Make usb drive for XP install

[joey00]

I have no Windows machines, and no floppy drives.

I need to create an USB boot/install drive from either the XP cd or the iso file.

The additional complication is that I need to include whatever is needed to install to a SATA HDD.

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On Linux there are a number of apps which will handle multi-boot installs for various distros. So a big usb stick can be used to install a selection of distros.

Is the same possible (from ubuntu) with a selection of Windows CDs (W98, XP, Win7, Vista)?

I found threads on this subject, but they seem to be unworkable or start from a Windows environment.

Joey

[sanderj]

What's your goal? Install Ubuntu? Install Windows XP?

[joey00]

What's your goal? Install Ubuntu? Install Windows XP?

As the header says, I want to make an usb stick, from which I can install XP (with SATA drivers extra).

I rarely use Windows, but occasionally I need to use an app that only runs on Windows. So, I just need the ability to install it easily,

[sanderj]

As the header says, I want to make an usb stick, from which I can install XP (with SATA drivers extra).

And you're asking that in "Ubuntu General Support" ... ?

Sorry ... can't help you.

[ikt]

Moved to Other OS.

[joey00]

And you're asking that in "Ubuntu General Support" ... ?

Sorry ... can't help you.

Since I don't see a section for the making of USB boot disks, I thought this might be the right place for it. It is essentially the ability of Ubuntu to make a boot disk of an unusual type, no?

Perhaps you can suggest a better classification?

I am sorry you are unable to be helpful.

[mips]

I need to create an USB boot/install drive from either the XP cd or the iso file.

Is the same possible (from ubuntu) with a selection of Windows CDs (W98, XP, Win7, Vista)?

Google "128mbdos.img" and download it, it's only 1MB in size, alternatively get it from my google drive below.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B10i...it?usp=sharing
It contains Freedos.
Use dd to write the image to a USB stick sudo dd if=128mbdos.img of=/dev/sdx where x is the USB Stick. DO NOT SPECIFY THE WRONG OUTPUT DEVICE AS IT WILL OVERWRITE IT!!!

You will see it creates a small partition with freedos on it. On the remaining space create a FAT32 partition and simply copy the contents of the cd/iso over to this new partition (make sure you can see hidden files from your file manager, ctrl-h in thunar). You can also dump any additional drivers on this partition for sata etc. and just point windows to it.

Now boot from the USB, change the drive letter to d: or whatever it is for the large FAT32 partition and simply run setup.exe. I have not tried using this method with Vista & later but it works for WinXP and earlier.

This says you can use unetbooting to load Win7 http://www.addictivetips.com/windows...-simple-steps/ but I have never tried it.

Alternatively you can create a small XP/Win7 VM and run the MS Win7 download tool from there which will create a bootable USB for you from a iso image of Win7 (& later I think). http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/...usbdvd_dwnTool
This will also allow you to use tools like nLite & vLite to slipstream service packs & drivers into the images shuold you have the need.

Hope this helps.

[mips]

Come right?

[joey00]

Thx for this. It sounds like the way to go!

I will try it out and report back.

It occurs to me that I can create several partitions for each system I want to have available. Is this so? Presumably Windows /DOS sees them as Drive D, E, F etc.?

I had a look at unetboot earlier, but it didnt seem to work. Maybe it was the hardware, maybe me.

Sorry to reply slowly - I had work distractions.

Thx again for your help.

[mips]

It occurs to me that I can create several partitions for each system I want to have available. Is this so? Presumably Windows /DOS sees them as Drive D, E, F etc.?

Should work or you could also try just having a separate folder for each OS.