windows xp install from usb. Installing Windows XP from a flash drive. An easy way to create a WinXP installation flash drive

Relatively recently, I talked about installing Windows 7 from an external HDD without using third-party software.

Making an installation flash drive with Windows 7 or Vista is not difficult, and using the UltraISO program generally reduces this process to a couple of mouse clicks.

It makes no sense to describe here the process of creating bootable flash drives with Win7, and our topic is different. For those who are interested, they can easily find the necessary information on the net - since everything is musselled there and instructions are walking from one site to another.

But with the installation of Windows XP from a flash drive, everything is far from being so smooth and transparent. However, I found an easy way to create an installation distribution for a flash drive or memory card, but first I'll tell you how I went the wrong way. Perhaps my experience will be useful to someone, and someone will bring what they have started to its logical conclusion. Although ... I no longer see the point of picking in the Windows XP installer - the system is no longer supported and is clearly living out its last days. Those who are interested read further, but for those who are already impatient, go to the end of the article.

inf file txtsetup.sif corrupted or missing status 18

Initially, I made a bootable USB flash drive with Windows XP using the UltraISO program, similar to Win7. I went, as it seemed then, along a simple path, and it was a mistake.

UltraISO does not make Windows XP installation flash drives!

Highlight something in red?... When you try to boot from such a flash drive, you will get a black screen and a message with the following content:

Inf file txtsetup.sif corrupted or missing state 18

The network is full of "knowledgeable" pros who stupidly copy the same stupid instructions from each other without bothering to check the work. Then, in the comments, a flame is bred on the topic of crooked distributions of Windows and any other dregs. But the fact is that Windows XP has a rather tricky installation script, without modifying which nothing good will come of it.

I tried to cheat a little and quickly got rid of this error by copying txtsetup.sif from I386 to the root of the memory card and renaming I386 to $WIN_NT$.~BT. The installer started, but when it got to the point where a screen should appear asking you to select a disk partition for installing Windows, another disappointment awaited me.

The CD drive could not be found.

Check if the CD-ROM drive is powered on and connected properly to the computer. If it is a SCSI device, check if the chain terminator is set to SCSI device. For more information about this, see the documentation for your computer or SCSI adapter.

The installer cannot continue. Press to exit .

Experiments with the $WIN_NT$.~BT\WINNT.SIF file, namely turning off the CD search, did not lead to anything, and as a result, I gave up trying to bring the Windows XP installer to mind on my own. It was decided to dig towards ready-made solutions - programs that do this thankless job for you.

How to make a bootable USB flash drive with Windows XP?

I will say right away - do not expect a very simple installation of WInXP from a USB flash drive. There are several pitfalls - the disk must be Primary Master and the installation takes place in 2 stages.

WinSetupFromUSB- one of the programs that allows you to very easily create a bootable USB flash drive for Windows XP. Developer's page with a description of the work and version history from the utility: How to install Windows from USB.

As soon as all sorts of "specialists" do not complicate the work with this program, supplementing their descriptions with a bunch of absolutely unnecessary actions, thereby casting mystery on a rather simple process. In general, here is my version, which will be clear to any beginner:

All that is required is to specify the USB flash drive and the place where the distribution kit with Windows XP is located (if you have ISO image disk, you can unzip it with 7zip).

P.S.: I'll tell you a little about the boot itself from the prepared flash drive, because. the process of installing WinXP from it is slightly different from the traditional one.

When booting a computer or laptop from a USB flash drive, you will initially need to select the menu item First part of Windows XP Professional SP3 setup from partition 0 and the initial (text) stage will occur, after which (boot from a USB flash drive) you will need to select Second part of 2000/XP/2003 setup/Boot first internal hard disk.

It's no secret that there are live distributions for Linux users that allow you to boot from removable media. They are designed for easy operation on different machines. What can Microsoft offer about this? Yes, practically nothing. But XP would not be a great option for those who prefer this operating system. After all, Windows 7 is now pre-installed on all new computers and laptops, and tablet-oriented Windows 8 is coming out soon. And here I put a USB flash drive, and after a couple of minutes my favorite OS was already loaded. The people, who are very resourceful, have long understood how Windows XP is installed on a USB flash drive. Get ready for a rather complicated and lengthy procedure, but also a decent result - a fully functional system running Windows XP on a USB flash drive. Here is the sequence of your actions:

1. You must first turn off all internal and external hard drives, as well as all memory cards.

2. Now put the flash drive into the system and run the Windows installer with boot disk in the "text only" mode, without waiting for the graphical part of the installation.

3. After installation is complete, connect the internal HDD and boot from it.

4. Using (File > Load hive) import the SYSTEM registry hive from a flash drive called 123 (it can be found: flash drive drive name:\Windows\SYSTEM32\Config). Then you need to apply the usbboot.reg patch, which can be easily found through Yandex

5. Now it will be necessary to unload 123 in a regular way.

6. Turn off the internal hard drive and continue installing Wndows on a USB flash drive.

7. As a result, the system boots successfully. Installing Windows XP on a flash drive is not that difficult, is it?

8. After installation, you need to convert the USB flash drive so that it is detected as a hard drive. To do this, you need to download the Hitachi Microdrive driver, as well as change the contents of the cfadisk.inf file from the driver distribution kit (put the device code of our flash drive obtained from the device manager in the cfadisk_install line).

So, the installation of Windows XP on a USB flash drive is completed. Since a flash drive is built on a different principle than a hard drive, it is advisable to configure the system as follows:

1. Disable Permanent overwriting into it from RAM is useless. This will only reduce the longevity of the media (remember that flash memory is designed for much fewer read / write cycles than a classic hard drive)

2. Set up a basket - destroy files immediately. The meaning of this is also clear. Still, the flash drive is less voluminous, space must be saved.

3. Disable the service Firstly, it wastes resources, and secondly, it is simply not needed on a flash drive. And thirdly, it loads the media with unnecessary accesses, lowering the resource.

4. To improve the performance of our system, you can also use a specialized EWF module used on devices that use the built-in version of Windows XP - ATMs, terminals, smart home systems, and so on. This module significantly reduces the number of hard disk accesses.
This is very convenient when it comes to media based on flash memory and SSD. True, it should be noted that with the advent of more advanced and durable models for SSD, this statement is no longer relevant. The EWF implementation technology is a volatile overlay where applications run. Recording to the hard disk is done at will, when you already turn off the terminal. Due to this, excellent performance of the flash distribution with XP is achieved. A similar technology is implemented in the Linux distribution Puppy Linux. Thus, after configuring all the parameters of Windows XP, when the installation of Windows XP is already completed, you can install EWF. By the way, another indisputable advantage of EWF is that the system always remains the same as at the time of installation, unless you wish to write to disk. But there is also a small drawback - the area of ​​\u200b\u200buse of a flash drive with XP will be limited only to PCs with a large amount of RAM (from 1 gigabyte). However, this is not a problem at all for modern PCs, is it?

Perhaps this is the end of our educational program, which briefly describes how Windows XP can be installed on a USB flash drive and the distribution settings on a flash drive are given. Of course, you can write more than one publication on this topic, but this is already beyond the scope.

It seems why, when almost all owners of desktop computers and laptops have switched to latest versions OS, you need to install Windows XP from a USB flash drive. But it's no secret that popular netbooks are not equipped with an optical CD/DVD drive. But even this is not the main thing. For the most part, netbooks "do not pull" the seven. And installing an earlier version of the operating system will help improve performance. You can also use an external DVD drive, but why buy such an expensive device if you have a regular flash drive. There are several ways to create a bootable flash drive to install XP. That's what we'll talk about.

Initial data

To install Windows XP on a netbook, you must first prepare. You will need:

• Flash drive from 1 to 2 GB.
• CD or image with operating system Windows XP.
• Desktop computer or laptop.
• Distribution kit for creating a bootable flash drive.

If an OS image is used, it must be unpacked and all files saved in their entirety in a separate folder.

Formatting the flash drive

For different tasks and devices, flash drives with a specific file system are used. The same drive will be readable on a computer, but, for example, a DVD player may no longer see it. In a word, for our tasks we need a certain file layout of a USB flash drive. And you can make the necessary markup of the drive in different ways. Let's consider one of them.

Windows Tools

Everything is simple here. To do this, follow a certain sequence of actions:

The program will work and reformat the USB device to the desired markup.

Now, in order to install Windows XP on a netbook from a flash drive, it needs to be made bootable. There are several ways to do this.

Create a bootable flash drive with WinToFlash

Novicorp WinToFlash- allows you to create a bootable USB drive with OS versions such as XP, 2003, Vista, 2008, 7. With it, you can install Windows from a USB flash drive to a netbook, laptop or desktop computer. The possibilities of the program are expanded due to:

• WinPE migration;
• destruction of data from a full or quick drive;
• creating a boot disk from under DOS;
• creating a flash drive Live CD/DVD.

Besides:

• it is possible to choose a Russian-language interface;
• two modes: wizard mode, with which Windows XP flash drives are created, and advanced;
• support of the program on the Russian site;
• ortable version allows you to work on different machines;
• the weight of the program is only 10 MB;
• completely free.

So, let's start creating a bootable USB flash drive:

When the work of the master WinToFlash ends, you can exit the program. The bootable Flash drive is ready and the next step is to install Windows XP on the netbook.

UltraISO Program

Among those Russian users who installed another OS, the program is a success UltraISO.

From what this program can do, we can note:

• The ability to correct a CD / DVD image, for example, extract an entire file or folder from it.
• Add or remove a folder or file.
• Create an ISO image of any document.
• Optimizes files to save disk space.
• Supports a large number of image types.
• Creates its own virtual drive and much more.

In addition, the program supports the Russian language and is compatible with such popular emulators as Daemon Tools and Alcohol 120.

So, for work, we need an ISO image of Windows XP and a flash drive.

Check the contents of the flash drive or all data from it will be erased.

Let's start creating a bootable USB flash drive, for this we will perform the following sequence of actions:

The process of creating a boot disk for any computer, laptop and netbook will begin.

We set the first boot in the BIOS from USB

Windows installation XP from a flash drive is the same as from an installation CD / DVD, but you must first set the OS boot priority for it in the BIOS. To do this, you need a signal from a USB drive. If it is not connected in advance, then it will not be visible in the OS boot options.

Now let's set the boot priority:

After rebooting, the netbook will start loading the OS from the created Windows XP flash drive.

Errors when installing Windows XP from a USB flash drive

But not always the first launch of the installation flash drive is successful, and the OS is not installed. You can list the main reasons for resetting the installation of Windows XP:

• Hardware conflict when laptop devices are incompatible.
• The media itself is damaged.
• There are no suitable drivers for this hardware.
• Problems with the activator.
• Incorrectly selected program for creating a boot drive.
• Often the Windows XP installer fails from a flash drive because it is not formatted correctly.
• Hardware conflict when trying to use USB 3.0 input when the installer does not support such port extensions simply because there are no such drivers. And not a fact, if the USB port supports both modes, then the installer will be able to understand this.

Now let's consider whether it is possible to install Windows XP without additional BIOS settings, what errors may occur during installation, as well as ways to solve them.

It is not always possible to install an OS from it after creating a boot drive. For example, it is possible that the authorization of the boot device was successful, and the driver is being loaded, but the text appears on a blue screen. A little BIOS tweak can help here. In it you need to find the item " sata mode» (« ») and change the priority. Instead of " ATA» put priority on « AHCI". Save changes and reload.

If it is not installed again, then you need to return to the BIOS again and in the section " IDE configuration» switch to IDE mode. This problem may occur when installing the system from outdated flash drives for which the system cannot find the appropriate drivers. If this item is not visible, then most likely a different BIOS version is installed. In this case, we find the tab " Advanced". Let's go to the line " OnChip SATA Type", where we change the priority from " IDE AHCI" on the " Native IDE».

There is another option. On the tab " Advanced"find the line" IDE Configuration"and in the section" SATA Operation Mode» change from « Enhanced" on the " Compatible».

It may also happen that already at the installation stage with hard drive the computer suddenly restarts. Reverse setting in BIOS to " IDE mode". Reboot.

Another situation. When installing, the netbook may report: I can’t install, the asms file is needed. To solve this problem and install Windows, in the first message, when loading from the window, the second line is selected. And in the selection window - " First part...". After the files are written to the hard drive and the netbook reboots - everything is the same, but select " Second part…».

It may be that a warning appears when booting from a flash drive. In order for the system to install, creating a bootable Flash disk with another program will help solve the problem. For example, you can download and install WinSetupFromUsb.

If the system does not install, the cause may be a hardware conflict. The laptop system itself will display an error code.

It may also happen that the installer displays a message: error code 0x80070017. Cause of failure:

• USB input damaged;
• unreadable flash drive (error code 0x80070570);
• misconfigured distribution.

Conclusion

When the installation of Windows XP from a USB flash drive is interrupted by an installation error message to the computer, this is not a reason to panic. It is worth once again carefully repeating all the operations to create an installation flash drive. Read the relevant forums where experts can give advice. In any case, if the problem is not physical damage to the equipment, it is always possible to find solutions.

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