Minimum USB pen drive size for Windows XP

sharingan_sasuk

sharingan_sasuk

sharingan_sasuk

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Hi, seeing as USB pen drives are really cheap these days, I'm looking to have Windows XP on one so that I can install from it. This would then allow me to install the OS on a system without a CD-drive (ie. netbook). I've had a look around Google and I have found guides and such, but nothing about recommended pen drive sizes.

This is not for booting up XP, but to install from it once and then be done with it. Until the next time I decide to format the system of course and reinstall XP.

Would 8GB suffice? And are there any particular USB pen drive features I should look out for to ensure reliable transfer rates while installing XP from it?

Many thanks
 
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1GB.. yeh if your noob and have no sense of humor its great

£5 for 4gb aint exactly breaking the bank is it :p

personally i say get 8gb then at least you can move a full DVD amount of data and then some or 11.43 CD's.

lol :D
 
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1GB is plenty for the install given that XP comes on a CD, however as many people state, go for 8GB (as 4GB won't fit on a full DVD capacity) as they are so cheap and about the most useful thing youcan have around - you'll definitely find other uses for it.
 
8GB for around a £10... You would also use the extra space to store an image of your new install, not just the OS installation files, plus any portable applications you may want.
 
I can see why you'd want to do this, however, is it not incredibly slow? Read and write speeds are less than 10MB/sec - which is at least five times lower than the average hard disk.
 
He said he wants to install FROM it, not TO it.

Therefor 1gb will be fine as the source is a 700mb CD. EASY!

If you have something smaller such as a old 512mb one kicking about, you can save yourself the £1 (or the trip to the shops in the cold) and download nlite and strip down your XP source to fit the stick you have.


PS, its a royal pain in the ass to install xp from usb pen drive. I did this on a old laptop with no floppy or cd drive. In the end i gave up and put the drive into another laptop and had to use winpe to get the files onto the harddrive, from there there is a switch you can throw at one of the .exes to do a preinstallation as such onto the harddrive (but not complete). Then once you swap the drives back the installation finishes and installs the right drivers etc.

In summary be brave and good luck, it rarely works out how these guides say but it can be done if you work at it.
 
IMO the best way to install XP from USB is not to actually run the install from the stick, but copy the I386 directory from the XP CD to the USB stick and then boot from that (or another) USB stick, then partition and format (FAT) the PC HD, copy the I386 dir across and then run the install from the PC HD. Much quicker than installing from the USB stick itself.

That's how I do it on my eee PC anyhow.

Useful tools to have a DOS bootable USB stick and Ubuntu bootable USB stick - get me out of a few tricky situations.
 
1GB is enough.
Get 2GB (or more) so you have room for all the essential applications and utilities you'll want to install as well.
 
Thanks for the replies all. I'm just trying to get rid of, or store away all the discs I've got lying around my room. Seeing as I'm planning to get a stick or two anyways, I decided I would like to give it a try.

Regarding the speeds of the sticks, should I look for any particular number? Or will any USB do as long as it's reliable and doesn't disconnect half way.

I'm thinking of the Freecom 4GB DataBar USB 2.0 stick. That should be fine? Only costs a fiver :) so I might get two of them (I'd rather get two 4GB sticks than one 8GB stick, don't ask me why!)
 
do they even sell 1GB sticks anymore lol... how much £1 lol.... go 4gb or 8gb

that one should be ok mate.. im not going to ask why your buying 2 4gb ones xD

103855.jpg

This what i use.. 8gb supertalent pico-c :) about £20
 
1GB will do, XP is on a CD. You may as well got for a 4GB. Only about £2 difference between 1GB and 4GB

sharingan_sasuk said:
Thanks for the replies all. I'm just trying to get rid of, or store away all the discs I've got lying around my room. Seeing as I'm planning to get a stick or two anyways, I decided I would like to give it a try.

Regarding the speeds of the sticks, should I look for any particular number? Or will any USB do as long as it's reliable and doesn't disconnect half way.

I'm thinking of the Freecom 4GB DataBar USB 2.0 stick. That should be fine? Only costs a fiver :) so I might get two of them (I'd rather get two 4GB sticks than one 8GB stick, don't ask me why!)
Click to expand...

I've found with pen drives most of then read at pretty much the same speed, when it comes to writing files the cheaper pen drives are usually slower.

When installing XP nothing will get written to the pen drive so a cheap one should do :)

You could get an 8GB pen drive (you can get a nice Corsair Voyager for about £15) and put multiple operating system installers on there. I've never tried it myself but if you know how to edit the boot file you could point it to different sections of the pen drive (e.g. /Vista and /XP), that way when you boot from the pen drive you should be presented with a 'dual boot' type menu.
 
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That's a good idea with putting an OS on a stick for installs.

As above, go for a 4gb or 8gb so you can add extra data if needed.
 
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