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Possible Duplicates:
Place a bootable ISO on a USB drive?
Install windows xp from USB using the iso image

How to install windows xp from usb ?

I have the iso image. My cdrom is not working.

I read up something on internet about this issue but all the articles are just way too complex and big + they are all different so don't know which one to try.

I want to know if someone has tried something like this and to tell me what's the best and easiest way, like some tool that will automatically write the iso file onto the flash drive and make it bootable or smth.

Thank you in advance.

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2 Answers 2

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I installed Windows 7 from a USB HDD because my USB CDROM drive didn't work. Here's how I did it:

  1. create a partition on my USB HDD slightly bigger than my CDROM (i.e. 4GB)
  2. format the partition using FAT-32
  3. copy all the files from install CDROM to the USB HDD FAT-32 partition
  4. mark the partition on my USB HDD as "active"

Then I plugged my USB HDD into the machine I wanted to boot and had it boot off the USB HDD.

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  • Your description sounds almost too simple. Is a partition bootable simply by copying files from the CD? Doesn't it need a boot record or something?
    – Simon E.
    Apr 28, 2010 at 16:24
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I think most solutions will use some sort of tool to prep the USB disk to be bootable.

Summarising this guide;

  1. Download this and extract to C:\
  2. Insert USB stick and run USB_MultiBoot_10.cmd
  3. Set options 1 and 2. Set option 0 iff your device is a USB HDD. Chose 3 when done.
  4. Boot from the stick, choosing "Text installation". After the installer reboots, chose "GUI INSTALLATION".