Installing XP to netbook via USB

I have tried several software to make an XP bootable setup from CD including WinToFlash, PeToUSB and WinSetupFromUSB. I also tried several XP CDs. Anyway, all goes well till the second part of the XP install when GUI part of the setup supposed to start but nothing happens.

The first text based part finishes successfully where I select the drive and some files are copied etc. then it prompts to restart. After restart I select the GUI (second part of installation) then nothing happens. All I see is a blank black screen. If I press F8 and select one of the "Safe Mode" it lists some number of drivers then hangs.

This of course messes the normal OS boot procedure (Win7 on my netbook doesn't start after that). I created a bootable recovery USB to fix startup problems. I fix startup and boot. I enter Win7. I see some files are copied to the drive I was installing XP on, in a WINDOWS folder.

Does somebody have experience like this? Any solutions?

Btw, I'm trying it with a different USB now. I hope the problem is with the USB.

 

What XP version? service pack? I've always had issues with SP3 installs & use SP2 to install then apply SP3.
Or hit f7 during the setup and bypass acpi, that stops the freezing up for me.

read more USB info:
http://wiki.eeeuser.com/windowsxpusb

Or try installing from the harddrive.
http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/578/windows-xp-installing-from-harddrive/

 

Hi foogoo. I've tried with another USB, had the same result. Also I was trying with XP SP3. I want to try installing from hdd which seems more reliable than normal USB method. Thanks for the links.

But I have a question, since my netbook doesn't have floopy or optical drive, can I make a Windows 98SE Boot SD Card or USB w/smartdrv.exe instead of a floopy? (that floopy is required for hdd install according to the article you linked)

If it's possible I'll probably copy the files to an SD Card and make its partition active through command prompt. I've made some research and found Win98SE Boot Diskette Contents here: http://www.allbootdisks.com/download/98.html but EBD.SYS is shown as 0 bytes large and it can't be downloaded. I did some more research, the solution is to create an empty file called "EBD.SYS".

I'm also thinking about the F7 solution if this doesn't work. I'll post back with results.

 

No, that didn't even get me to the command prompt. I tried it with an SD Card. I'm sick of trying. I'll try to buy or borrow an external optical drive to do my work.