Requirements:

1. A USB Drive of minimum 2GB

2. Windows XP installation CD (Back Up will also do)
The method consists of two parts and one file download (around 499KB). We will have
touse tools like PeToUSB to format your pen drive and copy the Windows XP
installation files to the USB Disk using usb_prep8.cmd. Then we will boot up from the
USB Drive and prepare for installation. After the process is completed your XP install is
ready for the process.
Now we will start the process:
Step 1: Download the File from the link given below:
Size: 499KB
Name: usb_boot_prep_xp.zip

http://www.techrena.net/downloads/usb_boot_prep_xp.zip
Step 2: Extract the usb_boot_prep_xp.zip file in your C drive. It will give you two
folders named bootsect and usb_prep8. Plug in your USB drive to your computer and put
the Windows XP CD also.
Step 3: Go to the usb-prep8 folder and double click usb_prep8.cmd file. Press any key to
continue.
Step 4: Now it will open PeToUSB. Format your USB drive using it. Select the options
as in the image below. Note that after formatting do not close the PeToUSB or the cmd
console.
Step 5: Now open a new cmd console manually (press Start+L, type cmd and enter). And
type the following command in the commands prompt. Note that you should type your
own USB drive letter instead of ‘h’.
Sl. No. Command: Action:
1 cd Enter
2 cd bootsect Enter
3 bootsect.exe /nt52 h: Enter

I had copied the folder in D drive. So the image will be somewhat different with the
actual display of your console. Don’t worry copy the folder in your C drive only. Now
close this cmd console but not the other one.
Step 6. Close PeToUSB. Now the usb_prep8.cmd console will continue. Select 1 to set
the source location. Select the CD ROM containing the XP CD.
Step 7: If you have a drive called T in your computer then check option 2 to change it to
any letter which is not present. Otherwise no need to change. Select 3 to set the
destination drive. Enter your USB Drive letter as shown below:
Step 8: Now select choice 4 as we don’t have any Tempimage previously. It may ask you
to delete the existing tempimage. select Yes.
Step 9: It will ask you to format the T drive. Enter y and it will format your temp drive.
Press any key to continue. Now it will start copying the XP files to the tempdrive.
Step 10: After the completion of the file copy process Press any key to continue. Now it
will ask you to copy the files to your USB drive or not. Select Yes.
Step 11: During the copy process it will ask whether to change migrate.inf file or not. Is
you are using a USB stick then Select Yes. If you are using a USB hard drive then Select
No.
Step 12: After the successful completion of copying the files to your USB drive it will
ask whether to unmount the Virtual temp drive or not. As you do not need it Select Yes.
Step 13: After the successful completion of the process close the cmd console. Now your
pen drive is ready for the installation process.
Step 14: Plug in the USB drive to the computer you want to install XP. While start up
make sure that you set the first boot choice as your USB drive. To do this you have to
enter to the bios and change the boot order to USB Disk as the first choice. For entering
to BIOS press the BIOS setup key while start up. This key is usually seen in the screen in
the boot screen. For most of the systems it is DEL key. For HP and Compaq it is F10 etc.
Go to the boot configuration tab and change the boot order.
Step 15: While booting up from the USB it will ask you to choose between GUI and
TXT mode of setup. Select TXT mode for now.
Step 16: Follow the onscreen instructions. It is same as the usual setup process. In the
partition selection screen do not select you USB drive for install. And if you are installing
in a new RAW hard disk then your USB Drive will be the C drive. Now first create a new
partition and format your HDD using the setup. And again restart the process from step
15 by Quitting the current Install(Press F3). Then you should get your HDD partition as
C drive. Continue your installation.
Step 17: Now it will copy a set of files to the hard disk. It usually takes lesser time than a
CD ROM installation. After the process it will ask for reboot. Press Enter to reboot
immediately.
Step 18: Now while start up select the GUI mode of setup to continue setup.
Now you can continue your usual setup process. Follow the onscreen instructions
carefully. After the setup process which usually takes 39 minutes, it will restart. Now
boot from your Hard drive not the USB drive. Again use BIOS settings to make this
happen.
Congratulations you have successfully installed Windows XP via a USB Drive.
Important:
1. You can copy the contents of your pen drive if you want for future use. To use in
future just format your USB drive with FAT, run the commands given in Step 5 and
simply copy paste the files you had saved earlier. No need to run the whole process again.
2. While unmounting the Virtual Temp Drive T, it may fail and ask you to try again.
Select No. And when it asks you to Force unmount select yes.
3. This Method is for informational purpose only and should not be used for Software
Piracy and illegal practices.
4. We are not responsible for any loss or damage resulting from this information.
5. This method will not work if your motherboard or your BIOS does not support USB
booting.
6. This method is an implementation of the guide given in
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=20089. And PeToUSB is a property
of http://gocoding.com/page.php?al=petousb