Page 3 – Install Windows XP From A USB Flash Drive
Though there are many ways to do this, this is the way I do it.
This involves more than just making a bootable install USB flash drive because I add SP3 and drivers (for post SP3 hardware) to the image.
1 – Though the program in the next step will do it, I manually add SP3.
– Copy files from the XP CD to a folder called XP.
– Download and extract SP3 to a folder called sp3. (I use 7-Zip for this)
– Open a command prompt window in or navigate to the sp3\i386\update folder.
tip from a reader: “You can also get “Open command window here” in the right-click context menu by holding down the shift-key while right-clicking a folder.”
– In the command window enter update.exe /integrate:X:\xp ( change X to the location of the XP folder you created above ).
A window will pop up showing the files being integrated followed by a “success” screen. For more info on this see here.
2 – Create a folder with XP SP3 + Drivers + Extras
– We are going to use a program called nLite for this. You can add drivers you download yourself, or driver packs, or system update packs to the files.
Start nLite and click Next.
Browse to the folder called XP you created earlier and click Next.
Click on each section you wish to you and it will be added to be process.
You don’t need to do Service Pack because we already did it. Do not choose Bootable ISO.
Click Next when ready.
I added an Update Pack.
Here I added chipset and ethernet drivers.
I removed a few things.
Choose any options you which to change.
Did someone say tweaks?!
Yes! This may take a while.
Click Next and you are done.
3 – Now we will create a bootable Windows XP install flash drive.
– We are going to use a program called Win2Flash for this (free but adware).
Run WinToFlash and click the green check mark to start the Wizard.
Click Next.
Enter the path to the XP folder you created earlier and then the path to your USB drive.
Click Next.
Done! Click Next.
Your USB flash drive should look something like this.
