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Installing Windows XP from a USB flash drive

Installing Windows XP from a USB flash drive it doesn't work, I used all sorts of programs, including UltraISO, I prepare a distribution kit with an operating system, I expose it as it is written on your website, and when you reboot, a dash in the upper left corner of the screen blinks on the black background of the screen and that's it.

Without a signature.

What I didn’t do, I can’t install an operating system on my netbook, why did I just demolish the old one, now it even seems to me that installation from a flash drive is generally impossible, I used different programs and basically in the initial phase of the installation, a window appears on a black screen with the following text “inf-file txtsetup.sif is corrupted or missing, state 18. The installation cannot be continued. Press any button to exit "
Can you tell me, Sergei.

Installing Windows XP from a USB flash drive

These are the letters that came and you have to answer them, and besides, we had an interesting case at work.

• Note: a new article was recently released on our site - so keep in mind, if you don't succeed here, you can refer to it.
• You will also find useful information about!
• The flash drive must be connected to a USB 2.0 port, since Windows XP does not support USB 3.0(ports are usually blue).

A guy bought a netbook from our company, especially without an operating system, they say it's cheaper and in fact it is. When making a purchase, he hinted that he can use any Windows on the Internet and install it from a flash drive and on any computer. For you, dear friends, I translate (download any operating system on the Internet and install it yourself). I took the purchase and left. There are such craftsmen, I do not say anything, I just didn't have to flood (scatter words).

He comes in two days, his eyes are red, he probably did not sleep, he installed Windows - my colleague hinted. The guy was no longer so self-confident and said that installing Windows XP from a USB flash drive it doesn't work, probably a defective netbook, our team is good, they began to ask what programs they used, it turned out to be many. They suggested that first of all, you need to use a licensed assembly of Windows, and prepare the distribution with the PE Builder program. This program is very good, there is nothing to say, I use it myself, but it will be difficult for our buyer to figure it out. We got out of the situation differently and believe me, by a method proven more than once, our article is about him.
First of all, of course, you need to use the original assemblies of Windows XP SP3 MSDN, not changed by anyone. The only thing that can be changed is to integrate the Sata driver into the assembly (read our article) and again, again, it would be better to do it all for you yourself.

• Note: You need to look in the BIOS for the Configure SATA As parameter, the possible values ​​are: Standard IDE, RAID, AHCI, if you have a modern IDE / SATA controller operating mode IDE, you can skip the digression with the integration of AHCI controller drivers, but if AHCI, read farther.
  The integration of Sata drivers into the Windows XP distribution is necessary if you have a fairly new netbook with a motherboard with an Intel AHCI controller. AMD, Intel, JMicron, Marvell, etc.

On many computers, you can switch the AHCI mode to IDE and the installation of Windows XP will take place without difficulties, but you will not see all the innovations of AHCI.
Yes, there is a way to integrate AHCI drivers into an already installed operating system, that is, switch the BIOS to work from AHCI to IDE, then install Windows XP without Sata drivers, load Windows and then integrate AHCI controller drivers and a blue screen on reboot. get it. But our netbook only has AHCI mode and we have to integrate the drivers into the Windows XP distribution.
So, let's take the difficult option, you went into the BIOS and saw that you have AHCI mode enabled, then read our article Integrating Sata Drivers into a Windows XP Distribution, I assure you you can easily cope with this, and only then proceed to this article.

• Note: if you prepare an assembly of Windows XP without drivers for AHCI controllers, then at the very beginning of the installation of the operating system you will see an error message.

Secondly, I have the original Windows XP image, but before using it, you must be sure to integrate the AHCI controller drivers into it. Nowadays, on all motherboards with a controller of hard drives SATA II and SATA III (applies to stationary computers, as well as laptops), the modern technology of AHCI hard drives is used. This technology was invented much later than Windows XP itself, which means that there are no special AHCI controller drivers in the original XP distribution, such drivers are available only in Windows 7. When installing Windows XP on a new computer, the case will end with a blue screen or the XP installer will not see the hard drive ... What to do?
Before you tryinstall Windows XP from a USB stick need to:

1) Integrate AHCI controller drivers into the Windows XP assembly and you can install XP even on an SSD drive. But you can go the other way.

2) Select and disable the AHCI mode in the UEFI BIOS, and enable the outdated IDE mode.

I am for the first option - Integrate the AHCI controller drivers into the Windows XP assembly, imagine a situation, there are two hard drives in your system unit, one is Windows 7 or Windows 8, and the second is Windows XP. You installed Windows 7 or Windows 8 anyway with AHCI enabled, and Windows XP with IDE enabled. So, you worked in Windows 8, then you needed Windows XP, you reboot, enter the UEFI BIOS and turn on the old IDE mode, otherwise Windows XP will not boot and crash into a blue screen with a STOP 0x0000007B error, and then get into Windows 8 you again have to go into the UEFI BIOS and turn on the AHCI mode and so constantly, as they say - you need to. We integrate the AHCI driver into the Windows XP assembly and into the UEFI BIOS we will only switch the boot from the hard disk we need with Windows XP or Windows 8 installed.

Integration of AHCI controller drivers into Windows XP assembly

First of all, we take a CD with Windows XP or maybe you have an image of Windows XP.
Create a folder on the desktop and name it Windows XP, then copy all the files from the Windows XP CD into this folder. If you have an ISO image of Windows XP, open it with a free (for personal use) program and also copy all the distribution files to a folder called Windows XP. That's it, they did it.

We go to oszone.net, link

http://forum.oszone.net/thread-135321.html

register there, and download the MassStor archive with drivers for all the most common AHCI controllers: Intel, AMD, JMicron, Marvell, nForce, SiS and VIA. If your operating system is 32-bit, which in most cases, download the corresponding package MassStor_x86_12.9.18.rar, if 64-bit, then another MassStor_x64_12.9.18.rar. Downloaded.

Unzip the MassStor_x86_12.9.18.rar archive and run the file MassStor.exe,

an explorer window opens, in it you need to specify the folder with the Windows XP files and click OK.

SATA driver integration takes a few seconds, click OK.

Creating a bootable USB flash drive Windows XP

Go to the official website of the WinSetupFromUSB program
Select WinSetupFromUSB1.3.exe (22 MB).

Download, unzip and run our program. I am on Windows 8 64 bit operating system. Our WinSetupFromUSB program can run on both 32-bit operating systems and 64-bit operating systems. To run WinSetupFromUSB in a Windows 8 64 bit program, double-click on the file WinSetupFromUSB_1-3_x64.exe.

In the main window of the WinSetupFromUSB program, you can see the name of our connected flash drive.

We put a tick on the item Auto format it with FBinst and mark the item NTFS

Below, check the box Windows 2000 / XP / 2003 / Setup and click on the right button that opens the explorer window .

In the explorer, you must specify the previously prepared folder with the files of the Windows XP 32-bit distribution kit.
If you have an installation disk with Windows XP 32, then open it and copy all the files contained inside into a folder and call it for example Windows XP. If you have an XP ISO image, open it for example in a free (for personal use) program DAEMON Tools Lite 4 and also copy all the files of the Windows XP distribution to the folder.

So, the folder with Windows XP 32-bit files was indicated, click OK.

We accept the license agreement.

Installing operating systems using removable media has long ceased to be a big problem. If you do not have a blank CD / DVD at hand, or the drive itself is faulty or simply does not exist (for example, in netbooks and ultrabooks), then every second person currently has a 1-2 GB flash drive. So, after reading this guide, you can create a bootable USB flash drive with Windows XP (and not only) and thereby greatly simplify your transition from one OS to another.

What do you need?

• Download in advance Windows XP working iso image... It is advisable to choose the distribution that does not have any third-party modifications, which means that the probability of its instability is minimal. If the standard XP does not suit you, we recommend choosing the assembly from Zver.
• Removable disk (flash drive), at least 1 GB... Later, it will be completely cleared, so copy all important data from it.
• Program WinSetupFromUSB v.1.3... It can be downloaded absolutely free of charge on the official website of the developer.

Creating a bootable USB drive

There are several ways to prepare a removable disk for installing Windows XP from it. But, despite this, we will use the simplest program WinSetupFromUSB and after about half an hour we will receive a ready-made bootable USB flash drive. You just need to follow these steps:

BIOS setup

Windows XP is slightly different in terms of installation from its siblings - Vista, 7 and 8. Therefore, you need to pay a little more attention to BIOS setup:

1. The first step is to set the boot priority to the removable disk. Therefore, in the process of starting up the computer / laptop, press F2 or Del to get into the BIOS window.
2. In the Boot section or in the Boot Device Priority list, put in the first place your bootable USB flash drive (depending on the manufacturer of the motherboard, the BIOS versions have significant differences, so these instructions are very general).
3. Most modern computers work with S-ATA data transfer interface, while Windows XP has built-in drivers only for the outdated IDE. Therefore, set Storage Configuration to Compatible in BIOS.
4. Save changes and restart your computer by pressing F10.

Installing Windows XP

1. Having successfully booted from the removable disk, Windows XP will greet you. Following the instructions of the installer, press Enter (<Ввод>)
   
2. Violation of the Microsoft product license agreement is punishable by law. So confirm by pressing the F8 button that you are confident in your own actions and continue with the installation of the system.
   
3. This window contains the entire list of hard drives on which it is possible to install Windows XP (by default, only HDDs with IDE data transfer technology are displayed). Select the drive you want and proceed to the next step.
   
4. Formatting the hard drive is mandatory, so make sure all your files are safe and only then select the third option “Format partition in NTFS”.
   
5. After preparing the HDD and copying the necessary system files to it, the Windows XP setup program will proceed to the final processes. First, install the System Language and Input Methods.
   
6. Please enter your username. The organization field can be left blank.
   
7. Enter the serial code, which looks like XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
   
8. Select a computer name and set an administrator password (the latter is optional)
   
9. Next, set up the date and time, as well as the time zone.
   
10. Leave the network parameters as default
    
11. If the computer / laptop is home, then leave it in the WORKGROUP. If the organization where you work has a domain network, check with your system administrator for information.
    
12. Congratulations! Windows XP has been successfully installed and ready to go.
    

Bootable flash drives with ready-to-install operating systems are a very convenient and useful thing for any user. Having a few of these “little rescuers” in stock, you can quickly and easily help yourself or your friends / colleagues to restore a faulty Windows OS or install a new one for them.
Enjoy your use!

Surprisingly, many users are distrustful of new operating systems and prefer to stick with their time-tested Windows XP. But, having at their disposal a laptop or netbook with another pre-installed OS, they face a difficulty - the new computer does not have a built-in optical drive, and if it is available, Windows XP is still not installed. This is one of the reasons why you might need XP on a laptop or netbook from a flash drive or any other external USB drive.

There are other reasons as well:

• there is both an installation disc and an optical drive, but XP is not installed in any way as a result of carelessness to this disc;
• there is an optical drive, but it is defective, as a result of which.

You can make them happy - if you need to install Windows XP on a netbook or laptop if it is impossible to do it using an optical drive, then this is not a problem - follow the instructions below and get an answer to the question of how to install Windows XP on a laptop or netbook from any external USB device. The installation procedure is very simple, although it requires some preparatory steps.

Step-by-step installation procedure

All steps for installing Windows XP from a USB flash drive can be represented as a sequence of the following steps:

1. Preparing a folder with XP distribution files on your hard disk;
2. Creation of an external bootable media (flash drive or usb-disk) and writing the files of the operating system distribution kit to it;
3. Installing an OS from a USB flash drive.

Preparing the folder with the files of the Windows XP distribution kit

As we have already found out, there is no need to rely on the installation disc, so we will consider the case when you have to download the distribution kit from the Internet and use it. The best way is to download it from some free torrent tracker. Typically, distributions of operating systems are written in the .iso format, so you need to unpack this file to get the distribution in the form of a set of installation files.

This can be easily done using the 7-Zip utility or the Total Commander file manager. In addition to them, there are many applications that can work with iso files (UltraIso, Daemon Tools, etc.). It is only important that this set of files be written to a separate folder. If the downloaded distribution kit is already presented as a set of installation files, then you should simply transfer it to a separate folder. As a result, this folder will look something like the following (the exact list of files and their attributes depends on the "manufacturer" of the distribution kit and the XP version):

Creating external bootable media

For this purpose, you need the WinToFlash program. It can also be downloaded from torrent trackers or from the manufacturer's official website (Novicorp.com). After installing and launching it, a welcome window will appear:

Click on "Next" - a window with a license agreement and settings will appear. In the settings window, select the custom option and refuse to install the Mail.ru Multibar and Satellite. Having received the "Next" answer to the completion of the first start wizard, the program displays the window of the wizard for transferring files to a USB flash drive:

Here you need to click the button with a green checkmark and get a window for setting the file transfer parameters:

The "Path to Windows files" parameter specifies the same folder into which the distribution installation files were unpacked. In the "Usb disk" parameter, you need to specify the external media (flash drive) that you need and on which the distribution kit is installed. It can be either a USB flash drive or an external removable disk.

After clicking "Next", a window will appear warning that the USB drive will be formatted and all user information on it will be deleted. If there is one, then you need to save it in advance. After clicking "Continue" in the warning window, the actual process of preparing the bootable USB flash drive begins. Upon completion, the user will be presented with a window about the completion of the bootable media creation process:

Here you just need to click "Exit". This completes the creation of a bootable USB flash drive for installing Windows XP, and you can proceed directly to installing it.

Installing an OS from a USB flash drive

This process has already been described several times on the Internet, but we will repeat it again. When you turn on the computer, you need to press and hold the button to enter the BIOS. Depending on the manufacturer of the computer and its model, these can be Del, F2, F10, Esc and others. If you do not know, you should refer to the instruction manual.

As soon as the BIOS window appears on the screen, in its menu you need to find a function with a name close to Boot Priority (also depends on the manufacturer). This feature allows you to define the order of devices that will be scanned as download candidates. Upon detecting the first such device, the computer will try to boot from it. Therefore, in order to force the computer to boot from external media, it must be made the first in this list. And how to do this again depends on the manufacturer. This is usually done with the arrow keys, but there are other options.

Having set the external media prepared in the previous stages as a bootable one, you need to save the changes made in BIOS and exit, after which a reboot will occur and the installation of Windows XP will begin. If all steps of the above instructions were followed carefully, then XP installs without any problems.

Step-by-step installation of Windows XP from a USB flash drive !

Many netbook owners need to reinstall Windows XP because these devices are not very powerful. And, as you know, XP is much lighter than Windows Vista or 7. The lack of a drive creates a particular difficulty. But, no need to give up. If you have a flash drive, an installation disk with an OS and access to a PC, then installing windows xp on a netbook will not be difficult.

We will split the entire installation process into several stages:

1. Creating a bootable USB drive
2. Choosing the priority of loading a flash drive

1. Copying the operating system distribution to a USB flash drive

In addition to all of the above, you will need the WinToFlash program, which is freely available on the Internet. Also, do not forget to prepare a USB flash drive, i.e. transfer all important information from it and format it. Note that the recommended memory size for a flash drive is more than 2 GB.

We launch the WinToFlash program.

In the window that appears, put a green checkmark and click "Next".

In the next pop-up window, specify the path to the operating system distribution kit and the path to the USB flash drive. After that, click "Next" again.

We agree to the terms of the license agreement.

Important information has already been saved, so we can safely agree with the formatting.

After that, it remains only to wait until all the data is copied to the USB flash drive. This procedure usually takes about 10 to 15 minutes.

File copying completed. Now you have a bootable Windows XP USB stick to install. As you can see, copying a distribution does not require a lot of knowledge and some specific equipment.

you can now proceed to the next step.

2. Choosing the priority of loading a flash drive

You need to go to the Bios settings. To do this, while restarting your computer, press the DEL or F2 key. In this menu, you need to find the BOOT tab. In the list provided, select your USB flash drive and put it first. Then save the settings and reboot.

If you did everything correctly, then during boot you will see a list where you need to go to the first line and press the Enter key.

That's all, the installation has begun.

As soon as the OS installation starts, you will see such a window.

To start the installation, you need to press Enter.

In order to accept the license agreement, press F8.

Now, be especially careful, because now you need to specify the partition on which Windows XP will be installed.

If an OS is already installed on your computer, then such a window will appear where you need to press Enter.

We select the item "Format in NTFS" and also confirm our decision with the Enter key. Please note that during formatting, all information from this section will be deleted.

Wait while formatting takes place.

After formatting the disk, booting windows XP from flash starts automatically. Do not press anything, the PC may restart.

Once all the files have been copied, you can specify keyboard layouts, languages, and more.

Enter the name of the laptop. Here you can enter the administrator password.

Enter your time zone.

Wait while the latest windows xp files are copied and installed.

After that, you have to configure the basic parameters of the already installed operating system: workgroup, monitor, standard OS protection, Internet, etc.

Congratulations, you did it!

Video tutorial on installing Windows XP from a flash drive

In some situations, users may need information on how to install Windows from a USB flash drive through the BIOS. Today the question is relevant due to several reasons, including the need for an urgent reinstallation of the Windows software package. It may happen that the distribution kit will be written to the most ordinary USB-drive, and not to a disk, because the use of such a source of information storage is convenient. It's worth noting that many modern laptops simply don't come with a DVD drive, which has allowed manufacturers to create ultra-thin devices. In this case, reinstalling the version of Windows XP, 7, 8.1, 10 required for operation is possible only from a USB flash drive or an external hard drive that is connected via USB. Whoever installed the software package knows that this process is not complicated, but it requires certain knowledge and skills from the user, without which it will not be possible to start the process. The installation of the upstream version of Windows XP, 7, 8.1, 10 begins with entering the BIOS, the parameters of which you need to be able to figure out. It should be noted that through the BIOS from a flash drive, you can not only install a software package, but also carry out a deep check of the system for malicious programs, which in some cases allows you to establish the correct operation of Windows XP, 7, 8.1, 10 on a user computer or laptop.

When it is not possible to use a DVD drive, a flash drive comes to the rescue

Preparing for installation

If you purchased a laptop with a preinstalled licensed software package Windows 7, 8.1 or 10, then you should remember that it is called a factory distribution kit. We recommend that you prepare in advance for a situation when you need to reinstall the operating system and useful programs from the manufacturer. In this case, the distribution kit is written to a DVD-R disc, a USB flash drive or an external hard drive. In the last two cases, it will be necessary to configure certain parameters in the BIOS.

Installing an unfamiliar version of Windows XP, 7, 8.1, or 10 is very similar to installing a factory distribution. The main task of the user is to start the process, and then the system automatically installs the software package on a computer or laptop. We recommend that you pay close attention to the choice of installation files, since on the Internet you can find a huge number of pirated versions of software systems that do not work correctly after installation.

There are sequential instructions that describe the process of writing an operating system image to a USB flash drive, which will be used to install Windows on a computer or laptop. A successful result will depend on the quality of the image and the correctness of the algorithm execution.

So, reinstalling the operating system from a USB drive includes the following steps:

1. Writing installation files to a USB drive.
2. Transfer of all the files you need in the future from the C drive to protect them from deletion.
3. Installing a USB flash drive.
4. Launching BIOS and changing settings in the menu. It is necessary to search for information on how to enter BIOS on a specific computer or laptop.
5. Starting the installation of the operating system.

BIOS launch

Before starting the BIOS, all users should understand that the flash drive must already be connected to the working USB port of a laptop or computer. It is worth noting that the BIOS can be launched by a combination of different keys, for example, multiple pressing of Del, Esc, F12, F10. This action is always performed at the time of device boot. The input method depends on the BIOS manufacturer and on the computer model. Users should be prepared that the mouse will not work in this mode. All control in BIOS is performed by pressing keys. However, no one has any difficulties with this. The main task after entering such a menu is to launch an automatic installation from a USB flash drive. After the start of the Windows installation, user intervention is not required.

Key combinations vary by BIOS manufacturer

Changing BIOS Settings and Starting Installation

Immediately after entering the BIOS, you need to find a tab called Boot. Often the section you need is named in one word. Different BIOS versions have a different interface, but the Boot tab is usually present in all firmwares. After entering the tab, you should select the Hard Disk Drives item, where the order of device recognition will be presented.