XP on USB drive ?

[Uncle Fester]

Has anybody got WinXP SP3 running on an external USB hard drive and how was it done?

[ageno2gen1]

I done it accidently once. left my usb drive in and there was no power to hdd . But if you boot from disc and there is and usb drive in it it should show up in the "which partition would you like to install windows on" window, go from there.

[DND]

sounds like it would be good if you have some good tools on it could be very handy

[Uncle Fester]

I done it accidently once. left my usb drive in and there was no power to hdd . But if you boot from disc and there is and usb drive in it it should show up in the "which partition would you like to install windows on" window, go from there.

I will be getting the drive tomorrow so I can't verify what you say but I read that the win installer will not work on external drives. I would have to create a modified installer disk rewriting a lot of files and this did not work for many, while others say it worked fine and as fast as on an internal disk.
Microsoft denies that it works at all.

This was one of the procedures I found that might work.


I would be great full for a procedure that some one here can confirm or something easier.

[johnny.dacu]

There are some prebuilt XP usb versions to download.. I can't point you to a link, but it can't be hard to find. Just don't forget to backup your usb drive. I've lost all my data.

[WhiteOx]

I did it once but it was so slow.

[tristen]

Has anybody got WinXP SP3 running on an external USB hard drive and how was it done?

I haven't had WinXP running from an USB drive, but I often run a version of Linux from USB (drive/stick) on various machines. I don't see why WinXP would be any different.

Google returns many results for the question you have asked. There is what appears to be a good How-to, at

And a link, which is still active, from Katz forums ...

USB_Multiboot((Bootup from usb with any OS u like!))

Boot from your USB stick, copy winxp and boot from it. It includes a video tutorial inside on how to do it.

With this program you can install a full size version of any XP onto a USB drive. This can be used on any PC. Your USB drive must be at least 1GB.

(still active).

[Uncle Fester]

I will be smothering it with grub from a Linux install once I can get XP to work, that was my plan

That flash drive install seems to be a different approach that reminds me of something I did years ago to get a running XP booted off a CD. Not sure if I can get the whole Adobe CS4 suite running from it.
That rapid share link looks promising.

However from what I have tried and read it all seems to stand and fall with the hardware and BIOS.

I tried some ghost images but they end in BSOD while booting and immediate reset so I can't read them.
I did the modified install disk from the link in my second post above but the install start up program would not access the partition.
I tried an old MOBO I had lying around and my modded XP install disc finally did install on the USB drive and boots but only works in safe mode.
In normal mode it gets BSOD with reset exactly like the ghosts did with the other hardware.

So far I found that it can not create a page file for the virtual memory even when I set one manually.
I don't know if this is the reason for the BSODs, it would not be using virtual memory at this time.
Any ideas what I can try out in safe mode to get it working?

[Uncle Fester]

USB_Multiboot is to create an installer from USB to PC. I am after the opposite.

The blue screens refer to problems with the hard drive. At least MS got that one right, I don't have one connected... well not the way MS would like it

[BCNZ]

I considered doing something like this once but all the reports I read at the time said it wasn't possible due to the USB port 'resetting' on a regular basis, therefore losing connection with the hardware.
The hardware doesn't like to lose connection with the software that's controlling it.

[Uncle Fester]

Heaps of ppl seem to get it to work and heaps more don't.
I am one of the latter and I have given up.
This site pretty much covers it all and I tried most of the tips mentioned:

[bigfella08]

Here you go Guy's




Hirens is the best .......Instructions

The best tool you will ever have

You can boot straight into XP or Dos or linux

Bigfella

[NoService]

Here you go Guy's




Hirens is the best .......Instructions

The best tool you will ever have

You can boot straight into XP or Dos or linux

Bigfella

I can vouch for that as well!!!

Hirens has saved my bacon a few times.

Get it you will probably need it one day.

NS

[Uncle Fester]

Looks like a good tool but I normally just use a Linux live CD if I have to fix an XP installation.
Supergub gets a lot of messed up systems quickly running again too.

I was attempting to have a full XP installed and running on an external USB hard drive, not a PE type emergency system.
The computer's internal hard drive is not to be touched and is deactivated while the external system is installed.