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".