Installing Windows FROM a USB drive

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Hugsie - 13 May 2008 22:14 GMT

Is there a way to install Windows XP (or windows 2000) from a USB thumb
drive? I want to be able too boot from the USB drive, and have the windows
installer come up, as if I were installing from a CD using a CDrom drive.

My new laptop (EEE PC 900) has no optical drives, and I really don't want to
get an external optical drive just to install windows.

It would been wonderful if I could find some way to simply copy a bootable
ISO of a CD onto the thumb drive and allow it to boot as if it were a boot CD.

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Jim - 13 May 2008 23:59 GMT

> Is there a way to install Windows XP (or windows 2000) from a USB thumb
> drive? I want to be able too boot from the USB drive, and have the
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> ISO of a CD onto the thumb drive and allow it to boot as if it were a boot
> CD.

Only if the BIOS supports booting from a USB device....
Jim

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Hugsie - 14 May 2008 01:16 GMT

> Only if the BIOS supports booting from a USB device....
> Jim

it does, i wouldn't ask if this little laptop didn't. Regardless your reply
doesn't answer my question.

how can i get a bootable ISO of a cd to boot up and install on a USB thumb
drive as a boot device, so i can install OSes, including windows, to be used
on PCs w/o optical drives? (e.g. EEE PCs)

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John John (MVP) - 14 May 2008 01:40 GMT

>>Only if the BIOS supports booting from a USB device....
>>Jim
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> drive as a boot device, so i can install OSes, including windows, to be used
> on PCs w/o optical drives? (e.g. EEE PCs)

You didn't search too hard, in the first few search hits I found this:

http://www.eeeguides.com/2007/11/installing-windows-xp-from-usb-thumb.html

John

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