This is basically a followup of this topic: http://reboot.pro/to...ny-suggestions/
But here I'll try to ask a more specific question. I'll do this in a different topic, because the question is slightly different and because the question I asked there was answered.
This is what I did:
1 I used the HPformat tool (HPUSBFW.exe) to create a bootable dos usb flashdrive.
2 I copied the following files to the flashdrive:
CDROM\OAKCDROM.SYS
CONFIG.SYS
EMM386.EXE
HIMEM.SYS
smartdrv.exe
3 I copied the I386 folder from a windows install cd to the flashdrive
4 I boot the flashdrive
5 started smartdrv and after that the I386\winnt.exe and continued the dos part of the installation.
The next part (txtsetup) from the installation booted fine on the motherboard of my sony vaio VPCW21S1E,
but trying to boot this on asus a7v8x-mx motherboard I get a 'NTLDR is missing' message
I did this to debug the boot process. I will repeat this: I am NOT trying to make a functional setup USB in this fashion. In the previous topic Sha0 told me the setup would probably not work unless forcing the drivers to load in an early stage, so I am aware of this. I just want to know where this difference comes from.
Normally I would use Novicorp WinToFlash (it basically does the same thing WINNT.EXE does, but perhaps it does fix the possible driver issue as well). I noticed it would not work with the asus motherboard on the default FAT32 LBA setting. It only worked with this asus motherboard when I set the program to format the drive FAT16 LBA.
In the previous topic I thought the FAT16 option worked because the partition would then automatically be smaller then 2GB. I was thinking of a capacity limitation, but if you read the previous discussion, you will see we ruled this out.
Now after some googling I found this: http://wintoflash.co...0&t=32&start=0.
NTLDR is missing message mean the partition boot record can't find NTLRD file on partition. May be FAT16 may help to fix this - FAT16 partition boot record is smaller and more simple...
Does anyone here know why this motherboard will only load the xp txtsetup when using FAT16, while dos boots perfectly from FAT32?
Do you think I will be possible to make a bookable flash drive, containting a xp setup with a size of more then 2GB? It really annoys me that I need to throw away most of the flashdrive's capacity, so I can use it on all op my computers independent of specs.
*edit* added some extra details, to be more specific and avoid confusion.
Edited by Fiction, 17 January 2013 - 11:07 PM.