Part 2 - Install Windows XP from a usb flash

This is the second part concerning booting from usb flash stick.

In this part I will describe how to enable installation of Windows XP from an usb stick.

Requirements:

1. For this you will need an usb flash stick. I my self tried a Sandisk USB 4GB and it worked fine.

2. You will also need the following three files:

-PeToUSB
-usb_prep8
-bootsect

3. A Windows XP CD or a mounted iso of Windows XP.

4. Further you need to have a computer that allows booting from an usb stick. (Almost all newer computers especially laptops allows booting from usb.) You will also need to set your usb to be the first boot priority in your computers BIOS.

How-to:

1. Save the three files from above to a place on your disk for example C:\bootusbxp.



2. Extract usb_prep8.zip, PeToUSB_3.0.0.7.zip and boot bootsect.zip to the same folder as the (ie C:\bootusbxp). It should look like:



3. Move the file PeToUSB.exe to the folder usb_prep8.

a) Go into the folder PeToUSB_3.0.0.7 and cut the file PeToUSB.exe.

b) Paste the file PeToUSB.exe into the folder usb_prep8. It should now look like:



4. In the folder usb_prep8 you will find a file named usb_prep8.cmd.



5. Double-click this file and a command-prompt will appear:



6. Press any key to continue. This will open the PeToUSB formatting tool.
In the drop down list you will see you USB flash drive (In my case SanDisk U3...)



7. Press Start to begin formatting the usb flash stick. A question will appear saying if you want to Continue? Press Yes.



8. Yet one more question appears asking if you want to continue. Click Yes to continue.



9. If everything goes as expected a message box will appear saying that the operation was completed successfully (ie your usb flash was successfully formatted).
Note! Don't close any windows, let the PeToUSB and usb_prep8.cmd windows stay open.



10. Next step is to configure the boot sector so that the usb will be able to boot. This is done with the BootSect.exe (C:\bootusbxp\bootsect).

a) Click Start => Run...

b) Type in the word: cmd



c) Click OK. (A command-prompt window will appear)



11. We now need to move to the folder where the BootSect.exe file exists. (ie C:\bootusbxp\bootsect). Do this by typing and pressing enter after each command:

a) type: cd\

b) press: Enter

c) type: cd bootusbxp\bootsect

d) press: Enter

e) type bootsect.exe /nt52 G: (where G: is the usb flash stick)

f) press: Enter

g) The bootcode should now have been updated. See screenshot:



h) You can now close this window.

12. Before you continue, insert your Windows XP CD into your optical drive. Then return to the PeToUSB windows if it is still open and click on the Close button. The command-prompt window should now appear with the following menu alternatives:



13. In this prompt there are three steps that are important: 1, 3 and 4. We will need to complete each step. Start by setting the path to XP Setup Source (ie your Windows XP CD path). Do this by clicking:

a) 1

b) Enter

14. A window for browsing will appear. Select the drive for your Windows XP CD. (In my case F:) and click OK.



15. Next we need to set the target for the usb flash stick.

a) Type in: 3 and press Enter.

b) Type in: G (Here you should type in the letter of your usb in my case G). Press Enter.

16. The final step is to create the windows template and start copying installation files to our usb flash.

a) Do this by typing: 4 and pressing Enter.

b) A question will appear if we want to format the virtual drive (Y/N). Type Y and press Enter.

c) Then press any key to continue....it will now copy files from your Windows CD to the virtual drive.

d) After that a message box will ask if you want to copy TempDrive files to USB taking 15 minutes. Click Yes to start copying files to your usb flash.

e) On question if you want usb stick to be preferred boot drive U: Click Yes

f) Further click Yes to unmount drive.

g) When finished click any key in the command prompt to close the window.

This completes the steps needed for enable installation of Windows XP from an usb stick. Next I will describe how to install Windows XP from the usb.

The installation procedure differs a little bit from an usual installation. First you need to note that the usb flash needs to stay inserted in the computer during the whole installation of Windows XP. Secondly you will see a new menu displayed when booting from the usb flash. Below I continue describing the installation process.

18. Start your computer with the usb inserted. A menu asking to start from TXT Mode or GUI Mode will appear. Select TXT Mode.
The computer will then restart two times during the installation process. The same menu as above will appear, but this time you should select GUI Mode on both occasions.

19. After the installation has finished you can remove the usb flash stick.

This concludes the Part 2 - Install Windows XP from a usb flash. In the next part I will describe how to boot up a light Windows XP a.k.a Bart PE directly from the usb flash.

Part 1 - Create a bootable usb flash

This week I had a laptop that had a broken cd reader, whose windows had started to malfunction. Normally it is quite easy to format a computer with a Windows XP cd. But this time it weren't that easy, therefore I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn how to boot from a usb flash drive.
Today also more and more laptops are being delivered without an optical drive not to speak of the tiny EeePC's.

This insertion will consist of three parts:

1. In the first part I will describe how to "Create a bootable usb flash".

2. In the second part I will describe how to create and "Install Windows XP from a usb flash".

3. And in the third and final part I will describe how to "Create a bootable usb 'light windows' a.k.a Bart PE".


Create a bootable usb flash

Requirements:

1. For this you will need an usb flash stick that aren't bigger then 2GB (since this is the limit). I my self tried a NoName USB 2GB and it worked fine.

2. You will also need the following two files:
-HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool (This tool enables you to format your usb flash stick)
-Dos (Includes dos files needed when making the format)

3. Further you need to have a computer that allows booting from a usb stick. (Almost all newer computers especially laptops allows booting from usb.) You will also need to set your usb to be the first boot priority in your computers BIOS.

How-to :

1. Save the two files from above to a place on your disk for example C:\bootusb.



2. Extract the file HPusbUtil.rar which contains the file HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool (HPusbUtil.exe).

3. Install the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool by double clicking the file HPusbUtil.exe, and following the installation procedure.

4. Next extract the file dos.rar to a folder for example C:\bootusb\dos.



5. Now start the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool either from the link on your Desktop or from the start menu. The tool will now open and you will see the name of your usb stick in the dropdownlist. Here you should set the following settings:

a) File system: FAT

b) Format options:
--Quick Format "unmarked" (you could also try marking Quick Format)
--Create a Dos startup disk....using DOS system files located at:

c) Browse for the Dos files that you extracted to C:\bootusb\dos by clicking the button [..]

It should all look like:



6. Click Start to begin the formatting of your usb stick.

7. After finishing the formatting click OK.



8. You should now have a bootable usb flash stick that are bootable on computers that allows usb booting.

In the next part I will go throught on how to create and "Install Windows XP from a usb flash".

Returning a relative path

Returning a relative path to the current page on your asp.net site is in some occasions better to use then having a static path. There are two ways to do this in asp.net. One is to use ResolveClientURL and another to use ResolveURL. The difference between these two is that ResolveClientURL returns a path relative to the current aspx page, while ResolveURL returns a path relative to your internet site root.

Below is an example showing four links, the first one is a static link, the second actually fails as a link, and the last two links shows how to use ResolveClientURL and ResolveURL:

Adding user control reference in web.config

When using User Controls in ASP.NET it is a good practice to register the controls in Web.Config. By doing this you won't need to register the user control on every single aspx site that it should be used on. (See code example)

Here I have registered two custom user control and also the AjaxControlToolkit inside the web.config (see code line 8-10).



One problem that might arise when doing this approach is when you need to nestle one control inside another control. This will generate a compiling error saying something like:

The page '/MyProject/App_UserControls/Personnel.ascx' cannot use the user control '/MyProject/App_UserControls/DateSelector.ascx', because it is registered in web.config and lives in the same directory as the page. C:\My Projects\App_UserControls\Personnel.ascx

A solution for this problem is to re-register the DateSelector user control inside the Personnel.ascx file as the following code (see code line 4):

A new blog starts...

Hi, my name is Hassan El-Saabi and I am a senior software developer. I have specialized myself on the .net and sql server.

In life you always learn things that might be useful for yourself and others, things that you wished that you wrote down and collected somewhere. So that you could reuse that information later when you are in need of it.

The problem normally is that you either don't remember the information or have forgotten where you wrote it. In this blog I will try to bring up topics I find useful, tips & tricks and things that you might get stuck with spending hours to solve. For the moment I don't really know the exact topic range that I will discuss. It might be all from hacking a website to baking a cake :) , anyway I hope that you will have fun and benefit from reading my blog. Welcome!

Kind Regards
Hassan El-Saabi