making USB boot flash

krishcanag · 4 Oct 2008 at 09:13

Hello

I have looked at bootdisk.com and and other sites, they all tell for XP you need three files;

boot.ini, ntldr, ntdetect

Trouble is I can find both nt... files, call up boot.ini in run and save it as a notepad file on the USB stick as well.

Now when I try and restart PC, nothing happens, it just boots up as normal, if I force it to boot from USB, it says PC errror and then boots from hard disk.
what am i doing wrong?

krishan

AtaRo · 4 Oct 2008 at 11:55

here's a guide on how to make flash bootdisk BootCD From USB Flash Drive

krishcanag · 4 Oct 2008 at 13:26

AtaRo

The guide is for win 98, I believe the files are different, will it work for XP?
Krishan

jbloggs · 4 Oct 2008 at 13:32

Have a look Here

uv · 4 Oct 2008 at 13:46

Check out this forum for instructions to install XP from USB

http://www.msfn.org/board/Install-XP-USB-f157.html

AtaRo · 4 Oct 2008 at 14:05

krishcanag said:
AtaRo

The guide is for win 98, I believe the files are different, will it work for XP?
Krishan

it will work for xp but looks like jbloggs given link is much better and easier so check that instead.

krishcanag · 4 Oct 2008 at 14:54

jbloggs said:
Have a look Here

That did help, but still no luck.

I fired up the HP tool, after downloading zip file with files to make USB boot disk!!!. The HP tool complets its job but when I check the drive nothing there, if I try and copy the files manually, it says it alread has autoexec.bat and a couple of other files even though I have it to show hidden files!!.

I ended up manually copying a full dos file listr and manually choose to boot from USB, PC went into windows 98 for a few seconds and then C:\. Checked the autoexec.bat file, only echo off and one silly line "bananna" in it.

Not sure now what to do.

krishan

Dano · 4 Oct 2008 at 14:59

Got show protected system files on too? Link from uvmain works like a dream for me.

krishcanag · 4 Oct 2008 at 16:02

dano

that link goes to a forum page, which one do you use?
krishan

Dano · 4 Oct 2008 at 16:21

http://www.datafilehost.com/download-b6cb18d5.html

krishcanag · 4 Oct 2008 at 17:45

thanks guys, I did it I think. Dano I might even try that link as well.

So yes I had to show system files as well like you said. What I do have to do is restart PC and go straight to boot options and hit on USB one and then it goes to c:\ in DOS, if I have any files there it shows up, I had memtest86+ on it and run it no problem, so I guess that means it works, but it will not auto boot to DOS after restart.

krishan