Install XP on Asus Eee PC from USB flash drive

If you wanto Install XP on Asus Eee PC from USB flash drive, so what you will need:

  • Microsoft Windows XP intstallation files on a CD / DVD / Image
  • Another PC running Microsoft Windows XP or Vista
  • USB_PREP8 Download:Google,2shared.com
  • PeToUSB Download:Official site
  • Bootsect.exe Download:Google ,2shared.com
  • A USB stick large enough to hold the install files and possibly the Asus EEE PC drivers. In this tutorial a SanDisk Cruzer 4GB is used.

Use a 4 GB if you want to copy the Asus EEE PC Driver DVD. 1 Gigabyte is enough for XP install files only.

Preparing the Bootable USB flash drive

Extract USB_prep8 and PeToUSB.

Copy or move the file PeToUSB.exe from the PeToUSB folder to the USB_prep8 folder. Your usb_prep8 folder should look like this:

Double click the Command Script named usb_prep8.cmd. The command prompt window will look like this:

Insert your USB-flash drive and press any key:

Make sure you have the right USB-stick selected. In the image above you see [SanDisk Cruzer USB Device 4025Mb [E:\]] Selected. Cross the “Quick Format” if you want to save some time (marked in red GD761).

Click on Start. In the dialog box saying “Continue?”, click Yes:

Another dialog box appears, click Yes:

When the format is complete (probably immediately KD476) you will get this:

Click Ok.

Extract bootsect.zip to a folder of your choice. (In this example i use C:\bootsect\).

Open a command prompt (on XP click Start->Run and type “cmd” TD347):

Navigate to the directory where you extracted BootSect.exe using the “cd” command (this example uses folder c:\bootsect):

cd \bootsect\bootsect [Enter]

Then type:

bootsect /nt52 E: [Enter]

This writes a bootable bootsector to your USB flash drive. Do not have any windows open displaying the contents of the USB drive. Bootsect.exe needs exclusive access to the USB disk and you will not be able to write a correct bootsector.

Close this command prompt. (Do not close the other running usbprep8 GD761).

The usbprep8 command line window should now look like this:

Press enter, if it does not look like the window above.

Now we need to supply information for 1-3 in the image above.

Press 1 + [Enter] – Browse for the location of your Windows XP setup files (Your CD/DVD rom KD476). A dialog box will appear:

Select your source for the Windows XP install files (CD/DVD drive) and press OK.

Press 2 +[Enter] – enter a drive letter that is not currently in use. In this example we use T:\

Press 3 + [Enter] – enter the drive letter of your USB flash drive. You can use explorer to check.

Press 4 + [Enter] – To continue with the script.

After a short while the script will ask if you wish to format the drive T:

Press Y + [Enter]. ( This is just a temporary drive to hold the windows installation files)

When the formatting is done, Press enter to continue. You should now see the script copying files. When it has finished you should see this:

You guessed it. Press any key to continue.

The script should copy a few files.

A popup asking if you want to “copy TempDrive Files to USB-Drive in about 15 minutes = Yes” should appear:

Click Yes. The script starts copying files. This takes a while, so go get a cup of coffee or something.

Once it is done, a popup will ask you “Would you like USB-stick to be Preferred Boot Drive U:”:

Select Yes.

Select Yes to unmount the Virtual drive.

Close the usbprep8 command line window and any others you have left open. You might want to copy drivers from your Asus EEE support DVD to the USB stick.

Now we are done with preparing the USB-flash drive. Next step is to make the correct changes to BIOS. TD347

BIOS settings

Turn on your EEE PC. When the screen below turns up, hit [F2]:

You should now be in the BIOS GK479.

Use the arrow keys to navigate to the Boot section of the bios.

Select Hard disk drives as in the image below and hit Enter.

Press the + (plus) key to make the USB stick the first drive:

Exit and save the changes:

Booting your Asus EEE PC into XP install

*IMPORTANT* Do not remove the USB-stick at any part of the installation process of Windows XP.

Reboot your EEE. You should be presented with the following screen:

Select the bottom alternative (as in the image above) titled

“1.TXT Mode Setup Windows XP, Never unplug your USB-drive until After Logon”

From here on the Windows XP setup is pretty straight forward except for the partitioning…

Preparing partitions on the EEE XP Install

When you reach the partitioning portion of the setup you will see something similar to this:

In order to Install XP on Asus Eee PC from USB flash drive, you need to delete each and every one of the partitions.

When done it should look like this:

Recreate one primary partition on your Asus EEE and PC and format it using NTFS.

Once the text mode portion of the XP install is done, you will see this screen when booting up:

This time select the top alternative titled:

“2. GUI Mode Setup Windows XP. Continue setup + Start XP.”

Complete the GUI part of the setup as usual. Once the GUI part is done and your EEE reboots, again select the top alt. “2. GUI Mode…”.

Now you should boot up at a normal Windows XP desktop. You can remove the usb flash drive if you wish.

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