Install Windows XP from a Pen drive
Netbooks and ultra-portable laptops gaining popularity today have no optical drives. What do you do when there is no optical drive in your PC and you want to install a new operating system on it?

Before you invest in an external drive, I will tell you about a more cost-effective solution.
Why not install Windows XP from a USB flash drive instead? All you need are the following items to make it initially : Desktop or Laptop with Windows
XP, an optical drive in the PC. Windows XP installation disk. 1 GB to 4 GB USB flash drive.

A software called ‘Komku-SP-usb.exe’ which can be downloaded from……….

http://download179.mediafire.com/b3tjl6ds2gfg/zlvkwwzmjmt/Komku-SP-usb.exe

Step 1: Download the software ‘Komku-SP-usb.exe’ from the websites and execute it. The executable file will extract the necessary utilities to a folder called ‘C:\komku’.

Step 2: Once the package has been extracted, go to the folder ‘C:\komku\PeToUSB’ using Windows Explorer. Double Click on the file ‘PeToUSB.exe’. Plug in the USB flash drive and make sure you choose the following before clicking the start button. Select
1.USB removable.
2. Enable Disk Format.
3. Quick format
4. Enable LBA (Fat 16x)’ and
5. Give the drive a name under ‘Drive Label’.
Once it’s done, click start to let the utility format the drive.

Step 3: Next you will need to start the command prompt. Click ‘Start | Run, type cmd and press [Enter]. Then go to the ‘bootsect’ directory by typing the
command cd C:\komku\bootsect’ and press [Enter]. Now type the command ‘bootsect /nt52 F:’ and press [Enter] (The ‘F:’ is the USB flash drive letter
represented in ‘My Computer’. Check to verify the drive letter used by your USB flash drive). Let the utility do the needful. Do not exit the Command Prompt yet.

Step 4: Now you will need to change to the directory ‘Usb_Prep8’ by using the command ‘cd C:\komku\usb _ prep8’ and pressing [Enter]. Here execute the command ‘usb _ prep8’ and press [Enter]. Press any key to continue and you will see a welcome screen with a menu appear in the Command Prompt.

Step 5: Now at this stage, you will have to insert the Windows XP installation disk into your optical drive. At the Command Prompt menu,
type ‘1’ and press [Enter]. A new popup will appear asking you to choose the location (path)of the Windows installation disk. Select the optical drive and click ‘OK’. Next
choose ‘2’ from the menu and change the drive letter to any drive letter which has not been taken. It is drive ‘T:’ by default and you can ignore this step
unless you do have a ‘T:’ drive on your computer.
After this, choose ‘3’ from the menu and enter the drive letter of your USB flash drive (in this case it would be ‘F’).
Finally choose ‘4’ from the menu and press [Enter]. Wait for a few seconds for the process to complete and you will see a prompt to allow the utility to
format the USB flash drive. Type ‘Y’ and then press [Enter] at this stage to let the utility proceed and install the necessary files from the Windows XP installation disk to the USB flash drive. This process will take a few minutes and depends on the speed of the flash drive.

Step 6: After the files are copied, you will see a popup window asking you for permission to copy files from the temp drive to the USB flash drive. Select ‘Yes’.

Step 7: Next there will be another popup window asking you to allow the utility to change the boot drive letter of the USB flash drive from ‘F:’ to ‘U:’.
Select ‘Yes’.

Step 8: Finally, after all the processes are complete, you will see yet another popup window asking if you want to un mount the virtual drive. Select ‘Yes’.
Exit the Command Prompt now and you will see that your flash drive is ready to install Windows XP to another computer. To install Windows XP to the computer, you will have to go to the BIOS and enable the option of booting from a USB removable device. This option is usually found under the boot sequence menu of the BIOS. Plug in the USB drive to the computer before you turn it on. Now your computer will boot from the USB flash drive and will be ready to install Windows XP, First select  
Option-1 .. after completion of file copy process select  
Option-2,. Follow the necessary steps to install Windows XP and your computer will be ready to run.

During the past few days, I have been trying to help one of our readers who is having a problem with using XP Backup. His laptop does not have a floppy disk which XP wants to create a boot disk for. The conversation started like this:

Bill:

I have a Segate External 500 GB. I want to perform a systems back up to both my desktop and laptop. I use Windows to back up thus forcing me to use a floppy recovery 3.5 disk. This is fine for my desktop but my laptop does not have a floppy. How can I get around this floppy problem and just go to a straight systems back for both computers and avoid the floppy issue?

My response:

Hi Bill,
On your laptop, does it have a burner? Or does your desktop have a burner? If either one does, you can make a recovery disk onto a CD or DVD.

Of course both must have the same OS as well.

Hope this helps.

Bill:

Ron:

Yes, both have burners and both have the same OS which is XP Pro. But how do I get from the prompt to make a floppy when it comes up to my respective burners? Something new to this old man trying to keep up with the ever changing technology.Ron:

My response:

Bill,
I am not sure if this will work, but try burning the floppy to a CD and see if it will boot. Unfortunately XP I believe doesn’t support burning to CD, just floppy.

Let me know if this works. If not we will try something else.

Bill:

Ron;

But when I do the backup on my Laptop XP forces me to create a floppy. And at that point I have to X out then I get a message that my backup may not be complete or may not have been fully successful. Even if I am successful in doing the burn from the floppy to the CD the fact still remains my laptop back up is incomplete unless I create a floppy then and there.

I must admit I am at a loss for two reasons. I haven’t used XP for about 3 years and second, when I did use XP I never used the built in backup program. I use Acronis.

Any suggestion for Bill would be appreciated.

Comments welcome.