Installing Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7 from USB (GUI Tool)

          Many desktop computers' and laptops' CD/DVD drive becomes nonfunctional after few years of use. It is easy to replace CD/DVD drive in desktop computers and those are cheap too but in case of laptop CD/DVD drives starts from 3000 Rs/- onwards and they get available at few vendors. In such case we can use a bootable pen drive to install new OS on such system. This post tells how to install Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7 from bootable pen drive.

Requirements:

  1. Novicorp WinToFlash 0.4.0013 (2.10MB)[Latest version: 0.5.0000 beta]
  2. A pen drive of sufficient size.
Make Bootable Pen Drive:
  • Extract 'Novicorp WinToFlash 0.4.0013 beta.zip' after downloading.
  • Click on 'WinToFlash.exe' to start the process.
  • This software provides two modes of transfer
    1. Wizard mode:
      1. Press Next on Wizard welcome screen.
      2. Select the Windows source path and Usb drive with browse button and press Next.
      3. A license agreement screen will pop up, just click continue if you accept it.
      4. A warning telling data on USB will be formated will appear. Click ok after backing up all data from USB to start process.
      5. After completing transfer wizard, press finish. Pen drive is now ready to boot.
    2. Advanced mode:
      1. Click File->new or click Task tab from main window to select task type.
      2. From drop down menu select type of OS or task and click create.
      3. In 'basic parameters' tab, select Windows source path, USB drive and file system for formatting pen drive. Use default if you are unaware.
      4. In 'setup parameters' tab, you can choose option for unattended installation.
      5. In 'process steps' tab, set option option according to need. e.g. Uncheck 'Format drive' option if you do not want to format pen drive.
      6. Click run to start process.Follow steps 3 to 5 from wizard mode as they are same.
Things to note:
  1. Backup required data from partition where want to install the new OS.
  2. This method does not allow to repair corrupted Windows XP installation if you use pirated CD for preparation of USB device. So make sure to use original CD to prepare USB device.

Choose right size pen drive:
          Use 1 or 2 GB pen drive for XP installation, use 4 GB for Windows Vista and if you create custom installation disk using nLite or vLite then use 8 GB if it exceeds 4 GB size. Note that smaller the pen drive, faster is the copying speed and you nneed to wait for small amount of period before getting into the OS.

Installing OS:
  1. Restart the system. Open BIOS and set 'USB Hard disk' as first boot device.
  2. Boot from pen drive. Select option "1,Text Mode" for starting setup.
  3. After rebooting, boot from pen drive and select option "2, GUI Mode".
  4. After rebooting, boot from pen drive and select option "2, GUI Mode" again. You will be in OS. Remove redundant boot entries from boot.ini file.

Advantages:
  1. GUI interface for making bootable USB.
  2. MuliOS support: Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7.
  3. Supports nLite custom Windows XP.
  4. Supports vLite custom Windows Vista.

References:Related Posts:
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15 comments:

Anonymous said...

it works without any issues; good work and thanks for sharing

Umesh Rajbangshi said...

Its nice..
Got too much knowledge from it.

Thanx a lot dude..

GrafixMasta said...

Trying it currently. Lots of tools out there claim to do the job. I have been in tech for years. Never had to do this because I have always had an external CD/DVD drive laying around. I am currently in a bind and only have a pen drive. I wasted a bunch of time last night. But I install windows XP and Vista all the time at work and it is a pain to have to keep ripping a disk after I misplace my original. Plus I have made a custom nlite one which this util supports etc. So again thanks again. Hopefully it all works out. You can check out my blogspot as well, starting to release some easy scripts for IT people to use. http://grafixmasta.blogspot.com

NAUSHAD QAMAR said...

Not works for me i got following error:
"NOvicorp winToflash can not lock the drive.
Please close the application may use this drive and press Retry."

this error shows that my usb is busy in some other procerss but its't.plz help me...

Anonymous said...

Reply to above post

          Unlocker is a freeware which runs on "Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/Windows 7" and 238KB in size.
          It helps to figure out what program is using particular file or drive. Right click on your pen drive and click unlock to see all programs accessing the pen drive. Click unlock all to stop all programs accessing the drive and you can proceed with Novicorp winToflash.
          If you see some suspicious programs accessing the drive then your system may be infected with viruses. Scan it with a good anti-virus program with latest updates.

Naushad Qamar said...

WELL LOCKER problem is solved but still i have a problem now i can boot from usb i found 2 options as you said I chose option 2 and setup starts but after some time it make an error and force to press f3 for quit . if I chose option 1 after rebooting it shows error that is windows32/hal.dll not found.plz help i try 2 xp cds but both have same problem

Naushad Qamar said...

i have the following error
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
Windows root\system32\hal.dll.
Please re-install a copy of the above file."

i try 2 cds but both have same problem .
and one more thing setup shows my usb space which is 4 gb not hard drive when i tried to install. hope u understand what i mean to say. thanks for ur help waiting for ur reply...

Anonymous said...

hey... can you just tell me to get the installation files on the pen-drive given that I've 2-CD Windows XP pack. Plz help.

Anonymous said...

Reply to above comment
          Can you please specify 'what do you mean by 2-CD Windows XP pack'?
          Windows XP setup is nearly 700 MB and comes on single CD. You can use image or CD as source for files to copy as described in post.

Anonymous said...

yaar after pressing f8 for licence agreement it stops n givs an error sayin cannot find xp cd plz insert xp,nt,2000, cd into ur cd drive....!!!!

Anonymous said...

Reply to above comment
          It is strange as you are installing OS from pen drive, it has nothing to do with CD drive.
          Please write error message precisely and what steps you followed while installing.
          One of the common problem while installing OS is we get message 'Can not find hard disk'. You can nullify it by going into BIOS and changing hard disk type to IDE. Remember what changes you made before saving them as you might need to reverse them.

Anonymous said...

When Im about to install the OS from the pen drive I select first the TXT Mode as you mention, everything goes fine until it reboots and I have to select GUI Mode as step number 2 says, it appears the error about hall.dll being corrupted or not found... so Im stuck with TXT Mode and the first phase of installation repeats over and over again :(

Anonymous said...

"NOvicorp winToflash can not lock the drive.
Please close the application may use this drive and press Retry."


It was my AV - NOD32, disable and it works fine.

Unknown said...

i didnt find any boot.ini file .where is it plzzz help me as u said we have to delete boot enteries from boot.ini file plz tell me where it is? thenks in advance

Unknown said...

when i remove my pendrive it shows some error"windows could not start bcoz of comp hardware config problem,could not read from the selected boot disk check both path and disk hardware"and plz tell me how to delete boot files from boot.ini file i cant find that boot.ini file plz guide me...thanks in advance

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