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I have a Dell Mini 9 with only Ubuntu installed, I want to install Windows XP also but I don't have and can't get an external CD drive, so I need to make a windows installation from the usb.

All the tutorials I found use windows to make the usb bootable, how can I make the same from linux?

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Do you have access to a computer with a CD drive? – Nathaniel Jan 23 '10 at 0:48
I do have another linux machine with a CD drive. – user22826 Jan 23 '10 at 1:04
--- removed --- – user22826 Jan 23 '10 at 1:05
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5 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

You can use virtualbox and give the virtual machine access to the harddrive. Then install windows xp in the virtual machine and create a new partition on the real harddrive. After installation you can reboot the computer and boot windows as normally.

To give Virtualbox access to the entire disk, (change the x to appropriate letter, eg. a):

VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/hdd.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdx

Then choose existing harddrive and select the file hdd.vmdk in your home folder.

If the commands complains about missing permissions, add yourself to the group disk with the following command, then log in and out and try again.

sudo adduser `whoami` disk

A) If you already have linux installed on the target computer you can to this directly on that computer but before you reboot into windows run sudo update-grub and sudo grub-install /dev/sdx (change the x to appropriate letter, eg. a) to make sure that you will still be able to boot linux.

B) If the target computer is completely clean, make a bootable Ubuntu usb-drive on which you also put an image of your (legally purchased) windows install cd. Then boot Ubuntu on the target machine and follow instructions above.

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This definitely is a brilliant solution! Seems to be working so far. :) – RCE Jan 15 at 19:09
Hi, I'm trying to do this very thing on Ubuntu 12.04 but I'm having problems. When I write VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/hdd.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdx being x my hdd I get this message. VBoxManage: error: Cannot open the raw disk '/dev/sda1': VERR_ACCESS_DENIED VBoxManage: error: The raw disk vmdk file was not created Then I did it as root but, although obviously worked, I only can open the hdd.vmdk as root and that makes me uncomfortable. Nevertheless the virtual machine doesn't seem to work. I get a black screen opening virtualbox as root. – fénix May 21 at 11:42
As outlined in the answer "If the commands complains about missing permissions, add yourself to the group disk with the following command, then log in and out and try again." sudo adduser `whoami` disk – Linus Unnebäck May 21 at 23:40
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up vote 2 down vote

Have a look at UNetBootIn. This should do the trick.

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I could not make it work for Windows XP, It does not launch the windows installer – user22826 Jan 23 '10 at 2:23
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up vote 1 down vote

Since you didn't get UnetBootin to work, ask a friend with a Windows computer (they aren't exactly a scarcity, you know :) to prepare a USB stick with WinToFlash for you.

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up vote 1 down vote

It's only shouting to a wind, but...

What about trying VirtualBox? You can download Windows XP iso file, mount it and instal virtual machine. I think you can access USB drives there too, so you could be able to make USB boot drive from there.

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up vote -1 down vote

I've tryed both. But when i installed windowsxp with WTF and got the usb stick into my laptop, the installer couldn't read the hard drive. Only the other usb sticks connected.

By UNetBootin, it told me that BOOTMGR was missing. So I concluded that it is impossible FOR ME to install winds xp... any ideas? Please?

To answer youur question. You need gparted, UNetBootin, a usb stick with at least 8GB and windows iso. Then, open the gparted and make the partition of usb stick ntfs. Then open UNetBootin, click at 3 dots, find the iso, click it, and the check the Show all drives (use with care) and choose your usb stick by there. You're DONE! :) ....Hope this is helpful!

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This was already tried. The OP stated that UNetBootin does not support creation of windows XP installer images. – Mark Renouf May 23 at 11:24
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