Boot Windows XP without burning a disc - use an iso and grub4dos instead

Hey all,


I came across an interesting post/tutorial here:


http://ubuntuguide.n...burnning-a-disc


Since it’s a “Boot .iso from HD using grub4dos” kind of thing I thought it best fit discussion in this forum as it’s both about booting from “anywhere” and is of the “tutorial” ilk.


I tried this method with both a Windows 7 .iso and an XP .iso, but failed. You can see what I did to tweak the method in an attempt to make it work for XP if you scroll down to my entry at that site, it was the last one on the page at the time of this writing.


I know you guys can tell Me what I did wrong ‘cause I spent hours reading all of your stuff on booting XP from USB and consider y’all the experts. Yes, I could’ve waited for a response from somebody on that site, but, as you can see, it was written nearly two years ago, the Admin didn’t respond to any comments or questions, and the responses from others are, well… how shall I say – a little too terse and/or impromptu for the average inexperienced home-user (IMHO).


I went so far as to trying only two methods not because I’m lazy or don’t understand the material, but know when it’s time to ask for help. I’d be glad t’buy y’all a beer ‘cause I’m a 100% believer in reciprocity, but ya gotta make it possible for me to do so by a different means of reciprocation, i.e., other than electronically. I sent a message via the “Contact Us” page ‘bout that.


Thnx and Cheers in advance.


P.s.
Can ya tell where to find the attachment tool so I can give you a layout of the machine I’m working with.

You assumed that you could "backport" a set of instructions/report about Windows 7 to Windows XP.

This is NOT possible (in the way you did it).

The file that initiates the XP install is SETUPLDR.BIN.
By design that file will look for needed files in \i386\ if the media is "CD" or "CD-like" and in \minint\ if the media is floppy, superfloppy or hard disk like.
BUT there are a few (several) things that WILL NOT work with an unmodified source.

You should go here:
http://www.msfn.org/...ndows-from-usb/
where several different methods to install XP from USB are discussed.
At the very basic, there is a recent report of a completely manual way:
http://www.msfn.org/...ut-extra-tools/

If you want to install XP on that laptop, use any of the programs avaialable, if you want to learn HOW to do it manually try following the mentioned thread.

If you want to use the old WINNT.EXE way, you can find a suitable set of instructions here:
http://www.911cd.net...showtopic=16713
WINNT.EXE is a DOS (16 bit program) and CANNOT be chainloaded directly from grub4dos (it needs an OS to run).

Please, also understand how the idea of a "Tutorials" section is to post Tutorials, NOT to post asking about instructions on how to replicate (introducing changes) a Tutorial found somewhere else, that is what the "normal" section is for:
http://reboot.pro/forum/71/

BTW, though NOT directly related to the issue you reported, you must be very careful before assuming that XP is the same as 7 or more generally that *any* OS is the same as another one, example:
http://reboot.pro/8944/


Wonko

last

Because you didn't post any substantive info about the method you want to use to install OS, but merely attempted to draw interest and redirect to another site, most forum members will never read that staff, and neither be able to help you. If you want any problems discussed here, post detail problem report here, rather than empty words. That's my personal advice. Such empty questions leading nowhere don't belong in Tutorials section either. If you want to request someone else to write a Tutorial, its better to do in Tutorial Requests section, but again you need to provide substantive material, not just a link and empty words to redirect to that link.

... most forum members will never read that staff, and neither be able to help you.

But a few will, and actually one already has.


Wonko

Wonko,

You did a good job, but many others might never understand, what its about. I'm not going to give you advice - in contrast with me being a "bad student", you claim to be a good learner...mostly of own lessons. I would never follow such link though - just a personal choice.

The guy seems to have posted a problem on another forum, waited 2 years, and then came here to ask for its resolution without explaining the problem - smells like spam to me, not roses for sure.

Hey guys,
Thank you both for your replies.
I posted this thing differently in “Groups/Boot from anywhere/LAN and any other methods” as Wonko suggested.
Hopefully an Admin or Moderator or whoever can remove/delete this post from this category or tell me how it should be “edited out” or whatever.
See y’all over there.

Hey all,

First things first. I’m glad you’re all here to offer your expertise and I apologize for the length of this request, but I’ve apparently already made a mistake (or more than one depending upon whom you ask) that cannot be overlooked and now I feel I should do some explaining in addition to trying to accomplish what I came here for.

I’m not one who uses forums a lot (just a typical browser actually) and it appears I should have posted in this sub-forum as opposed to the “Tutorials” forums. Therefore, I ask the moderator/administrator to either remove that prior post or help me do so because I’m a little inexperienced in navigating forums, i.e., for one, I can’t find a button for editing my post, and secondly, I’m unable to do something even as simple (well, you’d think it should be simple) as finding a button for affixing attachments while in the “Post” window (You know… the window/page that appears where you type your post into the text field. I guess you could call it the “post text-editor” page.). I know an attachment tool must exist somewhere because I’ve read many posts where attachments have been included. Anywaaayyy… if it’s either absolutely necessary or at all possible, then the administrators/moderators can do what they want with my former post or let me know what I need to do in regard to getting rid of it. Again, sorry for any difficulties (and I guess even trepidation) I may have caused. Gotta love us newbs hunh?
O.k., that being said, here’s what I was originally both trying to disclose, and find out more about.
I was asked to help someone get Windows XP running on their laptop. They can’t install from cd or flash-drive because:

• Their disc player is broke, and
• There’s something wrong with the guts of the laptop that causes them to have to pull the hard drive out and reinsert it when trying to boot from USB and then two recurring error messages pop up anyway, and
• They don’t have the money to fix those two issues right now.

So I embarked on a hunt to circumvent those problems and came across:

• A tutorial that says you can install Windows 7 without burning a disc, and
• The various methods of installing and booting that are discussed on this site and over at MSFN.

After many hours spent reading the methods of installing and booting OS’s discussed on this site and at MSFN (amongst a number of others) it became obvious to me, based on the material offered here and at MSFN, that both the members here and there had a better grasp of the intricacies involved in such processes. However, the method that came closest to the solution I was looking for was one that covers installing/booting from RAM. Though I felt such a method was somewhat viable, the tutorial I’d read about installing/booting without a cd seemed a better fit because, whilst both methods can be used to bypass the cd player and both involve working with minimal files and folders, the “no disc” method seems easier.

Albeit the “no disc” method purportedly proved tried-and-true with Windows 7, it should be told, the one who asked me to help with their situation was looking to use XP instead of Windows 7 (they’re licensed for only XP) and I took a couple of swipes at it using the method as outlined in the following tutorial, but I couldn’t get it to work with XP. So, I’m offering up the guts of the tutorial I read and an explanation of my efforts for your perusal in plea of instruction and/or assistance. Here’s the “no disc” tutorial verbatim:

If you’re running on ubuntu and want to install Windows 7 without burning a disc,you can try following steps to install Windows 7 with the iso file.

Step1:Download grub4dos from:http://download.gna.org/grub4dos/grub4dos-0.4.4-2009-06-20.zip Decompress the grub.exe and put this file into root directory of Ubuntu partition (“/”).

Step2:Create a 4GB ntfs partition and paste all files from Windows7 iso into this partition.(use this GUI tool:sudo apt-get install gparted ntfsprogs.launch from system->administrator menu).
use this command to mount the Win7 iso(change “/path/to/your/iso”):

sudo mount /path/to/your/iso /mnt -o loop

then cope all files in /mnt and paste them into root directory of previous created ntfs partition.

Step3:
For Ubuntu 9.10 (use grub2):

run:

sudo gedit /etc/grub.d/40_custom

paste following into the end:

menuentry "Grub for Dos" {
insmod ntfs
set root=(hdx,y)
linux /grub.exe
}

Note:here “set root=(hdx,y)” need change,my ubuntu was installed in /dev/sda11,so it should be “set root=(hd0,11)”

then,run:

sudo update-grub
For ubuntu 9.04 and old versions(use old grub boot loader):

run:

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

add following:

title grub4dos
root (hdx,y)
kernel /grub.exe
boot

Note:“root (hdx,y)” is different to previous one,my ubuntu partition:/dev/sda11,and here it should be “root (hd0,10)” (without quotes).

Step4:Reboot and there is a new entry in grub:”Grub for Dos”or”grub4dos”.Select it and press c to access to grub>,then:

grub>find --set-root /bootmgr
grub>chainloader /bootmgr
grub>boot

Now,we get into Win7 installation guide interface.Press Shift+F10 to cmd command line,and run following in X:/sources loation to start:

setup.exe

**End Tutorial**

So, is there anybody who thinks this method of booting and installation can be accomplished with an XP image?

I tried doing this by substitution, meaning I extracted all the files and folders from an XP image and placed them on the c: partition; created the grub4dos boot-menu item; selected it and pressed “c” to enter the terminal and then invoked what I thought was the proper XP file thusly:

grub>find --set-root /setuptldr.bin
grub>chainloader /setupldr.bin
grub>boot

Which obviously didn’t work else I wouldn’t be here right about now. What do you folks think?

And again, as a reminder, I can’t use the disc player and when I try to boot from flash-drive I have to momentarily pull the hard drive and then quickly reinsert insert it (it’s an IBM with a slide-in hard drive carriage) at just the right moment (as soon as the flash-drive starts blinking) merely to end up with an error message.

Thanks in advance.

I posted this thing differently in “Groups/Boot from anywhere/LAN and any other methods” as Wonko suggested.

Oh, that's why you started this topic under tutorial section which is for

Tips and tutorials to boot from anywhere possible

as the description header suggests. Nice!!!

One suggestion for you is to use a single newline between paragraphs as people around here already have practice to read "between the lines".

I was asked to help someone get Windows XP running on their laptop. They can’t install from cd or flash-drive because:

• Their disc player is broke, and
• There’s something wrong with the guts of the laptop that causes them to have to pull the hard drive out and reinsert it when trying to boot from USB and then two recurring error messages pop up anyway

Attach the hard drive to another system and run winnt32
http://technet.micro...y/bb491032.aspx

AAAHAHAHAhahahahahahaha!!!!

That’s a joke, right? Sorry, I ain’t laughing at you cdob, but that just struck me as hilarious.

Thanks for the pointer though man. I wasn’t aware of winnt32’s function until now, but you’re kidding about messing with the hardware right? I was really, really trying to avoid such a scenario if at all possible. You know… like the plague… ‘cause I’m not exactly what you’d call a “hardware technician”, if you get my drift. I mean sliding the drive out of the laptop and removing it from the caddy would be simple enough, but whipping out a scalpel to operate on another machine is altogether a different story. I can see it now:
Me, setting cardboard box on counter – Hi. Can you fix this.
Shop owner looks in box – HARHARharhar!!! WTF DID YOU DOoohoohoohoo?!
Me – Well, um, this part was sort of stuck and I just saw this really cool looking little new tool at an After- Christmas sale and…
Shop owner – Oh my God man! What kind of tool did they sucker you into for Christ’s sake?
Me – Well, uh, the incredibly hot and gorgeous saleswoman kept referring to it as a 15 h.p. Roto-Tiller and she swore I could return it if it wasn’t absolutely perfect for the job I described.

I prefer keeping anything I do involving a computer confined to a mouse or typing (if you consider “hunt-n-peck” typing), or maybe a crossover cable at minimum, I used one once a long time ago when I moved my files from my very first computer to a new (at the time) Gateway.

But thanks anyway man, I’ll keep that suggestion in my back pocket in case all else fails. In the meantime I think it’d be best to wait and see if someone else chimes in with something a little more my speed and probably a lot less expensive.

Follow one of Steve6375's Install OS from ISO Tutorials, using the link in his posts' Signature.



P.S. It appears, WinNT32 allows to install WinXP from a Setup DVD to a non-system drive, but given some laptops tight assembly and no easy access without a Service Manual, it might be hard to take the HD out, and you might need an external SATA & USB case to put it in and hook to another PC.

Hey sambul61,

Thanks man. I searched the boards but didn't see anything about ISO's written by Steve6375 show up. I'm off to search again.

P.s.
Can somebody please, please, PLEASE tell me where the "Attachments" gizmo is supposed to show up? The "Help" file says it "may or may not" show up in the "Post Editor" (which I'm obviously typing from at this very moment) under a "Default Uploader" as a button that says "Choose File", but I haven't seen it appear in any of my "Posts" or "Replies"

Thanks again.

That’s a joke, right?

No, that's not a joke.

That's how a technican solve the described challenge.
Winnt32 is more than 15 years available.

Sambul61 said:

Follow one of Steve6375's Install OS from ISO Tutorials, using the link in his posts' Signature.

Nah, all of that stuff still involves a boot-stick and that method doesn’t work. What is it about “CANNOT boot from USB” that nobody seems to understand?

Wonko said:

The file that initiates the XP install is SETUPLDR.BIN.
By design that file will look for needed files in i386 if the media is "CD" or "CD-like" and in minint if the media is floppy, superfloppy or hard disk like.
BUT there are a few (several) things that WILL NOT work with an unmodified source.

So the key here would seem to be correctly manipulating the proper files and then invoking the setupldr.bin file, but I’ve read all 25 pages of the “How to boot/install from USB key” post over at MSFN about 4 or 5 times now and my head is swimming. That’s a ton of info for a novice to grasp all at once. It’s all foreign language to me. Yet that thread is the epitome of file manipulation as far as booting/installing an OS goes. I just can’t, how shall I say – “extract” – the pertinent info because that would require the ability to correctly assemble it in a way sufficient to meet the ends for which the extraction was desired in the first place, which in turn brings me back to being able to “read” the language. I know you guys probably get a hoot out of it, but something on the order of:

#frangle%slopsys%= (garznark////linkterjul@ATM) : : “complete”non-fruitcart

doesn’t exactly “ring a bell” to me.

I can’t believe this wouldn’t be ten times easier than the process cdob, wimb, jaclaz, ilko_t, etc., had to go through to get a stick to boot, because the files are already sitting ON THE VERY DRIVE where they’re to be installed and in a properly formatted partition as well.

Edited by last, 29 December 2011 - 03:10 AM.

I'm not sure why you couldn't install Win 7 from mounted ISO to secondary partition and then get rid of XP if wanted or leave as dual boot, whatever. I'll give this a try and see what happens when I find a little time (tonight). How much free space available on that hard drive?

Your post is confusing to me, please verify this is what you want; a working Win 7 installation on hard drive with existing XP install (I know, no CD/DVD or USB).

Nah, all of that stuff still involves a boot-stick and that method doesn’t work.

Your writing style sounds very familiar to me. Who is jaclaz?

So, in your 2nd post on this forum you claim that all people who wanted to help you were wrong? Including ME? What does it say about you?

Which Steve's tutorial you tried, and on what step it didn't work? Which one says, you can't install OS from a hard drive instead of USB?

@amalux

Let me back up here for a moment so you can get the gist of what I’m dealing with.

This is an IBM laptop that my friend got real cheap and she can’t afford to fix the problem with the hard drive or the cd player. I, as you can tell by my response to cdob’s reply, am incapable of fixing the player or the hard drive, but I can attempt to get XP up and running on that machine. This is a very dear friend of mine. All her Windows stuff was originally created with an XP Home version and that is the only version of Windows that she has a license for. She is a working single mother who has a low paying job and she cannot afford to buy another OS and she cannot screw around with converting files and all kinds of other crap because she also goes to school and cannot risk losing her job because she has to lose more time on saving her school work etc., etc., etc. She knows a little bit about working with Ubuntu, but everything that involves her schoolwork or her job has to done in Windows because that’s what her employer and the school use.I’ve already gone to the expense of buying another external drive to store her XP stuff on and I also already layed out some cash for a couple of peripheral devices to accomplish some things, but the pieces of crap already fried out and now I’m tapped out because of the Holidays. Okay? So I guess the answer to your last question is – No, she wants to keep XP and Linux on the machine.

The only reason I mentioned Windows 7 was because that was the OS the guy who wrote the tutorial designed his method for. My problem has been that the method suits my needs (at least I thought so at first) but not the OS.

As far as the hard drive is concerned, I’ve bought 3 drives for this thing already. First two sizzled within days (bought on eBay). Now I’ve got a 100 gig PATA and I’ve got it partitioned into an empty 40 gig leading primary partition and a trailing 60 gig Linux partition. I re-installed Linux so I’d have something to work with. It was when I was replacing her original 30 gig drive and reinstalling Linux that I discovered the problem of not being able to reboot by USB without having to pull and then reinsert the hard drive.

@sambul61

When I was searching for solutions I came across a post over at the MSFN forum that was about booting XP from USB and jaclaz was one of the guys who devoted a good deal of input to the project. I’ve seen his name somewhere in these forums (I’m pretty sure it’s the same guy), but he uses was_jaclaz instead.

You said to search Steve’s sight that he listed in his signature. So I went there and read what he had put up on booting .iso’s. Well, they all involved booting from stick.

I never said anybody was wrong, it’s just that nobody answered my question – can the installation of XP be accomplished by using the method as described in the tutorial I read? The answers I got from wonko and cdob have led me to some info that at least (as far as I know at this point) can be applied to that method and now that I’ve read what I’ve read I’m more inclined to think that a little file manipulation and the use of grub4dos can in fact get it done. It now seems to me that if a stick is to be used at all, it need only be left in a port with a couple of files on it so that grub and/or bios can get to them when necessary. I’ll expand on that tomorrow though. Right now I’m going to bed.

Thanks to all for their help and interest.

This is an IBM laptop

Which one do you use?
It's a T40? USB booting was possible back then with included hard disk. Did you removed the broken cd drive?
How much RAM is installed?

Be aware: BIOS use 240 heads at CHS layout

a couple of peripheral devices to accomplish

Which material can you provide?
Any USB PATA connector?
Any USB CD-ROM drive?
Any USB floppy drive?

Now I’ve got a 100 gig PATA and I’ve got it partitioned into an empty 40 gig leading primary partition and a trailing 60 gig Linux partition. I re-installed Linux so I’d have something to work with.

How do you do this? Which hardware did you used?
Can you create a DOS USB stick? Can you write to hard disk after hot plug?

can the installation of XP be accomplished by using the method as described in the tutorial I read?

Yes, and no.
No, you can't use a Windows 7 method to install XP.
However, you can adjust the Windows 7 method to XP possibilities.
The operating system manufacturer provides winnt and winnt32 since Windows NT 3.1 to do this.

Can you follow the guide up to ."Press Shift+F10 to cmd command line"

last

Most Steve's Install Windows Tutorials are equally applicable to installing OS from a hard drive instead of USB. He just prefers to market them in USB Thumb context. If something didn't work for you - report particulars, just be nice to spare the author's sensitivity , and if you found a bug or weak point - he might consider fixing it. But usually there are obvious workarounds to bypass some automation code or file in these Tutorials if doesn't work, while using a suggested or similar approach in general.

@cdob

It’s a Thinkpad and I can use the 2 USB ports (I’ve got 2 USB sticks [1gb & 8gb] and a 1tb enclosure) or the Ethernet ( I’ve got a 3 ft. crossover cable) or wireless connections (LAN or WAN). The cd/dvd Ultrabay is caput and all of the peripheral hardware I bought is shot. In other words, I’d have been better off buying her a brand new fully loaded machine by now if I had known all of that other stuff was going to turn out to be junk. It’s got 1gb of RAM with room for 1gb more. Of course this is precisely why I was crying about finding the “Attachments” button at the “Post Editor” page, I’d like to post my motherboard readout as the “Board Rules” require.

Be aware: BIOS use 240 heads at CHS layout

I don’t know much about heads yet, other than that each platter has two each and they read the tracks, so I’m not sure what you mean by that.

Anyway, I saved all her Ubuntu files onto my back-up enclosure and loaded Zorin from a “Live” distro via flash-stick and that’s what’s currently occupying the rear 60gb partition. So, yes, I can write to the hard drive and, yes, I was able to set up grub4dos as it stated in the tutorial and can access the terminal, but when I tried to perform the sudo –set-root command I got an error and the same goes for sudo find and sudo search. So no, I didn’t get to “Press Shift+F10”.

The operating system manufacturer provides winnt and winnt32 since Windows NT 3.1 to do this.

Yes, I followed your link to the winnt.exe article and read it. Although it’s comprehensible, I had already spent a great deal of time reading the “Boot XP from USB” material and was already begging to form some ideas garnered from that thread (in fact it was your discourse with jaclaz that seemed to hold the most relevant stuff) so I didn’t want to get side tracked and lose my train-of-thought. Besides that, as far as my limited knowledge is concerned, this:

Performs an installation of or upgrade to Windows XP. You can run winnt32 at the command prompt on a computer running Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP.

sounds as though I need to have one of those versions of Windows already installed, which I don’t, at least not on the IBM. Can winnt32 install across two separate machines via Ethernet cable? Is that what you were trying to tell me? If so, then obviously I misunderstood you, or were you referring to physically removing the drive from the caddy and either plugging it into an IDE adapter on a tower PC or an adapter connected to another laptop?

@ sambul61

Most Steve's Install Windows Tutorials are equally applicable to installing OS from a hard drive instead of USB. He just prefers to market them in USB Thumb context. If something didn't work for you - report particulars, just be nice to spare the author's sensitivity , and if you found a bug or weak point - he might consider fixing it. But usually there are obvious workarounds to bypass some automation code or file in these Tutorials if doesn't work, while using a suggested or similar approach in general.

I see, well thank you again sambul, but obviously I can only take in so much info at a time and I’m still currently deciphering all of the material related to reconfiguring some files in order to activate setupldr.bin via BIOS. Unless, of course, somebody’s got a solution that requires fewer steps. I don’t know… all I can do is take advise and read, but that’s okay, I’m in no real hurry. I don’t want it take forever... you know... like the months it took to create a bootable stick. Kidding! Just kidding! At this point I’m definitely certain of two things:

• I don’t want to do anything that’s going to fry any more hardware;
• You guys are some kick-ass techs.

Anyway, I’m out of time for the moment, but I’ll be back to discuss the idea I alluded to in my last post.

Edited by last, 30 December 2011 - 01:24 AM.

it was the discourse with jaclaz that seemed to hold the most relevant stuff, so I didn’t want to get side tracked and lose my train-of-thought

Miracles happen around the New Year. You might even face jaclaz in a small hotel in a not-so-forgotten place across the water, while possibly looking in a mystery mirror, and invite him to your room to play a piano duet, or show some solo skills in Metallic:

http://youtu.be/Ho_IJ91kXQs

Or even install lovely to your heart WinXP onto two Thinkpads simultaneously, yours and your girlfriend: two keyboards are better than one.

http://youtu.be/UnJ5u6UGhbI

Lucky holiday travel, Wonko (The Sane)!

Btw, despite you're so attached to WinXP (or Thinkpad), have your girlfriend test running ThinPC from VHD - no risk in doing so, just a holiday gift. Simply follow one of your friend's sambul Tutorials... you know, they're the best.

Alright, first of all, I forgot to tell cdob that, yes, the removable cd drive has been removed. Secondly, I forgot to mention (a little late now) that it's only when I've got the XP files on the stick that I get the "Operating system not found" message or a blank screen with blinking curser. Third, I’m not an enterprise tech, so I don’t need to worry about whether or not any files are going to be deleted during install – it’s a one-time deal. Also, keep in mind that I’m just thinking out loud here.

So what, then, would be the proper method to get these files “installed”?

Well, we know that the boot process developed by porear, cdob, ilko, jaclaz and others has proven that when loading from a stick the setupldr.bin file is key and,

jaclaz says:

To this you add that there are at least 4 possible ways to install XP:
1) from a booted 16-bit environment through WINNT.EXE
2) from a booted 32-bit environment through WINNT32.EXE
3) from a I386 or minint folder by invoking SETUPLDR.BIN (which is what the normal install CD does)
4) from an "expanded" pre-install bootfolder $WIN_NT$.~BT like in the flyakite multiboot DVD tutorial

and, therefore, wonko’s admonition to me that:

The file that initiates the XP install is SETUPLDR.BIN.
By design that file will look for needed files in i386 if the media is "CD" or "CD-like" and in minint if the media is floppy, superfloppy or hard disk like.

was enough to convince me that item number 3 in the above list is sufficiently applicable because I’m trying to work from a hard disk and, if need be, a stick can be made to appear as a fixed hard drive.

Ergo, since the media upon which the XP image files will sit is either a hard drive or can be made “hard disk-like”, then setupldr.bin would look for minint.

O.k., so now we’ve got:
1. A 100gb local drive with a leading 40gb partition (which will become C: and D: once the install process actually starts) where all the files extracted from the XP .iso currently reside, with some Linux partitions occupying the rear 60gbs.
2. A setupldr.bin file and a minint file that need to be fired up.

So what activates setupldr.bin? I mean, what prompts it to open and start searching? That would be something in BIOS.

Then it should simply make sense to add a grub4dos menu.lst item that calls setupldr.bin, but that didn’t work. However, we don’t know for certain that it failed because it was the wrong invocation. All we know is that I got a few error messages regarding the sudo –-set-root; the sudo find; and the sudo search commands.

On the surface it appears there’d be no need to go any further until it can be determined why I got these errors. But, since we know there’s a working method to effect an install from stick, then why not just point the grub4dos menu.lst to the setupldr.bin on the stick and invoke it from there?

O.k., I'll leave it at that whilst I go try it.

Edited by last, 30 December 2011 - 05:41 AM.

@sambul61

Thanks for the suggestions. I looked into virtual machines once, freaking things look like a nightmare to me. Were you going to buy her a new operating system and get me a Thinkpad too. How wonderful. Can't wait. On second thought, I think I'll pass.

Adios dude.

I looked into virtual machines once, freaking things look like a nightmare to me.

I wonder, what virtual machine works with Commodore? Freaking thing for sure... We might get you a new Thinkpad on your coming birthday - what was the celebration date? Ahhh, and ThinPC is free to try...and it runs from VHD on real Thinkpad hardware (not inside a VM), so its hopefully one nightmare less for you.

I never said anybody was wrong, it’s just that nobody answered my question – can the installation of XP be accomplished by using the method as described in the tutorial I read?

Anything particularly difficult in this sentences? :

You assumed that you could "backport" a set of instructions/report about Windows 7 to Windows XP.

This is NOT possible (in the way you did it).

Isn't this the EXACT reply to your EXACT question?

You came here saying that a tutorial you found somewhere (about Windows 7 install) did not work when you "adapted" it (BTW badly) to XP.

You were provided with the info that that particular way won't work AND given a set of alternatives (XP specific AND working).
You were told how you had a perceiving error, i.e. assuming (with NO grounds whatsoever) that you could adapt something to something else.

Now you insist of trying to find (still without the needed knowledge/background) the solution the you assume it should work.

You might want to compare with point #f of the "common sene advice":
http://reboot.pro/in...hp?showtopic=82

You were given by cdob some very sensible specific advice.

Up to you now to either ask for a solution (known, documented, repeateable) to your problem by some of the peeps that know more than you on this specific topic (WITHOUT necessarily it being the one working the way you think it should) or insist in finding your own way (which BTW may well exist , or completely fail to ).

As seen from here it seems very like you not only want your solution, the way you (wrongly) depicted it, but you also want it "easy" and have it without dirtying your hands (by reading/learning/following given advice).

Just so you know who is who:
http://reboot.pro/10068/


Wonko