Tuesday, June 02, 2009

How to boot XP from a flash drive

Did you know that you can put a bootable copy of Windows XP on a USB flash drive? It comes in handy when a computer won't boot from its hard disk, or if you want to run your own operating system, configured as you like it, on someone else's computer. You'll need an XP Setup CD and a flash drive with sufficient capacity (I recommend 1 to 2 GB if you're going to install programs, too). The drive needs to be no larger than 2 GB because you'll be using the FAT16 file system. Also be aware that older computers may not boot from a removable drive.

You'll need a couple of freeware tools to get the job done. For complete instructions, along with screenshots, see "Windows in your Pocket":
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