Create Bootable USB and Install Windows XP from USB

on a PC or Notebook
To install Windows XP operating system on a Windows PC, you have to follow
the below steps.

1. Preparing a USB thumb drive to create a bootable USB flash drive.

2. Setting up the BIOS configuration of your PC to install Windows XP using
the USB disk.
3. Install and run Windows XP from USB.
4. Handling with errors during Windows XP installation.
Step #1: Prepare Your USB Thumb Drive to Create Bootable USB
Drive
Requirements:
 USB 2.0 (Minimum 2gb drive space)
 Windows XP bootable installation CD/DVD or ISO
 WinToFlash (download link) free app
Now, follow the below guidelines so that you can easily create a USB flash drive
for Windows XP installation.

1. First, download the ‘WinToFlash‘ from the above link. The portable edition
of this tool does not require any installation.
2. Just open the app and select the ‘Advanced Mode‘. Under ‘Task‘ option,
just select “Transfer Windows XP setup to USB drive“. See the screenshot
 below.

3. Click ‘Create‘ button to go to the next window.

4. Tick the “Use my ISO, RAR, ARJ, ZIP, 7Z, CAB, DMG image or archive”
option.
5. Select Windows source path then.
6. Then, under USB drive, select ‘Refresh‘ button to get the list of all USB
drives attached to your PC. Select the USB from the drop-down that you
prefer to create bootable USB for Windows PC.
 7. Tick the option which says – “Remove the read-only attributes from files“.

8. Under ‘process steps‘ tick the following options: format drive, collect
information of text mode, collect information of GUI mode, create folders
structure, copy files, install boot, assign a drive letter for set up, create
answers file, add additions files for installation process, check the USB
drive for errors, transfer all folders from original image.
9. Go to ‘boot loader‘ navigation menu and choose ‘GRUB’ boot loader from
boot loader option.
10. Click ‘Run‘ button and wait until the bootable copy of Windows XP
operating system is created on the USB flash drive.
11. After successful completion, safely remove the USB drive from the PC.
Now, you can install Windows XP directly from the newly prepared USB. The
process of installing the OS to the new PC is very simple if you have the proper
boot device configuration in your PC. If you have the proper boot configuration,
then insert the USB to the PC where you want to install Windows XP. Otherwise,
go to next step to know how to set up the BIOS configuration of your PC so that
you can directly install Windows OS using bootable USB thumb drive.

Step #2: Configure BIOS Setting to Install Windows XP from

External USB Pen Drive – Choose Boot Device Priority
After successfully creating a bootable USB drive, insert the USB to the PC in
which you want to install the OS. Then restart your PC and keep
pressing Del/F2/Esc key to enter Bios mode. The key may vary due to different
motherboard configuration.
1. Enter in the BIOS setting page and navigate to the boot menu. Change
the boot preference there. Select ‘Removable disk’ as first boot device.

2. Press F10 to save the set up and exit.

3. Restart the PC once again and when you get the option “Press any key to
boot from USB/CD…“, just hit any key to install Windows XP to that PC
from USB device.
Step #3: How to Install Windows XP from USB Device
Before installing Windows XP on your PC, you need to create new partition on
your Windows hard drive or you need to edit the existing partition table. But,
create, delete or edit of a hard drive partition using Windows XP is not simple
like Windows 7 and later ones. While installing Windows XP from a USB or from
a bootable CD, you need to create partition using DOS based set up. Later, the
text based setup and GUI setup can be seen. So, you can get a complete guide
of installing Windows XP here with an image representation.
Step #4: Bypass Windows Blue Screen of Death while Installing
Windows XP Using Bootable USB
At the time of installing Windows XP, you may notice the error message with a
blue screen. This may occur due to the following reasons:

 ACHI is enabled. Change SATA disc controller configuration and disable

ACHI and try to re-install XP.
 Lack of disk controller or bus (miniport) driver.
 Low space in installation drive.
When an error occurs, try to trace the root cause for the error and know what
type of error that is. Then, you can only find the proper solution before you install
Windows XP from USB flash drive.
Alternate Method to Create a Bootable USB Disk and
Install Windows XP to PC/Computer/Laptop
As I have already mentioned that creating a Windows XP bootable USB is a bit
difficult as compared to Windows vista, Windows 7 and the later versions of
Windows. ‘Windows to Go’ is a brilliant feature that Microsoft includes in
Windows 8 and later OS to create a portable USB version of the operating
system. But, in case of Windows XP, you need to use a different technique. You
can create a bootable Windows USB by just extracting the setup files to USB
device and this method is not compatible with Windows XP. So, lets see how to
prepare a USB drive and make it bootable with Windows XP. And this procedure
requires a fully functional Windows XP operating system.

1. Download and install BartPE builder from the following

URL: http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ and install the OS
to C:\pebuilder. Start PE builder and browse the source Windows XP
 files and point it. Make sure that you set the output for “BartPE”. Set the
media output as “Create output image”. You can set the output name as
‘pebuilder.iso’. The full path looks something like that
– C:\pebuilder\pebuilder.iso . Press ‘Build’ to create ‘pebuilder.iso’
file. At first, make sure that the file is properly created.
2. Create a bootable USB drive for Windows XP: Insert the USB drive to
proper port and launch ‘Power ISO’. From the menu, navigate to Tools >>
create bootable USB drive. The dialogue with “Create bootable USB Drive”
appears as a pop-up. Confirm the UAC to continue. From ‘create bootable
USB’ dialogue window, click “…” button and open the
“c:\pebuilder\pebuilder.iso” file. In “Destination USB drive”, choose the
correct USB drive. Choose writing method as ‘USB-HDD’. Then, click the
‘Start’ button to start creating bootable flash drive for Windows XP.
3. After successfully completion of the process, copy setup file (from i386
folder) of Windows XP to USB drive. That’s all. The USB drive is ready now
to install Windows XP from USB.
4. Launch Windows XP setup from a flash drive: Plug-in the USB device to
your PC. Run the command: {usb drive
letter}:\i386\winnt32.exe /syspart:C: /tempdrive:C:
/makelocalsource. ‘C:\’ is the drive where you want to install your
Windows XP. You can change it if you want to install the OS on a different
partition. At the time of this installation process, if you see the notice which
says: “Do you want to convert the installation volume to NTFS?”, just
answer ‘No’. After that the setup program closes automatically.
5. Reboot your PC and unplug the USB this time. Change the BIOS setting
and select boot device priority to “boot from hard disk”. Now, you are done
and just wait until installation finishes.
Final Words:
If you follow on screen instruction while installing Windows XP to any PC, it will
be much easier for you to install and run the OS from USB. So far, I try to cover
two best methods along with associated steps, problems and solutions to install
Windows XP to your PC. If you find any better way to install Windows XP to a
PC or to a notebook, don’t forget to drop comment in below comment section.
However, if you wish to install the latest OS i.e. Windows 10 in your PC, read
our guide on installing Windows 10 from bootable USB.