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nzso
January 29th, 2010, 12:22 AM
After doing some research I have not found an answer to my question so I thought I would lay it on you guys. I am thinking of doing a dual boot of XP and Ubuntu. I have Ubuntu 9.10 installed now. The system it is installed on is a netbook. Ubuntu was installed on the netbook using a bootable usb drive I created simply because I have no external CD/DVD drive.

My problem is I need to create a bootable XP usb drive and I can't seem to locate any program or tutorial on how to do this under linux. Is there a program for Ubuntu that will make a bootable install on a usb drive similar to the programs like WinToFlash and BartPE for Windows?

I still have my bootable usb drive for linux but without one for XP I am kinda stuck without wasting money on an external CD/DVD drive just for this purpose.

Thanks in advance! ;)

Leppie
January 29th, 2010, 02:04 AM
i'm not sure how to do this, but i'll give it a shot.
create a bootable image with bartpe, then in ubuntu transfer the iso to the usb stick using the dd command. it's something like this:

sudo dd if=/path/to/windowsimage.iso of=/path/to/pendrive

nzso
January 29th, 2010, 02:24 AM
So Bartpe will work under Ubuntu? Or you running it under wine?

Leppie
January 29th, 2010, 02:48 AM
So Bartpe will work under Ubuntu? Or you running it under wine?
sorry, i've misunderstood.
you don't have access to a pc with an installed os and cdrom at all?

nzso
January 29th, 2010, 05:41 PM
No, I am on the road and the netbook is the only pc I have with me.

Leppie
January 29th, 2010, 08:42 PM
No, I am on the road and the netbook is the only pc I have with me.
you could try bartpe through wine, or otherwise install windows in virtualbox

tarsius4
January 30th, 2010, 06:14 PM
I'd like to learn how to do this as well. I pretty much use Linux full-time, but now I have a crashed netbook with Ubuntu installed from XP SP3 via Wubi. I can no longer boot Windows or Linux and I'd like to try using a Windows Recovery Disc to scan the drive before I resort to wiping the whole thing.

The problem is: How does one USE Ubuntu to make a bootable usb drive from a WINDOWS iso file.

There's plenty of info regarding using Windows to create bootable Windows drives, Windows to create Linux drives, and Linux to create Linux drives. But where can I find instructions for using Linux to create a bootable Windows USB drive from a Windows Recovery CD ISO (note: a .iso file, not .img file)

Thanks

nzso
February 4th, 2010, 07:07 PM
Bump

Leppie
February 4th, 2010, 10:26 PM
Bump
bump what?

nzso
February 4th, 2010, 10:54 PM
Bump the thread to see if anyone else has an alternative solution.

Leppie
February 4th, 2010, 11:05 PM
i still don't understand if you already have a bootable windows image (like iso or img file). if you do, you can use usb-imagewriter to transfer to a usb stick. imagewriter only accepts .img files, but you can just rename a .iso to .img without any problems.

nzso
February 5th, 2010, 12:08 AM
Yes, I have a .iso file of WinXP and was not aware that you could use "usb-imagewriter" to create a bootable usb drive and have windows install correctly. I assumed that there would be issues during the reboot points of the installation since as I understood it "usb-imagewriter" was not meant to create Windows XP bootable drives?

Leppie
February 5th, 2010, 12:13 AM
Yes, I have a .iso file of WinXP and was not aware that you could use "usb-imagewriter" to create a bootable usb drive and have windows install correctly. I assumed that there would be issues during the reboot points of the installation since as I understood it "usb-imagewriter" was not meant to create Windows XP bootable drives?
i'm not sure it's all that different. most systems emulate a floppy disk when booting off cd to provide compatibility with older systems. i have never tried to create a bootable win usb though.
but i guess it would be worth trying?

nzso
February 5th, 2010, 12:52 AM
Unless it's been confirmed to work I don't feel like it would be worth the hassle. I know when I had used wintoflash to install windows off of a usb drive at one point there were methods used to catch the installation again after the reboot process of the installation so I am not sure how that would work with your method. It's a shame someone hasn't programmed a tool that I know of to quickly accomplish this task.

Leppie
February 5th, 2010, 01:05 AM
well, good luck with it then.