We already blogged the method to install Windows Vista/7/2008 using USB pen drive, after this my few friends asked me to the same with Windows XP too. I tried to find out the solution but didn’t get simple and straight forward way to make this. Well today I have solution, who want to make bootable USB pen drive to install Windows XP.

Before we start, it requires:

• USB Storage Device (Pen Drive) at least 1GB
• Windows 2000/XP/2003 CD or Installation Source
• and finally WinSetupFromUSB.

How To:

1. Download WinSetupFromUSB and install it.

2. Plug your Pen Drive and run the program.

3. First of all local the CD or installation source of Windows, which contains I386/AMD64 folders.

4. In target disk type, the utility scans disk type automatically but you can to select Removable for Pen drives and Fixed for external USB storage device forcibly it doesn’t. Once you done. Its time to format the disk.

The utility gives two options.

• HP Format Tool – to format 2GB or above of partitions.
• PEtoUSB – to format up to 2GB of partitions

Use as per your pen drive size.

5. Clear checkbox entitled – Copy Setup boot files only. This option will copy just a minimal set of files (7-12MB). There is an option to change Windows installation directory too. You can set as per your interest.

6. Now the most important part of process. There are two entries to be filled by Disk Nr. and Partition Nr.

Disk Nr.- on which of your disks Windows will be installed to. For example if you have two internal disks, first is disk 0, second is disk 1.
Partition Nr.- in which partition of the above selected disk Windows will be installed to. For example, you want to install this on C drive then its 1 and so on.

Note: Rest of part, you can leave intact, if you want to make bootable Windows XP pen drive only. Otherwise there are few more options to add extra stuff.

7. Press Go button to accomplish the task. Now restart your PC and boot from USB Storage device.

8. You need to follow 3-Steps Installation. Keep the USB disk plugged and start from USB 3 times.

1. Text mode part of setup
2. GUI mode part of setup
3. Start Windows for first time

When the first step completes and system reboots, select Windows 2000/XP/2003 Setup – First and Second Parts, then Option 2 (second part) for the second stage of the setup.

DO NOT REMOVE THE USB PEN FROM USB PORT UNTIL YOU SEE THE WINDOWS START MENU

Applies To:

• Windows XP
• Windows Server 2003
• Windows 2000
• Windows Server 2000

Tags: How to, Installation, Tips and Tricks, Utility, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, WinSetupFromUSB