Won't boot from USB

almoststew1990 · 25 Oct 2018 at 21:54

I picked up a second hand netbook today. I want to put a fresh XP install on it but it won't boot from USB. I am using Rufus to make a bootable using a disk image of XP I made. I insert the USB stick, it is detected by the bios (the brand and capacity and everything), I set it as first to boot but when it tries to boot it does nothing for 20 seconds and the moves onto the SSD.

I have been hammering the keys incase it is saying "press any key to boot from cd..." but i just can't see it, but nothing happened

Any ideas?

bremen1874 · 25 Oct 2018 at 22:12

Have you tested the stick on a different device.

almoststew1990 · 25 Oct 2018 at 22:16

Yeah they're both working fine. I drive I put in the netbook had an old install of Windows 7 on it and that picks up the USB sticks fine.

MagicBoy · 25 Oct 2018 at 22:25

Will it boot in another device?

almoststew1990 · 25 Oct 2018 at 22:38

Yeah, it'll boot to the SSD that is in there. It just won't boot to USB. When I tell it boot to USB, it shows a black screen with the flashing underscore, and the the underscore moves down a line or two and the SSD kicks in

MagicBoy · 25 Oct 2018 at 22:39

That's not what I asked. Will the USB stick with XP installer on it boot in another PC?

PiKe · 25 Oct 2018 at 22:41

Ensure that rufus is set to write the partition as MBR for csm/bios compatibility.

MagicBoy · 25 Oct 2018 at 22:42

That's what I'm trying to get OP to test...

almoststew1990 · 25 Oct 2018 at 22:52

Hi it won't boot from my Haswell pc. If I tell it to boot from UEFI: General UDisk as a boot override from within the bios, the screen flicks black but then comes back to the Bios. If I tell it to boot to just "General UDisk" I get the same flashing underscore.

MagicBoy · 25 Oct 2018 at 22:52

Yeah, it's not bootable then. Try recreating it.

almoststew1990 · 25 Oct 2018 at 22:54

Rufus running with an "MBR" partition with a target system of "Bios (or UEFI-CSM)".

MagicBoy said:
Yeah, it's not bootable then. Try recreating it.

OK i need to find my other other other USB stick

Regeneration · 26 Oct 2018 at 00:42

Don't install Windows XP.

Adobe Flash and the latest browsers won't support it.

Install Windows 7 or Linux.

If you insist on XP, use WinToFlash to create the media.

In the BIOS, you'll have to enable legacy boot mode.

LuckyBenski · 26 Oct 2018 at 08:00

+1 for Linux, not just for security but because it'll be lighter on resources and last longer.

Bear in mind, you need to use an XP disc image that has SATA drivers. I think that's only SP3, unless they're slipstreamed into a custom image. No SATA drivers = can't install to SATA drives.

almoststew1990 · 26 Oct 2018 at 17:51

I nabbed a USB stick from work and used Win 2 flash instead of rufus or Win32img and it worked! No idea what it did different but nowI can finally do a fresh install.

Thanks for the help

Regeneration · 26 Oct 2018 at 20:26

Windows XP installation load USB drivers for mouse and keyboard functionality but not for storage. Win2Flash loads the USB drivers like RAID and SATA.