How to boot, format drive and install xp ?

I am using a dell 1520 laptop, and to my unfortunate luck, the dvdwriter with it is damaged, the only way i can install windows is through usb .. further luck introduced me to a very dangerous virus, kindly please guide me how to boot and format a laptop's hard disk from usb, so that i can easily get rid of the virus. Thanks in advance.

 

Hello,
Format a USB flash drive with FAT32. Download Tuxboot then select gparted from the drop down box. Boot the USB, partition and format with Gparted.

Gparted Tutorial

 

ok, I formatted the usb with fat32 system, downloaded tuxboot, selected gpart from the drop down box and it was asking about some iso file or something and installating destination or something . i wrote the boot drive C:, there .. now its downloading an iso of 127mb ... is it ok ?

 

You do not want to do anything with the C: drive! stop! Where did it ask about the C: drive? Okay, I was in a panic moment but you say you want to format the drive anyway so I am not that concerned. You should be installing the iso onto the USB drive, not the C: drive.

Edit:
Now I understand. They were asking if you wanted to save the iso to the C: drive. That is okay, but you could have skipped that.

 

sorry, i got it wrong tgell .. now i understood what you were saying .. i selected the usb drive name in the list .. and copying all the stuff into usb now .. :S ..
what to do next ?

 

Hello,
Sorry, I may have been asking you to do an additional step that was not needed. We could have placed Win XP on the USB drive and used that to partition and format the drive instead of using GParted. :-o

Did the Tuxboot finish installing Gparted to the usb drive? This should have been done automatically by the program. If so boot the USB drive and use the tutorial to delete the existing partitions and repartition the drive to what you wish and then format it/them.

Then you can install XP using a different USB flash drive or use your existing flash drive and use the program Win2Flash to install.

http://wintoflash.com/overview/en/

 

Note:
If you are going to partition and format with Gparted, do you have another computer that can be used to install XP on the USB drive? If not, we cannot use Gparted.

 

that is not a problem .. tell me which version to download as i already tried to use this wintoflash software ..

i ll be using the usb to format C now and then will be rewriting the usb with the same software but with an xp iso ... kindly please tell me how can i convert my cd into iso format ..

 

yup I have another pc ...

 

Before we go any farther, Dell has a restore partition they place on the hard drive. If you press Ctl + F11 during power on. it should give to the option to restore the computer to a factory state. Do you wish to do this?

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1520/en/om_en/html/trouble.htm#wp1063103

 

it gives an error that boot manager is missing ..

also laptop had vista installed originally which was formatted to get xp in use .. so no restore is possible :|

 

Did you get Gparted to boot from the USB. If so, would you like to partition and format with that or install XP to the USB and use that to delete the partitions and format. You have an install CD of XP if I am not mistaken, correct? You do not have to create an iso file to use Win2flash. All you need would be the other computer,CD/DVD drive and a flash drive.

 

If you still want to do this then download the free version of Alcohol, Alcohol 52%

 

I may be wrong but I do not think you need an iso to use Win2Flash. Only the install CD. You have the install CD or is it an iso? If only an iso, then you would use Alcohol as Earthling suggested.

 

i have it all but the problem is i already tried it with win2flash and instead of writing data on usb it removed 3 of my hard disk partitions ... :|
kindly tell me which version i can use, that my other pc's hard drive stay out of the business

 

Which computer lost the partitions? The one with the virus or the other computer? Is the computer with the lost partitions bootable? You said you have it all. You mean you have an install CD of XP and also an iso file?

 

the computer without virus lost partitions .. i actually didnt use cd rom for copying the data to flash .. i just rectified this error by using cd rom directly and usb is written successfully .. if it worked i ll be replying from that pc ..
thanks alot tgell =)

 

Do you need help recovering the lost partitions?

 

I already got it from you in another thread,

I checked the usb and a blank screen appears on booting... and a cursor blinks there nothing else happened in the next 4 or 5 minutes .. so i m reporting it back :|

 

Make sure you have USB as first boot device in your BIOS. If it still fails, download the following program. I have used is successfully.

http://www.datafilehost.com/download-dfc48473.html

Install it and then launch from an admin account.

You will get the following screen.

http://www.notebook-media.ru/images/stories/winsetupfromusb/winsetupfromusb_20.jpg

Point to the CD drive that has your Install CD for the Source and also to your flash drive for USB selection. Select Removable for "Forced Disk Type". Press the RMPrepUSB button.

http://techuserfriendly.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/RMPrepUSBWinSetupFromUSBinstallwindowsusb.jpg


In the Next Window, Select "NTFS" and Boot from HDD. Under boot options select "XP bootable (NTLDR)" Size (MB) should be "MAX" and Volume is "RMPARTUSB" Make sure the drive listed at the top is your USB drive and then press the "prepare drive" button. When done, press the exit button. Return to the main window and then press "go"

If this fails the computer may not be bootable from USB.

 

I somehow managed to boot xp from usb with the help of win2flash and installed xp, thanks for the update though, it was a good experience though but the partitions are scrambled, there is an unallocated partition at first of about 78 mb, then D (Recovery), most of the important driver installations data is in D:, now the problem is C: at 3rd number, and its not booting from C: instead asking for usb again and again which is not cool :|
Thanks for the help anyway. You guys really do great work ..

Right now, I am trying to merge C:, D: and the unallocated space into one with the help of minitool partition wizard which you advised me in the disappeared partition thread, i hope that will help me in my problem .. need your advice !

 

I am not sure why your partitions are scrambled. I thought you would be deleting all of your partitions before the install of XP. But, you said you had a D: Recovery partition. Do you still have that? You may be able to boot from it by marking it as Active and then doing the factory state install. Minitools has a bootable version of Partition Wizard that will easily let you change a partition to Active. Gparted will also let you do it.

Note: In your previous thread, you stated that you had Vista on the machine originally. If this is the original Restore partition, it will take you back to Vista which I believe you do not want.

 

couldnt find minitool bootable, so working with gparted ..

that partition is just named as recovery but it has no vista data ..

 

So you were able to boot Gparted off of the USB key? Gparted is a very good and powerful partition manager.

 

yup, by gparted, i managed to create a new partition table for my hard disk and now i am updating drivers from internet, Thank you so much for your advice and help =)

 

Glad you got it all sorted. Just for your reference, here is the bootable version of Minitools Partition Wizard.

http://www.partitionwizard.com/download/pwhe6.iso