Today I will try to write a short guide explaining how install Win XP from USB flash drive. It may be  useful if you need to reinstall the operating system of your netbook or if you own a laptop with a faulty optical drive and the only way to reinstall Windows is through USB , but before you start you will need a few things. The first is a small program, that I’m going to use for preparing the flash drive and copying the system files on it. It’s called WinSetupFromUSB and can be downloaded from here. You will also need original ISO file of Windows XP and of course USB Flash Drive with at least 1GB capacity for data storage.

OK! Let’s start.

1. Download and install WinSetupFromUSB.

2. Create a new folder with any name of your choice and extract the Windows XP ISO file into that folder. You can use programs like UltraISO.

3. Connect the USB Flash Drive to your PC and start WinSetupFromUSB. If drive is detected properly it should appear in the USB Disk Selection drop down menu. If you don’t see it there  this may be because it is not formatted yet.

winsetup

Don’t worry, just press the RMPrepUSB button and select the options as shown in the picture below. Then click Prepare Drive.

winsetup prepare drive

Important! Using NTFS will significantly accelerate the installation process but may cause problems with certain models of flash drives. Therefore in such cases it is advisable to use FAT.

4.Answer OK to the following questions displayed by the program.

winsetup prepare drive 2

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5. Now your device is ready and the only thing left is just to copy the Windows XP files to it. Click the browse button to specify the full path to the folder where you extracted the Windows XP ISO file.

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6. Click GO to start the process. On the bottom of the screen you will see a progress bar showing the current status of the process. You can also monitor the number of copied files as well as the space they occupy on disc.

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When the process is complete you can connect the flash drive to your notebook or netbook, enter the BIOS and set the computer to boot from USB. Installation will begin with the following window where you just press enter to continue.

winsetup from usb
At the next window you can see that the installation process is divided into two parts. Press Enter again to continue with the first part that runs in text mode. Proceed as usual with selecting the partition where you want to install and then wait until  windows files are copied on the hard drive.

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After the first restart you will have to boot again from the USB drive, but in the second window you have to select the second part in order to continue with the GUI-mode of XP Setup. Actually, it may be selected automatically by the program and you can just press enter.

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When installation is complete, your computer should be able to start Windows from its internal hard drive.