How can create a bootable USB stick/pen/flash drive with Windows XP on it?
December 30, 2008 - 11:16 — Peter
Is it possible to install Windows XP onto a USB flash/pen drive so that it can boot? I have a Notebook with only Linux on it, and I need to run a Windows XP-based BIOS upgrade utility. Of course, I do not want to install Windows XP just to run such a program once a year!
I do have a vmware virtual machine with Win XP but I do not believe it can access the host computer's BIOS (this would defy the concept of a virtual, encapsulated machine).
Thanks in advance for any hint!
--Peter.
Sorry, it does not look good :-(
Dear Peter,
According to Microsoft's Recommendations for Booting Windows from USB Storage Devices, "Current versions of Windows should not be installed to USB hard disk drives because Windows does not support USB hard disk drives as the primary boot device.", and again, further below, "Windows as it exists today is currently not optimized to run as an installed operating system from USB attached mass-storage or CD.".
According to the date of the document (2004) it was probably written with Windows XP in mind. You may have more chances with Vista.
One way or the other, you may still find a way around this, but it may require a lot of tweaking. Considering Windows' non-existing robustness to device changes when it comes to booting, though, my guess would still be that it is not possible at all.
Best regards,
Jan.