Bootable XP USB?

I have a ScanDisk Cruzer Blade USB FLASH DRIVE - 8GB.

I want to make it a bootable XP USB drive. I have not been successful
at all, using 'pe2usb' primarily. My Googling tells me that there is
a known problem trying to do this with USB drives over 2GB.

Is that true?
Has anyone been successful?
If so, how? What did you use?

I thought this was a great idea - purpose to preserve my original XP
install capability. I have already had two XP installation CDs fail
from simply sitting on the shelf.

TX

The Apeman

Ape wrote:
I have a ScanDisk Cruzer Blade USB FLASH DRIVE - 8GB.

I want to make it a bootable XP USB drive. I have not been successful
at all, using 'pe2usb' primarily. My Googling tells me that there is
a known problem trying to do this with USB drives over 2GB.

Is that true?
Has anyone been successful?
If so, how? What did you use?

I thought this was a great idea - purpose to preserve my original XP
install capability. I have already had two XP installation CDs fail
from simply sitting on the shelf.

TX

The Apeman

You should clarify what you're trying to build here. Some possibilities.

1) Your flash device is a WinXP C: drive, and you attempt to boot
WinXP from that C: drive. Via activation, the drive is paired with
one PC (i.e. the OS is not really "portable").

To make that work, the search term is "BootBusExtenders".
Example thread, here.

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic116114.html

2) Your reference to pe2usb, suggests what you're doing, is moving
a BartPE (preinstall environment) disc to a USB flash. As discussed
here. It uses a RAMDisk created when it runs, to avoid the BootBusExtenders
problem (USB bus is reset, while pulling files over the USB bus, and
boot process stops). If the files are staged on the RAMDisk, the RAMDisk
doesn't get disconnected when the USB reset happens.

http://www.911cd.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=10806

I don't immediately see how the size of the device comes into play.
It's true, that FAT file systems, have upper limits on the max size
of the file system, and a 2GB limit certainly exists. If the thing
booting insists on an older file system, you might be stuck.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table

FAT16: 2 GB (4 GB for 64 KB clusters)

Be aware, that for storage devices, there are two ways they can be
prepared. With a partition table, or without a partition table.
If you could use a primary partition table, you could define one
partition (the active one), to be slightly less than 2GB, leaving the
rest of the Cruzer unallocated. To start this process, I'd probably
load the USB flash into Linux, use fdisk, and define the partition structure,
as I don't think Windows typically likes to use a partition table there.
Now, the pe2usb tool might not like that. As the intrepid experimenter,
you'd just have to try a few things.

I have a BartPE disc, and I use it so seldom, I doubt I'd ever have
an interest in a USB flash version. I'd only end up erasing it and
putting some other OS on it. I don't own a lot of USB sticks. Of
the sticks I own, one was purposely bought to be small - a 1GB stick,
because a stick at that size, avoids FAT problems. Trouble is, finding
a stick that small now, is more difficult. The average stick for
sale will be bigger than that (bigger stick, can charge more money,
and sneak in a larger profit margin). Using the small stick, is for
cases where the installation tool insists on applying things like
FAT16, to the entire flash drive (and blowing up at 2GB).
The "HP formatter" was an example of such a tool type.

Paul

On Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:09:42 -0500, Paul wrote:


You should clarify what you're trying to build here.

Hi Paul -

I shud'v known you'd chime in. Thank you for your responses. They
are always well thought out and useful.
What I thought to do - bad idea I guess - was to build a bootable USB
that would not only enable me to avoid the XP install CD, which seems
to wear itself out doing nothing, and replace it with its equivalent
on more dependable USB. I thought I could add folders of copies of
the software installation CD's that I frequently add to a given
installation. They go bad too. For example printer softwares, free
virus checker, free disk cleanup softwares, free burners and players,
etc.

I think I'll begin thinking of doing this with two USB's. A small one
to boot. A larger one for the rest.

Or maybe just forget it.

Ape Man



1) Your flash device is a WinXP C: drive, and you attempt to boot
WinXP from that C: drive. Via activation, the drive is paired with
one PC (i.e. the OS is not really "portable").

To make that work, the search term is "BootBusExtenders".
Example thread, here.

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic116114.html

2) Your reference to pe2usb, suggests what you're doing, is moving
a BartPE (preinstall environment) disc to a USB flash. As discussed
here. It uses a RAMDisk created when it runs, to avoid the BootBusExtenders
problem (USB bus is reset, while pulling files over the USB bus, and
boot process stops). If the files are staged on the RAMDisk, the RAMDisk
doesn't get disconnected when the USB reset happens.

http://www.911cd.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=10806

I don't immediately see how the size of the device comes into play.
It's true, that FAT file systems, have upper limits on the max size
of the file system, and a 2GB limit certainly exists. If the thing
booting insists on an older file system, you might be stuck.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table

FAT16: 2 GB (4 GB for 64 KB clusters)

Be aware, that for storage devices, there are two ways they can be
prepared. With a partition table, or without a partition table.
If you could use a primary partition table, you could define one
partition (the active one), to be slightly less than 2GB, leaving the
rest of the Cruzer unallocated. To start this process, I'd probably
load the USB flash into Linux, use fdisk, and define the partition structure,
as I don't think Windows typically likes to use a partition table there.
Now, the pe2usb tool might not like that. As the intrepid experimenter,
you'd just have to try a few things.

I have a BartPE disc, and I use it so seldom, I doubt I'd ever have
an interest in a USB flash version. I'd only end up erasing it and
putting some other OS on it. I don't own a lot of USB sticks. Of
the sticks I own, one was purposely bought to be small - a 1GB stick,
because a stick at that size, avoids FAT problems. Trouble is, finding
a stick that small now, is more difficult. The average stick for
sale will be bigger than that (bigger stick, can charge more money,
and sneak in a larger profit margin). Using the small stick, is for
cases where the installation tool insists on applying things like
FAT16, to the entire flash drive (and blowing up at 2GB).
The "HP formatter" was an example of such a tool type.

Paul

On 2/14/2012 1:23 PM, Ape wrote:
I have a ScanDisk Cruzer Blade USB FLASH DRIVE - 8GB.

I want to make it a bootable XP USB drive. I have not been successful
at all, using 'pe2usb' primarily. My Googling tells me that there is
a known problem trying to do this with USB drives over 2GB.

Is that true?
Has anyone been successful?
If so, how? What did you use?

I thought this was a great idea - purpose to preserve my original XP
install capability. I have already had two XP installation CDs fail
from simply sitting on the shelf.

TX

The Apeman

I have used the program found at the following link to transfer bootable
ISO files, including Windows 7 onto flash drives. Fortunately the
motherboard/ROM's in my PC's seem to be compatible with installing
directly from the USB port.

http://www.isotousb.com/

With luck your PC's will not be one of those that come up with the
"NTLDR is missing" message as mentioned at the bottom of the web page.

If the program claims success on installing an ISO file to your flash
drive you still need to actually try to use it to verify the motherboard
and ROM is compatible with installing from the USB port.

On Wed, 15 Feb 2012 06:10:31 -0600, GlowingBlueMist
wrote:


I have used the program found at the following link to transfer bootable
ISO files, including Windows 7 onto flash drives. Fortunately the
motherboard/ROM's in my PC's seem to be compatible with installing
directly from the USB port.

http://www.isotousb.com/

With luck your PC's will not be one of those that come up with the
"NTLDR is missing" message as mentioned at the bottom of the web page.

If the program claims success on installing an ISO file to your flash
drive you still need to actually try to use it to verify the motherboard
and ROM is compatible with installing from the USB port.


I tried isotousb. It executed without any errors creating hopefully a
bootable XP on my 1GB flash drive. I tried booting up with the drive
on three XP machines - all failed to boot, saying 'disk error'. I
suppose the disk error is for the flash drive.

Oh well.......with an H

Apeman

On 02/14/2012 01:23 PM, Ape wrote:
I have a ScanDisk Cruzer Blade USB FLASH DRIVE - 8GB.

I want to make it a bootable XP USB drive. I have not been successful
at all, using 'pe2usb' primarily. My Googling tells me that there is
a known problem trying to do this with USB drives over 2GB.

Is that true?
Has anyone been successful?
If so, how? What did you use?

I thought this was a great idea - purpose to preserve my original XP
install capability. I have already had two XP installation CDs fail
from simply sitting on the shelf.

TX

The Apeman



XP is not made to be booted from a USB device.

If you Google though you can find the procedure to hack it.

It's quite complicated and the bottom line is that it works quite poorly.


If you really insist on running XP from an external drive,
the only way to go is eSATA

On 2/18/2012 10:42 AM, Ape wrote:
On Wed, 15 Feb 2012 06:10:31 -0600, GlowingBlueMist
wrote:


I have used the program found at the following link to transfer bootable
ISO files, including Windows 7 onto flash drives. Fortunately the
motherboard/ROM's in my PC's seem to be compatible with installing
directly from the USB port.

http://www.isotousb.com/

With luck your PC's will not be one of those that come up with the
"NTLDR is missing" message as mentioned at the bottom of the web page.

If the program claims success on installing an ISO file to your flash
drive you still need to actually try to use it to verify the motherboard
and ROM is compatible with installing from the USB port.


I tried isotousb. It executed without any errors creating hopefully a
bootable XP on my 1GB flash drive. I tried booting up with the drive
on three XP machines - all failed to boot, saying 'disk error'. I
suppose the disk error is for the flash drive.

Oh well.......with an H

Apeman

Oh well it was worth a try. You might want to verify the USB drive is
formatted in FAT or FAT32 rather than NTFS as some systems don't like
the newer NTFS format until after an OS is installed that understands it.

Some motherboards need the older USB compatibility option (or similar
name) turned on to boot from a flash. Usually it's just for keyboards
and mice but some need it to read drives properly during a boot.

Another test if you are still up to trying things would be the freeware
program Unetbootin and have it install a bootable version of Puppy Linux
on the flash drive and see if your system(s) can boot from that. If so
then it's not the hardware issue with your flash/PC but a software
incompatibility of some kind. The Windows version of the program can
download and install Puppy, or other versions of normally bootable
Linux, all in one pass eliminating the need for you to download Puppy
separately. Puppy is small, about 100MB, so the download time is
usually quick unless your stuck on a dial-up link.

The link to the program is: http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

On Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:49:07 -0600, GlowingBlueMist
wrote:

Oh well it was worth a try. You might want to verify the USB drive is
formatted in FAT or FAT32 rather than NTFS as some systems don't like
the newer NTFS format until after an OS is installed that understands it.

It is FAT32.

Apeman


Some motherboards need the older USB compatibility option (or similar
name) turned on to boot from a flash. Usually it's just for keyboards
and mice but some need it to read drives properly during a boot.

Another test if you are still up to trying things would be the freeware
program Unetbootin and have it install a bootable version of Puppy Linux
on the flash drive and see if your system(s) can boot from that. If so
then it's not the hardware issue with your flash/PC but a software
incompatibility of some kind. The Windows version of the program can
download and install Puppy, or other versions of normally bootable
Linux, all in one pass eliminating the need for you to download Puppy
separately. Puppy is small, about 100MB, so the download time is
usually quick unless your stuck on a dial-up link.

The link to the program is: http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

On Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:46:38 +0100, Jawade
wrote:

philo schreef op Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:47:06 -0600 in artikel :

Yes, it is possible, see:

http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=197

I use it with XP for made a backup with Ghost2K3.exe


All HPUSBF.EXE did for me was format the flash drive FAT32 clean. No
bootable OS on it. No surprise I guess since I would read the
filename to mean format the USB.

Apeman

On Sat, 18 Feb 2012 22:56:44 +0100, Jawade
wrote:

Ape schreef op Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:46:10 -0500 in artikel :
On Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:46:38 +0100, Jawade
wrote:

philo schreef op Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:47:06 -0600 in artikel :

Yes, it is possible, see:

http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=197

I use it with XP for made a backup with Ghost2K3.exe

All HPUSBF.EXE did for me was format the flash drive FAT32 clean. No
bootable OS on it. No surprise I guess since I would read the
filename to mean format the USB.

It works for me, for several years. Read the website

The website says:
HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool

Doesn't that mean just a format?

Ape

. The flash drive
contains IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS, COMMAND.COM and a number of drivers. Do
not forget instruct the BIOS te start from the flash drive.

Mine is clean.


De volumenaam van station O is ASUSBU
Het volumenummer is 28B6-1FD8

Map van O:\

23-04-1999 22:22 222.390 IO.SYS
18-07-1999 21:05 9 MSDOS.SYS
23-04-1999 22:22 93.890 COMMAND.COM
23-04-1999 22:22 1.416 SETRAMD.BAT
23-04-1999 22:22 35.330 ASPI2DOS.SYS
23-04-1999 22:22 14.386 ASPI4DOS.SYS
23-04-1999 22:22 37.564 ASPI8DOS.SYS
23-04-1999 22:22 40.792 ASPI8U2.SYS
23-04-1999 22:22 29.620 ASPICD.SYS
23-04-1999 22:22 1.103 AUTOEXEC.BAT
23-04-1999 22:22 21.971 BTCDROM.SYS
23-04-1999 22:22 30.955 BTDOSM.SYS
23-04-1999 22:22 629 CONFIG.SYS
23-04-1999 22:22 68.871 DRVSPACE.BIN
23-04-1999 22:22 272.206 EBD.CAB
18-07-1999 21:05 0 EBD.SYS
23-04-1999 22:22 93.242 EXTRACT.EXE
23-04-1999 22:22 63.916 FDISK.EXE
23-04-1999 22:22 6.855 FINDRAMD.EXE
23-04-1999 22:22 64.425 FLASHPT.SYS
23-04-1999 22:22 33.191 HIMEM.SYS
23-04-1999 22:22 41.302 OAKCDROM.SYS
23-04-1999 22:22 12.663 RAMDRIVE.SYS
23-04-1999 22:22 14.764 README.TXT
01-10-2002 18:15 1.024.024 Ghost2K3.exe
28-07-2010 18:46 904 BOOTLOG.PRV
28-07-2010 19:31 162 BOOTLOG.TXT

I wonder - where did these files come from?

Ape

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