Drive

Letter e.g type U”.

Now, put your USB drive letter and press “Enter”. Here, my USB drive label is

“I” so I put “I”.

Again,  input 4 and press Enter. It creates the new temporary image  and

makes a copy of it to the USB Flash Drive .

Please wait for a few seconds..

A warning message will appear like this:

“WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE T: WILL BE LOST!

Proceed with Format (Y/N)?”

Type Y and press “Enter”.

Please wait………..

After completing Format it will prompt “Press any key to continue” and to

continue  hit any key .

Please wait………..

It will again prompt “Press any key to continue” and obviously press any key

to continue.

5. Now a message box will appear showing

“Copy TempDrive Files to USB-Drive in about 15 minutes = Yes OR STOP =

End Program = No”

Click “Yes”.

Now after this a message box will appear showing “Would you like USB-stick

to be preferred Boot Drive U……………….”

Click “Yes”.

The next one asking “Would you like to unmount the Virtual Drive ?”

Click “Yes”.

Now wait some time and press any key…………….

Press any key again to close usb_prep8.

Now your USB you can Install Windows XP from the USB drive.

6. Insert your USB drive in the USB port and Reboot your computer. When

starts the computer enter in the BIOS Setup and set the first boot preference

as USB Hard Disk.Now Save and Exit from the BIOS Setup. Your computer will

again restart and the following screen will appear.

Now Chose The TXT Mode Setup.After completing the partition, formatting

and copying file the computer will restart again.

Now chose the GUI Mode Setup Option.

Wait for completing your installation.

I think this will help you to install XP from USB flash disk/drive especially in

those computer without CD/DVD-ROM.

Thanks Cahya.

Having a bootable USB is very essential, especially if you are a Netbook user. Using bootable USB to install an operating system (OS) not only makes the installation faster, but also saves a DVD.

Creating or using an USB drive to install Windows operating systems is very easy if you follow the below mentioned steps.

If you are planning to use bootable USB to install Windows 7 or Vista please refer our guides:

Install Windows 7/Vista using bootable USB guide

And also, you can refer install Windows 7 on Acer Aspire One guide

Coming back to bootable USB guide, here we assume that you are using either Vista or Windows 7 to create a bootable USB.

1. Insert your USB (4GB+ preferable) stick to the system and backup all the data from the USB as we are going to format the USB to make it as bootable.

2. Open elevated Command Prompt. To do this, type in CMD in Start menu search field and hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter. Alternatively, navigate to Start > All programs >Accessories > right click on Command Prompt and select run as administrator.

3. When the Command Prompt opens, enter the following command:

DISKPART and hit enter.

LIST DISK and hit enter.

Once you enter the LIST DISK command, it will show the disk number of your USB drive. In the below image my USB drive disk no is Disk 1.

4. In this step you need to enter all the below commands one by one and hit enter. As these commands are self explanatory, you can easily guess what these commands do.

SELECT DISK 1 (Replace DISK 1 with your disk number)

CLEAN

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

SELECT PARTITION 1

ACTIVE

FORMAT FS=NTFS

(Format process may take few seconds)

ASSIGN

EXIT

Don’t close the command prompt as we need to execute one more command at the next step. Just minimize it.

5. Insert your Windows DVD in the optical drive and note down the drive letter of the optical drive and USB media. Here I use “D” as my optical (DVD) drive letter and “H” as my USB drive letter.

6. Go back to command prompt and execute the following commands:

D:CD BOOT and hit enter. Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.

CD BOOT and hit enter to see the below message.

BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 H:

(Where “H” is your USB drive letter)

7. Copy Windows DVD contents to USB.

You are done with your bootable USB. You can now use this bootable USB as bootable DVD on any computer that comes with USB boot feature (most of the current motherboards support this feature).

Note that this bootable USB guide will not work if you are trying to make a bootable USB on XP computer.