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Thread ID: 67881	2006-04-09 01:10:00	installing XP off usbkey	dirtbag (6060)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
445096	2006-04-09 01:10:00	I just bought a laptop with no cdrom drive no floppy (it was dirt cheap) and am trying to install XP on it, i used my usb key to copy over all the contents of the XP cd to the laptop hdd, and when i run winnt.exe from the win98 command line environment (i suspect the hdd was wiped using 98 boot disk or something) it runs but then cannot find any of the files, even if i tell it where i put the i386 folder etc. One thing i did notice was that all the files on the cd have the last letter missing from their file extension, could this be a problem? Its on the original XP professional install CD like that. What can I do about the XP setup not being able to find any of the files, has anyone else ever done what I am doing?	dirtbag (6060)
445097	2006-04-09 02:17:00	Are you stating that you have a "ghosted" copy of XP on a thumb drive? Wow! That's gotta be neat if it works . . . this is a new one to me . . . and I'm gonna wait for the answer like yourself if this is indeed the situation you have . BTW: did you save the key from the original XP install? Or . . . is this a bootleg copy? (I didn't ask that . . did I? :blush: Don't tell us if it is booted!)	SurferJoe46 (51)
445098	2006-04-09 03:54:00	cd i386 first, then winnt might do it. If you are trying to do it from the C:\ prompt, it probably won't have a path set, so it can't find the files.	Graham L (2)
445099	2006-04-09 04:19:00	I just copied the contents of the XP pro cd from a non bootleg fully legal copy to usb key (1GB key). booted to win98se dos thingy on notebook hdd and opened up d: (the usb key) cd i386 winnt.exe, it asks where the install files are. so i put in d:\i386, it then reads a couple of files, then says it cant find this file that file and a million more. I also tried copying all the contents off the cd to the usb key, then to local hdd, which landed the same results. Just went an bought an external 3.5 hdd enclosure, just put in a hdd with xp on it and it booted on the laptop, though at usb1.1 speeds, so very slow. Now I think I might go try everything again substituing the hdd for the usb key	dirtbag (6060)
445100	2006-04-09 04:23:00	Just a thought: did you manage to make a D:\i386\i386directory, with only a few files (including winnt.exe) in the top one? That might cause that sort of problem. There would be another copy of winnt in the lower one ...	Graham L (2)
445101	2006-04-09 05:53:00	Does the bios of that laptop support usb booting if so try getting a usb cd rom and install from that	beama (111)
445102	2006-04-09 07:02:00	OK . . you got me interested . . and I made an exciting (for me, anyway) discovery . I just found that I can load files into my camera too . . . XP treats it like a mass storage device, and I sent a copy of some . pdf's to it and they didn't fail or corrupt . . wow . . . that's neat! Thanks for the inspiration!	SurferJoe46 (51)
445103	2006-04-09 10:17:00	OK . . you got me interested . . and I made an exciting (for me, anyway) discovery . I just found that I can load files into my camera too . . . XP treats it like a mass storage device, and I sent a copy of some . pdf's to it and they didn't fail or corrupt . . wow . . . that's neat! Thanks for the inspiration! And you can format a digital camera, as if it were a floppy . Since its detected as a removable device / disk .	Speedy Gonzales (78)
445104	2006-04-09 14:03:00	Yea, in the end I gave up with the install of the usb key, got a 3.5" hdd enclosure, and just attached a cdrom drive to the electronics on the back and installed xp the normal boring way, oh well. its well documented on the internet having xp installed on usb keys right down to 256mb, that would be a handy thing to have i must imagine! glad to have been help to someone haha, ive have been using my cameras storage for along time now, you can also use other devices such as ipods and most portable mp3/music players.	dirtbag (6060)
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