Anyone care to share how you install Windows via USB stick? I am in the process of slipstreaming XP SP3 and going to load into Dell laptop with dead optical drive. What software(s) do you use to make stick bootable and how to reassign C: once booted from USB?
I used a HP utility to make the USB drive bootable in Windows Vista. Make sure the USB bootable BIOS option is set to emulate a removable drive (floppy drive / CD) instead of a HDD. Windows will know enough to assign the HDD as drive C. You should not need to change the drive letter.
1st attempt (with HP tools, haven't tried zy's method) It boots and says something like "Use Smartdrive or this will be slow"... and I proceded anyway it was SSSSLLLLOOOOWWWWW. I let it run overnight, saw the normal screens, setup is copying files, etc... then nothing. Can't boot, to HDD or USB Any suggestions?
Use a portable hard disk? The last time I used this method, I think the PC was using USB 1.1 instead Ended up using a DVD.
Hmm.. Usually, what I would do is set the USB drive as the first drive to be booted. Then after Windows installs and asks to reboot, I will go back to the BIOS and set it to boot the HDD first. PS. I don't understand why it wouldn't use SmartDrive while installing Windows XP, even from a USB drive...
Just got replacement Dell OEM CD-RW/DVD-R for $13USD off of e-bay. Will bypass the USB install for now, but I would like to learn how to do this properly some day.
Just use diskpart... pretty easy Open cmd. Then type: diskpart list disk (find your usb disk) sel disk 1 (assuming it's disk 1) clean cre par pri sel par 1 format fs=fat32 quick act assign Then copy the entire disk contents over. Do this on Vista or W7 as I remember Wxp diskpart can't detect USB key.
Oooo... Windows XP... Hmm... that's different I guess. Just do the same and type in the bootsect thingie in zy's link.
