He swears that if you follow instructions it works. Will try this weekend.

http://www.ocia.net/articles/xpflashdrive/page1.shtml

Stu

-Kevin

I've had extremely good success with deploying XP using WIM images along with OfflineSysprep so if you did decide to go down that road and ran into any snags I can probably assist you.  That combined with DriverPacks allows me reload oem-specific or VLK XP machines in 10-15 minutes.  Anyways, if you do give is a whirl and get stuck let me know and I'm sure I could help you.

Do you have any links to guides that show how to do that? I would love to see them!

I use this Linux based solution:  Storing an image on a Bootable ISO

http://ping.windowsdream.com/ping/doc-2.01/bootiso.html

There is also a guide to making a hidden recovery partition to store your custom image.

You need to know a bit about Linux commands though.

I've had extremely good success with deploying XP using WIM images along with OfflineSysprep so if you did decide to go down that road and ran into any snags I can probably assist you.  That combined with DriverPacks allows me reload oem-specific or VLK XP machines in 10-15 minutes.  Anyways, if you do give is a whirl and get stuck let me know and I'm sure I could help you.

OH MAN that sounds like a dream... with my custom DVD's a full install on a relatively new laptop takes about 45 minutes... that includes Drivers, Office, Antivirus, a few other programs, lots of tweaks etc so if I could shave that down to even 20 minutes it would be amazing. I would welcome any advise or guidance... thanks and yes I will look into it further as well.

Forum
http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/120444- … -with-gui/

My Post starting on page 52
http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/120444- … __st__1020

Turns out the Dell laptops have some issues that the developer is checking into ...he has a Latitude E6400 that also has problems installing. I will keep updating as things develop

Used a 1Gig Cruzer and formatted it FAT32... laptop booted from USB, loaded files VERY SLOW, rebooted and blank screen, just sits there

EDIT:

Tried my 16 Gig Voyager and formatted it with a single NTFS partition (using the HDD option gives me a grub error when adding files), added the files and completed the process. Laptop boots, loads initial files, reboots to start windows, then just hangs...

Going to give up for now but I have made a few additional posts elsewhere and will see what I get back

WinSetupFromUSB - boots off USB to menu, select 1, inspects system, loads 1st files then comes to a MS window asking if I want to setup XP, repair or quit, press enter(install) and says inspecting drive and then "can't create folder \windows

USB_MultiBoot_10 -  boots off USB, copies 1st files then says starting windows and just does nothin\windows

FlashBoot  - boots off USB, then comes to a manual 2 step process asking me to create a partition and then format it as FAT32 (I did not proceed)

WinToFlash - does not boot from USB, ntldr missing

I will keep trying and if you have ideas let me know

I found this tool extremely helpful in getting both XP as well as 7 to install from USB:
http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/120444- … -with-gui/

You can even create one stick that can install both (as well as some other useful stuff)!

Make sure to grab the latest beta - I found it to work just perfectly.

Installing from a flash medium as opposed to an optical/mechanical combination prooves to be much faster and less prone to burning/reading errors.
As long as you BIOS supports it, it definately is the wa to go, IMO.
Plus, carrying that stick around is much more convenient than a CD/DVD with case etc...
Additionally, some drives would dislike my DVD+RWs, but even using a DVD+R doesn't help all the time (or you have to switch vendors - I already am bruning them at no faster than 4x for compatibility's sake).
So far, the stick has worked in just every system I plugged it in...

Thanks Helmi... I am trying it now

mr_smartepants wrote:

I've never tried it with XP.  But installing Win7 via USB was a real eye-opener.  Speed, speed, speed!
I would love to try it with XP.  I came across a utility a few months back and downloaded it, but never got the time to try it out.

I just downloaded Novicorp WinToFlash 0.6.0011 beta and I am going to try it and see what happens... I'll let you know

Well so far this doesn't work "out of the box" it fails with a ntldr error so I decided to post in their forum and see if the solution would be an easy one for this... I will post updates
http://wintoflash.com/forum/viewtopic.p … &t=723

You can even create one stick that can install both (as well as some other useful stuff)!

Make sure to grab the latest beta - I found it to work just perfectly.

Installing from a flash medium as opposed to an optical/mechanical combination prooves to be much faster and less prone to burning/reading errors.
As long as you BIOS supports it, it definately is the wa to go, IMO.
Plus, carrying that stick around is much more convenient than a CD/DVD with case etc...
Additionally, some drives would dislike my DVD+RWs, but even using a DVD+R doesn't help all the time (or you have to switch vendors - I already am bruning them at no faster than 4x for compatibility's sake).
So far, the stick has worked in just every system I plugged it in...