Windows xp and office install on a USB flash drive. Installing Windows XP on a flash drive and using the flash drive as an HDD

In this article I will tell you how to install Windows XP from a USB flash drive. How to prepare a USB flash drive, with which you can burn an iso image to a USB flash drive.

General information

Surely everyone who installed the Windows operating system (at home, at a friend's, at school, at an institute, at work, no matter where), sooner or later encountered such an inconvenience as the lack of a drive to read disks, but at the same time there was a a large number of USB connectors, or at least two. But how to combine Windows XP with a USB flash drive, and even more so make a USB flash drive bootable and install Windows from a USB flash drive. In fact, everything is not so scary, but it requires strict adherence to some trivial actions, the corresponding software, the Windows XP operating system, and, of course, the flash drive itself. To make everything very clear and not ask unnecessary stupid questions later, let's agree right away: perform all the actions below the algorithm provided, since this has already been tested on our own experience and, I think, we will not reinvent the wheel. So, to install Windows XP from a drive, we need:

  1. A flash drive larger than 1 GB (I used 2 GB, it's better to play it safe than to trash flash drives and lose your personal time when a message suddenly pops up that they say so and so, requiring space, there is not enough, they say).
  2. A utility for formatting a USB flash drive to the desired format and creating a bootable USB flash drive for Windows XP.
  3. A working version of Windows XP, or rather its image.

So, suppose that you already have a flash drive of the right size, now we need a suitable utility to work with it. There are a number of possible utilities, but after trying most of the available ones, I settled on one of the simplest and most convenient, namely WinSetupFromUSB. This program is very convenient and easy to use, and you can download it on the Internet.

The program is easy to use, you do not need to install it, just download the archive, unzip it to the desired folder and run the exe file. Next, download a high-quality assembly of Windows XP and begin preparing your flash drive for further work.

In order to install Windows from a flash drive, you first need to format it correctly, as mentioned above, so run the downloaded utility and see the window in front of you:

If you launched the program, but did not install the flash drive, then after inserting the flash drive, click on the “Refresh” button so that it is displayed in the corresponding window. Next, press the "Bootice" button and get into the following window:

Here you need to select your flash drive. Attention! Do not confuse, the list also suggests your current HDD so be careful with your choice. Then click the "Perform Format" button. After that, we have a new dialog box in which you need to select the type of media to be created, because. we create a bootable Windows XP flash drive as a single logical drive, then select the USB-HDD mode (Single Partition) option and click the “Next Step” button

And we get the following window in which you need to select the type of file system in which the flash drive will be formatted: select NTFS (I won’t explain why, since you decided to install WindowsXP, I think you know what a file system is and what types it can be) and you can also come up with a label for it, i.e. title. This name will appear the next time the flash drive is connected to a computer, laptop or netbook, for example, as in my picture this name is “Windows XP”. Then click the "OK" button:

In the window that appears, click "OK":

Then "OK" again:

We agree and click "Yes":

Your flash drive takes some time to format, after which a message appears:

Click "OK" and this completes the formatting. To see that this is the case, just go to the “My Computer” start window, and we will see that the flash drive has been formatted in the desired file system, with the file system we need and with the label that we gave it before formatting (I gave an example with the name of the label "Windows XP" to be clear)

Create a bootable flash drive

Now we need to properly install XP on your flash drive, i.e. make the flash drive bootable. To do this, in the main window of the program, check the box next to the "Windows XP/2000/Server setup" field. Before doing all this, you need to print the resulting ISO archive, otherwise if you try to specify the path to an unprinted archive, you will receive an error like the following:

We get rid of the error simply: print the archive and specify the path to the already printed archive. Just look carefully so that the path already goes exactly to the folder containing the OC Windows XP files, and that the archive does not lie in subfolders. If you have downloaded the version of Windows XP, to which the link is given in the article, then the printed archive has the following content:

So, specify the correct path to the printed archive:

Put a tick next to the inscription "Show Log" (if we want to observe the installation process), click "GO" and wait until XP is installed on your USB flash drive:


When the installation is complete, a window will appear with the following message:

You should click the "OK" button and this will complete the preparation of the Windows XP bootable USB flash drive. Now we are waiting for the installation of the operating system itself. What is needed for this:

Installing Windows XP on your computer

  • First we need to go into the BIOS and assign boot from a USB flash drive. To do this, restart your machine (netbook, laptop, computer or something else). Most often it happens to reinstall the system from a flash drive on netbooks (hereinafter a netbook will be written), because there is just no optical drive there. At the very beginning of the boot, press the “Delete” (Del) key, for some manufacturers it is the “F2”, “Esc” key, in general, when you reboot, the machine itself prompts which key you need to press to get into the BIOS. I want to immediately warn many who are terribly afraid of blue screens and everything blue, textual and incomprehensible at first glance, and the BIOS in particular. This is the same program, only low-level, i.e. works directly with system devices and all boards. And who likes to treat everything properly understands perfectly well that the text console and the text interface are much more convenient for work and open up great opportunities for those who use it. So, this is a digression, let's continue further. We go into the BIOS and assign a boot from a USB flash drive (I remind you that the BIOS differs in appearance from different manufacturers):

We go to the “Boot” tab (all movements are made with the arrows on the keyboard), we see our flash drive under the fifth number in the list of devices and raise it with the “F5 / F6” keys to the first position in the list:

Press the "F10" key and the "Y" key on the keyboard ("Yes", i.e. we agree to apply the changes and exit the BIOS)

  • Next, we reboot your netbook, if you have done everything as described above, then after the reboot the following window will appear:


Select the second line "Windows XP/2000/2003 Setup". Next, we get to the following window:

We select the second line "First part of Windows XP Professional SP3 setup from partition 0", here We select the installation of the version of Windows XP that we downloaded and loaded onto a USB flash drive. The following is a typical installation:


Press the "Enter" key to start installing Windows:

Here is an interesting point. Has anyone ever read the license agreement for installing this or that software? I don't think so. But we will assume that we have read it and therefore safely press the "F8" key:

After all the actions and operations done, your netbook will reboot and the bootloader window will reappear, where you again need to select the “Windows XP/2000/2003 Setup” menu item:

In the window that appears, select not the first, but the second line “Second part of 2000/XP/2003 setup / Boot first internal hard disk”:

After that, the usual, pleasing to the eye of a capricious user, the installation of Windows XP will begin.

In this article, you learned how to burn an ISO image to a USB flash drive, how to prepare a BIOS, the initial stage of installing Windows XP from a USB flash drive. Let's put an end to this. Good luck!

Video tutorial on installing windows xp

How to make a bootable windows xp flash drive

In this article, we will analyze such a question - how to make a bootable or installation USB flash drive with the still quite popular Windows XP version of the operating system.

ATTENTION! We highly recommend the article on the dangerous heating of laptops. It is the heating of the laptop that has appeared over time is very often underestimated by users. If the laptop heats up, then measures must be taken, otherwise a breakdown as a result of a part burnout is guaranteed

Let's get started...

Introduction

Despite the fact that Windows XP is less and less supported, both by its developer company and by the users themselves, it can still serve us well with its speed, reliability and unpretentiousness.

This is proved by many users of personal computers (PCs) who are very reluctant to switch from it to the new released versions of Windows.

When do we need "windows xp":

  • For weak office computers
  • For newer netbooks and laptops
  • For users of programs that work either only on xp or just work stably on xp
    those who are used to Windows XP and are not going to say goodbye to it yet
  • For those who do not play new modern games

Given that after Windows XP, as many as 4 operating systems have already come out, she does not give up. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the issue of reinstalling with Windows XP programs.

It is understandable "windows xp" can perform most of today's daily tasks on a PC. The only thing is that many new games and some new programs do not work on it.

Benefits of Windows XP

If you have a slow computer, laptop or netbook, then "windows xp" is just right for you.

It is not very whimsical to the power of the PC, and if you still find redesigned assemblies of Windows XP for speed, then you can install it on a computer almost 15 years old.

So, let's start creating a bootable "windows xp" flash drive. It is a bootable flash drive, not a disk, because for some reason sometimes there may be no drive in the computer or, for example, if it is a netbook, then it is not there at all.

And so we will create a bootable USB flash drive with Windows XP in this order:

  1. Find "Windows xp", usually a virtual image of the original disk
  2. Select and install a program to create a bootable USB flash drive
  3. Create a bootable flash drive

So, where to get a virtual image of Windows XP?

Let's start with the "windows xp" virtual image. What is a virtual image to begin with? In short, this is an exact virtual copy of the disk. In our case, we need a virtual image (or, in other words, an exact copy) Windows disk xp to write it to a flash drive.

  • This image can be downloaded from the Internet. though only, usually, with the help of a special program µTorrent (we write it in the search engine and add "download", or look more. In order to download the Windows xp image - we write it in the search engine and add "download", we will be offered sites where you can download it download, and it's better to download it with the µTorrent program you already have - it's both fast and easy.
  • Just do not forget that you need to download everything from trusted and reliable sites., if you have chosen one, then try to make sure that it is free of viruses and other indecency. To do this, you need to act systematically - read the comments, ask for feedback about it in a search engine, learn about it from friends, write to us and ask for advice, etc. Plus, do not forget about the presence of an antivirus in your system.

In general, for reference, a disk image or a copy of it is not done by simply copying information from a disk, but by a special program, you can read about this in the article how a virtual disk image is created.

And so, let's say you found the image of "windows xp".

Let's move on to creating a bootable USB flash drive

In general, to create an installation flash drive with "windows xp", we need to use a flash drive with a volume of at least 4 gigabytes, but to be more precise, it must be no less than the size of the "windows xp" image. Having taken the flash drive, insert it into the usb port of the computer or "beech" and see what is on it. It is advisable to remove everything you need, because everything will be deleted there.

Installing the WinSetupFromUSB program to create a reliable bootable USB flash drive with Windows XP

We will make a bootable USB flash drive in the free WinSetupFromUSB program. It is quite convenient and we will perform the operations we need in it in just a few mouse clicks.

But first, let's figure out where to get it. We go to any search engine, in our case it will be yandex.by. In it we write - WinSetupFromUSB download, follow the link to the official website (WinSetupFromUSB.com), so we will download a reliable and working program without viruses and other rubbish:

In this window, just click "Download", this will start downloading the program (only 24 megabytes):

So, downloaded, now we run this file, a window for unpacking it will appear. Here you just need to specify the place where to unpack, you can select the desktop (to do this, click on the button with dots on the right and select "desktop"):

But if you don't want to bother yourself, then just click on "WinSetupFromUSB_1-6.exe". In the first line of the USB disk, your flash drive should be defined, if it is already in usb, if it is not yet, then insert and click Refresh:

Now we need to make some small adjustments, as in the picture below:

  • First, put the "bird" and select the file system. You can choose the second and third, although NTFS is more reliable and modern
  • Next, put a "bird" in the first line of the next block. Here we need to specify the path to the Windows XP folder. Just keep in mind that this should be the folder with the operating system, and not the .iso file

If you have a separate .iso file, then you need to unpack it. To do this, you must have the winrar or 7zip archiver installed in your system. See how to install them in a note than to open a .rar file. In general, if the archiver is present in the system, then you just need to go inside the .iso image with Windows XP, select everything there and copy it to some empty folder, we will specify it in the WinSetupFromUSB program to make a bootable USB flash drive.

In the process of assigning a folder with the OS, a window will appear in which you need to click "I accept". In general, I think the folder was specified. Now almost everything, put the "bird" on "Advanced options". In it, we should put one more "bird" in the line "Prepare Windows 2000/XP/2003 to be installed on USB".

Everything, then a 5-minute process will begin somewhere ( wait until the end, until the sign "job done" appears) create a bootable flash drive. At the end of the recording, we get a ready-made bootable (installation) USB flash drive with the Windows XP operating system.

  • Alex website
  • In this article, we will tell you step by step what the installation of windows XP from a USB flash drive is like and the process of preparing such a USB flash drive, so that you can then install Windows from it. After all, anyone who has ever installed the Windows operating system, sooner or later had to deal with the problem of the lack of an optical drive. However, at the same time, there are several USB outputs on the laptop/netbook. The question arose - how to install Windows from a USB flash drive on a laptop without a disk?

    Naturally, this can be done, and our installation guide will help you with this. There is nothing super-smart and super-complicated here. You just need to strictly follow the instructions that we will provide in this article. You will need to have the correct operating system, appropriate software and, of course, the USB drive itself. Although, if you suddenly fail to do it yourself, you can always order computer repairs at home.

    And once again, before starting work, we urge you to follow the instructions exactly, do everything according to the algorithm, and then there should be no unnecessary questions and problems. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, since everything has been tested empirically for a long time and more than once.

    So, before you install windows xp from a USB flash drive, you need to prepare everything you need. First, you need a drive with a capacity of at least 1GB, and preferably 2GB. Secondly, you need a special utility to format it to the required format and create an installation USB flash drive with Windows. Thirdly, you need an image of a working version of XP.

    Preparing a flash drive for installing Windows XP

    Let's say you already have a USB drive of the right size. Now you need to find a special utility for formatting and then creating an image of the installation windows disk. There are several suitable utilities, of which we will recommend one. It is the most simple and convenient to use - WinSetupFromUSB. We think it will not be difficult to find and download it on the Internet. Next, you also need to download a good assembly of windows xp. Having everything you need, you can proceed to further work.

    Formatting a flash drive for installing Windows XP

    To format the flash drive, run the program mentioned above. In the window that appears, press the "bootice" button,

    Today, the Windows XP operating system is considered obsolete. In its place came more modern systems with much greater capabilities. But at a time when Windows XP was one of the most common, most users respected it for its high reliability and stability, ease of setup and compatibility with most existing hardware.

    At the moment, the XP system is used on computers that were once designed specifically for it and do not meet the requirements for installing more modern programs.

    Most users note that a system that has a limited number of programs installed that meet the operating system compatibility requirements can work indefinitely without reinstallation. At the same time, a computer on which many programs are often installed and removed, sometimes of dubious origin, may at any time refuse to work due to an OS failure.

    Problems are caused by the fact that as a result of installing programs in the system catalog and registry of the operating system, various “garbage” accumulates, which at some point can be recognized by the system as working files and, naturally, lead to a “crash” of the system and the appearance of the “Blue Screen of Death” ".

    So, we can name the main reasons for the need to reinstall the operating system:

    • "garbage" in the registry and system catalog;
    • hard drive failure
    • changes in the hardware configuration of the computer;
    • virus attack.

    "Cure" or reinstall

    There are many special programs or utilities for cleaning and restoring operating systems, but, as experience shows, their use by inexperienced users does not bring tangible results. This is due to the fact that the action of these software tools is superficial, and a more complete cleaning requires a lot of experience and time. In most cases, booting a new system takes less time and does not require special skills, since most of the actions take place automatically.

    The only exceptions are computers with installed programs, for which there are no installation images or media, because the newly installed system contains only the minimum programs necessary for the operation of the computer.

    Why not a DVD and what is the difference between a regular flash drive and a bootable and multiboot

    Almost all installation files for installing programs, including operating systems, are supplied on CDs or DVDs. Their volume is sufficient for any purpose. But modern computers allow the initial launch, before the start of the operating system, to be produced from other devices, including flash drives. What are the benefits:


    A bootable flash drive with Windows XP allows you to install a new operating system and the necessary set of application software on your computer in a few tens of minutes without changing the media.

    An increasing number of users prefer to use bootable flash drives. Why are they called bootable, the fact is that you can’t just take and write operating system files to a USB flash drive. In order for the computer BIOS to start booting from an external drive, its structure must be designed accordingly. This concerns the structure of the drive as a whole and, in particular, its boot sector. The boot is based on the master boot record - MBR, which contains data on the boot order, the location of the downloaded data, and other service information. The MBR structure is not accessible to a normal user, so special programs and utilities are required to form it.

    In addition to simple bootable flash drives, there are multi-boot ones that allow you to select the necessary actions before starting the installation of the operating system. Such flash drives may contain:

    • several OS boot options;
    • several different operating systems;
    • utilities for testing hardware;
    • utilities for working with hard drives;
    • a lightweight version of the operating system that does not require installation.

    For these purposes, you need a specialized program or utility that would create the necessary partition structure of an external drive and copy the installation data into it, placing them in a certain order.

    The main difficulties when reinstalling the Windows XP operating system

    At the moment, MicroSoft Corporation has stopped supporting legacy operating systems, which, unfortunately, includes Windows XP. The biggest problem with this attitude is that when reinstalling outdated programs, sometimes a situation may arise when a driver is required for some equipment. Sometimes finding the right driver takes longer than reinstalling the entire system.

    Since the release and support of the Windows XP operating system has been discontinued, you must use the available DVDs for burning or download ISO images of the operating system from the Internet. Similar images are available in sufficient quantities on available file hosting services or torrent trackers. It should be especially noted that by downloading files from the Internet, users violate copyright laws, since the posted files are pirated, and do so at their own peril and risk. You also need to be aware that there is no guarantee that the installation images are correct and that they are identical to the original ones.

    Programs that allow you to create an installation flash drive

    A large number of different programs for creating bootable flash drives are available to those who want to reinstall Windows. Among the programs there are both paid and free programs. If you use them only for the specified purpose, then they do not have any special advantages over each other. There are only a number of differences in the interface. Therefore, the use of a particular program is determined by personal preferences. In addition, paid programs usually have a limitation on the period of use, so they can also be used for a one-time use to create a bootable USB flash drive.

    More opportunities for creating bootable, and in particular, multiboot flash drives, have the Command Line method, but only trained users can do it. For the vast majority, this method is not applicable due to its high labor intensity and complexity.

    Among the most common programs for burning bootable flash drives, it should be noted:

    • Win32 Disk Imager;
    • UNetBooting;
    • PeToUsb;
    • WinSetupFromUSB;
    • Rufus.

    For the Windows XP operating system, a bootable USB flash drive must have a capacity of up to 4 GB. It all depends on the size of the ISO image.

    When creating a bootable flash drive, all data previously on it will be irretrievably lost without the possibility of recovery.

    Therefore, before making a bootable Windows flash drive, you need to take care of saving desired files and data. It is not necessary to format the drive in advance, since most of the listed programs can do this themselves.

    Among these utilities, it stands apart. The program allows you not only to make a bootable Windows XP flash drive, but also to perform many actions to create, copy and edit ISO images. On the other hand, the abundance of functions complicates the use of such a utility for poorly trained users.

    To create multiboot flash drives, you can use the following programs:

    • WinSetupFromUSB;
    • SARDU;
    • Easy2Boot.

    When using these programs, you can create bootable USB flash drives with almost any set of installation images and test utilities. The only limitation is the amount of flash memory. It is very convenient to place anti-virus programs and driver kits on multiboot drives for all kinds of hardware configuration options, which in some cases allow you to avoid the process of reinstalling the operating system. That is, using a bootable USB flash drive with Windows XP, you can check and “treat” the system in the event of a virus attack, test the hard drive for bad sectors, or copy important data to a third-party drive.

    How to create a bootable USB flash drive for Windows XP

    In most cases, creating a bootable USB flash drive requires only specifying the location of the original operating system image and the designation of the drive to be written to. In a few minutes, the Windows XP bootable flash drive will be ready.

    The Windows XP image can be on any media. If you are recording from the original installation disc, then first you need to create an image with any disc burning program, specifying an existing hard drive with the required volume as the location of the final file. Using a bootable USB flash drive with Windows XP, copied from the original DVD, guarantees the stability of the newly installed system.

    For faster installation and avoiding failures, it is recommended to disable anti-virus programs while preparing the boot drive. The write speed depends on many factors: the power of the computer, the speed of reading DVD, the speed of the flash memory and the amount of RAM.

    For example, you can show how to make a bootable USB flash drive with Windows XP using examples of the most common programs and.


    To make a bootable USB flash drive using the program, you must perform the following sequence of actions:


    As you can see, the latter program is much easier to use, but has a significant “minus” - it cannot be used for anything else. In this regard, more complex software offers greater opportunities due to its versatility and multifunctionality.

    Conclusion

    To reinstall the Windows XP operating system, you will need a bootable or multiboot USB flash drive, which can be created using many special programs. The choice of one or another program depends on the preferences of the user or the goals to be achieved, as some of them are equipped with additional features. One of the most common utilities are and.

    Related videos

    Hello readers of the site, in the last articles I focused on installing operating systems, it remains to tell about windows 7, in the last article I told, as well as. But he did not tell how to burn windows xp to a USB flash drive (create a distribution kit). A wonderful program that has always helped me out will help us with this! 🙂

    And the program is called WinSetupFromUSB. Check out this article and see for yourself that it is easy to use.

    How to burn or make a Windows XP distribution on a USB flash drive?

    You can of course use the UltraISO program, but some get an error: txtsetup.sif is corrupted or missing. Therefore, I will show you how to record bootable windows in the old and proven way, which did not fail.

    First, insert the flash drive, open my computer and right-click on the flash drive you want to burn distribution. The following menu will appear:

    Choose to format.

    Select everything as in the picture and click begin. After the flash drive is formatted, the fun begins.

    To begin with, our distribution kit with Windows XP needs to be unpacked. This can be done with any archiver, winrar or free . And also by copying in programs DAEMON-Tools or UltraISO, we'll talk about them later. After unpacking, let's start creating bootable windows xp on flash drive.

    Distribution creation.

    WinSetupFromUSB and run (32 and 64 bit versions in the archive).

    We immediately check the Auto format it with FBinst box and everything else is as in the picture. This is necessary for the program to format the USB flash drive to fit its needs.

    Now preparing for records completed. Let's choose a distribution. In the first paragraph Windows 2000/XP/2003 setup put a tick and opposite where 3 dots click on the button and select the distribution kit that we extracted.

    After selecting a folder, press OK, Then GO. When the recording is completed, restart the computer, and in the window that appears, select Start Vista/Win7/Server 2000 Setup…

    That's all, recording a bootable Windows XP distribution completed, I hope everything was clear, successful installation, see you in the setup article 🙂