Installing XP

[Jason87]

Hi

I was wondering if someone could help me. A friend needed their notebook formatted so I said that I would do it. The problem is that I cannot get XP loaded onto it using a USB drive (no CD/DVD drive present).

I have Windows 7 on my USB pen that works perfect, but when I try Windows XP I am getting the error "Remove disks or other media. Press any key to restart".

I have spent hours trying various different ways to put it onto the pen but keep getting that error. I tried putting my pen with Windows 7 in and it loaded no problem. I cannot install Windows 7 as the hard drive is not big enough and they only have a license for XP.

I also tried to boot from network but I kept getting an error

Rcvd DHCP Discover Msg for IP 0.0.0.0, Mac 00:21:70:F6:54:A8 [14/09 01:03:42.188]

Client requested address 0.68.101.74 [14/09 01:03:42.188]

Suppress pingable address 192.168.2.5 [14/09 01:03:45.300]

Suppress pingable address 192.168.2.6 [14/09 01:03:48.412]

Suppress pingable address 192.168.2.7 [14/09 01:03:51.525]

Suppress pingable address 192.168.2.8 [14/09 01:03:54.639]

Suppress pingable address 192.168.2.9 [14/09 01:03:57.753]

Suppress pingable address 192.168.2.10 [14/09 01:04:00.867]

Suppress pingable address 192.168.2.11 [14/09 01:04:03.982]

Suppress pingable address 192.168.2.12 [14/09 01:04:07.098]

Suppress pingable address 192.168.2.13 [14/09 01:04:10.214]

Suppress pingable address 192.168.2.14 [14/09 01:04:13.331]

no more address or address previously allocated by another server [14/09 01:04:13.334]

Rcvd DHCP Discover Msg for IP 0.0.0.0, Mac 00:21:70:F6:54:A8 [14/09 01:04:13.334]

Client requested address 0.68.101.74 [14/09 01:04:13.335]

I do not know why it was trying to get an IP of "0.68.101.74"

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Jason

[ToneKnee]

Network boot only helps if you have a server setup i.e a windows server which acts as a domain controller that can do it.

[Jason87]

I was using TFTPBoot but could not get it work, with both DHCP enabled/disabled. I'd rather boot from USB though as I am more familar with that.

Thanks

Jason

[Raa]

You won't be able to do the network install as Tony has said.

You need to format your USB stick correctly so it can be used for a bootable XP install.

Quick google search reveals this information.

[Japlabot]

a bit of Google Searching shows that it's very tricky to install XP from a USB Stick, but you can follow a guide if you need to.

I find the easiest method is to go out and buy a USB DVD-RW Drive. They are not that expensive and are quite useful to have if you need it again in the future.

[Jason87]

Thanks for the replies. I've spent hours trying to get it to work and getting no where. I tried to copy a Windows 98 disc to my pen to access dos and install that way but I was getting the same error. Could I boot into Windows 7, click repair computer, click command prompt and install from there?

[speedstr3789]

  On 14/09/2010 at 00:39, Jason87 said:

Thanks for the replies. I've spent hours trying to get it to work and getting no where. I tried to copy a Windows 98 disc to my pen to access dos and install that way but I was getting the same error. Could I boot into Windows 7, click repair computer, click command prompt and install from there?

Why would you spend so much time attemtping something you don't know how to do? Obviously Google is NOT your friend.

[Jason87]

  On 14/09/2010 at 00:44, speedstr3789 said:

Why would you spend so much time attemtping something you don't know how to do? Obviously Google is NOT your friend.

I just tried it and it did not work. I have been searching for hours on how to boot XP from a USB Drive, I followed each of the guides and tried different pens, but did not work.

And thanks for the useful reply.

[speedstr3789]

Then your usb is not formatted properly would be my guess.

[Raa]

  On 14/09/2010 at 00:39, Jason87 said:

Thanks for the replies. I've spent hours trying to get it to work and getting no where. I tried to copy a Windows 98 disc to my pen to access dos and install that way but I was getting the same error. Could I boot into Windows 7, click repair computer, click command prompt and install from there?

No you can't use Vista/7 cd to do that.

You can use W98 as long as you install a dos cd-rom driver. (Most downloadable boot disks have one installed)

Once at the prompt, goto the cd drive, i386 directory and run winnt. That should trigger the manual install process.

I think they still let you do this in XP. Know it worked in NT/2000.

Edit : Never mind, that was for the CD install method. You can't use USB in DOS mode*, so ignore that.

[speedstr3789]

usb

[redvamp128]

Don't know if this helps you or not-

But the last Netbook I saw- had a recovery partition-- that when you go through the BIOS--- it has the option of switching to the other partition- for the boot partition -- and from there you can reinstall the main partition.

[nub]

Just out of curiosity try renaming BOOTMGR to NTLDR

[astralbaby]

goto bootdisk.com

download the win98se bootdisk utility

extract to usb thumbdrive

boot from usb drive

format c:

partition

create WINDOWS directory in root of c:

NOW

copy contents of i386 from cd to usb stick

now copy i386 directory to windows dir

run setup.exe

[Jason87]

  On 14/09/2010 at 00:49, speedstr3789 said:

Then your usb is not formatted properly would be my guess.

  On 14/09/2010 at 00:51, speedstr3789 said:

usb

Thanks! You were right, the drive was not formatted correctly, running "bootsect.exe /nt52 R:" sorted it. Out of all the guides I had found not one of them had mentioned this. Installing XP now, thanks again :D.

  On 14/09/2010 at 00:53, redvamp128 said:

Don't know if this helps you or not-

But the last Netbook I saw- had a recovery partition-- that when you go through the BIOS--- it has the option of switching to the other partition- for the boot partition -- and from there you can reinstall the main partition.

I had checked for that but the option was not there, thanks though.

  On 14/09/2010 at 01:02, nub said:

Just out of curiosity try renaming BOOTMGR to NTLDR

I also tried that, didn't work, thanks for the suggestion.

  On 14/09/2010 at 01:03, astralbaby said:

goto bootdisk.com

download the win98se bootdisk utility

extract to usb thumbdrive

boot from usb drive

format c:

partition

create WINDOWS directory in root of c:

NOW

copy contents of i386 from cd to usb stick

now copy i386 directory to windows dir

run setup.exe

I'd tried that eariler but it didn't work, thanks though.

Thanks for the replies everyone :).

[redvamp128]

  On 14/09/2010 at 01:57, Jason87 said:

Thanks! You were right, the drive was not formatted correctly, running "bootsect.exe /nt52 R:" sorted it. Out of all the guides I had found not one of them had mentioned this. Installing XP now, thanks again :D.

I had checked for that but the option was not there, thanks though.

I also tried that, didn't work, thanks for the suggestion.

I'd tried that eariler but it didn't work, thanks though.

Thanks for the replies everyone :).

I would try that but before you run setup.exe--

I would use the following commands-

FDISK  /MBR

followed by this command-

sys c:

Then I would try a reboott without the usb stick attached and then run setup.