How to install Vista using a USB flash drive from XP

[Anwar]

Hello Friends,

I would like to know that it is possible for me to install Windows Vista by using a USB flash drive from XP. Is it possible for me to do so? Does any body have any idea about this issue? Kindly suggest me your views on the above issue. Any kind of help would be appreciated.

Thanks a lot.

[Devasis]

HOW-TO: Install Vista via ANY USB Key

The best way of avoiding this hal.dll error is to correctly install Vista in the first place. So through a culmination of a few guides found online, sources from this forum, and a bit of my own knowledge, i have created the guide below that correctly and 100% successfully installs Windows Vista.

First up, we need to prepare the flash drive.
(the following steps need to be performed on a 32bit operating system)
1. Download and unzip this file, which should contain 2 folders: 1 titled Bootsect, and the other USB_prep8.Best place to unzip is to your desktop.
2. Navigate to the USB_prep8 folder and click on usb_prep8.cmd. This will bring up a Windows console window.
3. Press any key to continue and a PeToUSB window will open.
4. Make sure your flash drive is selected, and click start to format your flash drive.
5. When the format is complete, click OK, but do not close the PeToUSB window or the Windows Console.
6. Open a new console window by clicking on Start-->run, and typing “cmd” into the run box.
7. Find your Bootsect folder (if you’re not used to DOS commands, you can type “dir” to list directories and files, type “cd foldername” to navigate to a folder name - called foldername in this example, and if there’s a long folder name you can save time by typing the “cd” and just the first few letters and then hitting the Tab key to fill in the rest of the name).To expand upon, the command prompt window will start at 'D:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]' type 'cd Desktop' [ENTER] and then 'cd flash' [TAB] this will auto complete the name and direct you to the flash prep 8 folder. Finally type 'cd bootsect' and you're in the bootsect folder.
8. Once you’re in the Bootsect folder, type “bootsect.exe /nt52 g:” if “g” is the letter assigned to your flash drive. If it’s E, then change the letter to e. If it’s Z, make it z.
9. When this is done, you should see a message letting you know that the bootcode was updated, and you can close this console window (but not the other console window).
10. Close the PeToUSb Window, but make sure not to close the remaining console window yet.
11. You should now see a list of 8 options in the console.
12. Select one and find the drive with your Windows installation disc.
13. Select 2 and pick a random drive letter (but not one that’s already on your PC, since this will be a virtual drive used for copying your files).
14. Select 3 and enter the drive letter for your USB flash drive.
15. Select 4 and follow the rest of the on-screen directions and you should be all set.

The process should take about 15-20 minutes. When it’s done, you should have a bootable USB stick that you can use to install Windows Vista the same way you would if you had a CD/DVD drive.

If you use NLite to shrink/slipstream/otherwise modify your Windows Vista installation file, make sure you do not remove “manual installation files,” or your USB stick will be pretty much useless.

[Solomon]

Copy Windows Vista’s DVD ROM content to the Flash Drive

• Type in command to start copying all the content from the Windows Vista DVD to your newly formatted high speed flash drive.
  
• * xcopy d:\*.* /s/e/f e:\
  
• Setup your computer BIOS to boot from USB Drive
  
• Install Windows Vista from flash memory drive.

After finish the above step. You can try to view how fast the installation of windows vista can be completed. Let us know how you feel if whether installing windows vista on flash memory drive compare the installation window vista on DVD media.

[MrChris-]

If you want to put the instalation files on usb, than you can do it.

Insert the drive, access the command line and type in a handful of partition/format commands. Copy the Vista DVD to the drive and you're all set. Then just boot your PC to the drive and you'll be able to install Vista in 5-10 minutes.