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Posted: 6/12/2009 7:42:04 AM EDT
[#1]
You certainly can, people do it with Linux all the time.
I think I misread exactly what you are looking for, but there are definitely ways to run a "portable desktop" from a USB drive, you can have your own computer no matter the computer you are on. However, I don't know if you would have enough memory to do what you want to do. |
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Posted: 6/12/2009 7:43:07 AM EDT
[#2]
VMWare.
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Posted: 6/12/2009 7:46:20 AM EDT
[#3]
You computer has to support booting to USB though.
Most newer computers have it but not all. Try getting in to your BIOS and see if the is an option. Or see if you have a "select boot device" option when you are starting up. If you do, see if USB drive is listed there. |
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Posted: 6/12/2009 7:53:30 AM EDT
[#4]
There are method to install a full, bootable copy of XP to a USB hard drive. If your flash drive is formatted to appear like a removable hard drive, it should be doable.
Google will be your friend here –– look for terms like "Boot XP from USB drive" |
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Posted: 6/12/2009 7:53:39 AM EDT
[#5]
Might try this.
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Posted: 6/12/2009 7:55:05 AM EDT
[#6]
Quoted:
You computer has to support booting to USB though. Most newer computers have it but not all. Try getting in to your BIOS and see if the is an option. Or see if you have a "select boot device" option when you are starting up. If you do, see if USB drive is listed there. Yeah, like I said the last time I was in there, I am pretty sure there is a USB port boot option. And I am sure I can get enough memory (heck 4 and 5 GB thumbs are getting to be standard). I guess I will have to give it a try tonight. |
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Posted: 6/12/2009 7:55:06 AM EDT
[#7]
Order a usb floppy drive and solve everything at once.
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Posted: 6/12/2009 7:56:46 AM EDT
[#8]
Quoted:
There are method to install a full, bootable copy of XP to a USB hard drive. If your flash drive is formatted to appear like a removable hard drive, it should be doable. Google will be your friend here –– look for terms like "Boot XP from USB drive" Yeah, I was going to Google, but I figured there might be some thing other things the folks here might know. As when you Google computer stuff it ranges from 3rd grade to total geek speak, with hardly any middle ground. |
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Posted: 6/12/2009 7:57:11 AM EDT
[#9]
Quoted:
... I cannot install XP onto my current machine, since I have SATA drives, and XP does not recognize them ... Thanks Who says? I have about 15 systems here with SATA drives and XP installed, as well as what I built at home. Just used the XP cd, no extra drivers needed. |
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Posted: 6/12/2009 7:59:16 AM EDT
[#10]
Quoted:
Order a usb floppy drive and solve everything at once. Won't solve the problem (and I get something I do not want). I likely could do the drivers for SATA XP off of my thumb drive, but I am afraid that installing them will screw up VISTA. I have a spare SATA drive in the machine, so that would be the logical choice for putting XP on, but if I put in the XP drivers for SATA (since they seem to be XP specific) I fear I will toast VISTA . I am going to try to thumb drive option tonight. Thanks all |
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Posted: 6/12/2009 8:00:43 AM EDT
[#11]
Quoted:
Quoted:
... I cannot install XP onto my current machine, since I have SATA drives, and XP does not recognize them ... Thanks Who says? I have about 15 systems here with SATA drives and XP installed, as well as what I built at home. Just used the XP cd, no extra drivers needed. You must have a latter version of XP than I do. Mine does not recognize SATA drives. It is a version of XP that came with my old machine, back before SATA drives were prevalent (I had EIDE drives back then). |
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Posted: 6/12/2009 8:00:49 AM EDT
[#12]
Quoted:
Quoted:
... I cannot install XP onto my current machine, since I have SATA drives, and XP does not recognize them ... Thanks Who says? I have about 15 systems here with SATA drives and XP installed, as well as what I built at home. Just used the XP cd, no extra drivers needed. he's probably running them in some sort of raid configuration. xp installs fine with sata unless raid is used. edit: or it's some weird chipset issue. my copy of xp is as old as they get too. |
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Posted: 6/12/2009 8:03:49 AM EDT
[#13]
i have XP on my 2 gig flash drive and i use it rather than the CD b/c it doesn't get scratched
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Posted: 6/12/2009 8:05:59 AM EDT
[#14]
It would seem to me that the key would be getting the SATA drivers into comp for an XP install! Ive got XP and sata drives. it would be a lot less complicated that trying to boot off a thumbdrive. disk drives are like $10 at the store and disks even cheaper. Hell i even have my old 5.45 floppy. it aint attached but i have it. Are you sure you need a disk to boot the XP onto a Sata drive? Perhaps a flash disk or CD of the Sata drivers can be used during the XP install? I hate it when they dont take hardware backwards compatibility into consideration.
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Posted: 6/12/2009 8:17:48 AM EDT
[#15]
I've done this myself, just for fun. A lot of BOIS have some kind of key press at boot to choose the boot device.
One tip, just to be safe... physically disconnect your HDDs while you are installing XP on the thumb drive. Windows could conceivably trash the install of your main OS if you don't. ETA: If you have more than one HDD or more than one partition there are lots of things you could do, like just the boot files on the thumb drive and most of XP and all it's apps on a partition. |
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Posted: 6/12/2009 8:19:51 AM EDT
[#16]
The method that I found involved opening an ISO of the WinXP installer, editing some files, puting them back, burning the disk, etc. Not exactly a non-technical answer to your issue.
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Posted: 6/12/2009 8:32:18 AM EDT
[#17]
Quoted: Might try this. cool....wut? |
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Posted: 6/12/2009 9:33:25 AM EDT
[#18]
All you need is nLite to slipstream your SATA drivers into your Windows CD and then do a dual boot with both OS on your hard drive. I don't think you even want to try to run a hardware intensive game from a USB thumb drive.
http://maxeasyguide.blogspot.com/2008/04/preparations-for-winxp-installation-cd.html Then follow this to install XP in a dual boot environment when Vista is already installed... http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vista_and_xp_with_vista_installed_first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm |
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Posted: 6/12/2009 1:48:37 PM EDT
[#19]
Quoted:
It would seem to me that the key would be getting the SATA drivers into comp for an XP install! Ive got XP and sata drives. it would be a lot less complicated that trying to boot off a thumbdrive. disk drives are like $10 at the store and disks even cheaper. Hell i even have my old 5.45 floppy. it aint attached but i have it. Are you sure you need a disk to boot the XP onto a Sata drive? Perhaps a flash disk or CD of the Sata drivers can be used during the XP install? I hate it when they dont take hardware backwards compatibility into consideration. The problem is, the drivers that I find for XP SATA are listed as being different than the SATA drivers for VISTA. My fear is (I have the drivers downloaded, and could use the thumb drive) that if I load XP and the XP SATA drivers, VISTA will quit working because the XP SATA drivers will replace the VISTA SATA drivers. I don't know whether or not that is a real fear, but it is my fear (due to ignorance of XP and VISTA). I do have my VISTA re-installation disk, but don't wanna have to go there. I guess I need to wait until there is a time when I will not need my computer for a week or so, and have lots of time just in case (sigh). |
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Posted: 6/12/2009 2:43:42 PM EDT
[#20]
Quoted: Windows XP SP1 has no automatic support for installing to SATA drives. Slipstream Service Pack 2 or 3 and create new installation CD media. Unless your SATA controller is RAID, the generic SATA driver from SP2/3 should be sufficient to install the OS. No $$ (except for a CD-R or CD-RW), floppy or USB drive is required - just your time.Quoted: It would seem to me that the key would be getting the SATA drivers into comp for an XP install! Ive got XP and sata drives. it would be a lot less complicated that trying to boot off a thumbdrive. disk drives are like $10 at the store and disks even cheaper. Hell i even have my old 5.45 floppy. it aint attached but i have it. Are you sure you need a disk to boot the XP onto a Sata drive? Perhaps a flash disk or CD of the Sata drivers can be used during the XP install? I hate it when they dont take hardware backwards compatibility into consideration. The problem is, the drivers that I find for XP SATA are listed as being different than the SATA drivers for VISTA. My fear is (I have the drivers downloaded, and could use the thumb drive) that if I load XP and the XP SATA drivers, VISTA will quit working because the XP SATA drivers will replace the VISTA SATA drivers. I don't know whether or not that is a real fear, but it is my fear (due to ignorance of XP and VISTA). I do have my VISTA re-installation disk, but don't wanna have to go there. I guess I need to wait until there is a time when I will not need my computer for a week or so, and have lots of time just in case (sigh). |
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Posted: 6/12/2009 6:54:22 PM EDT
[#21]
Quoted: Quoted: It would seem to me that the key would be getting the SATA drivers into comp for an XP install! Ive got XP and sata drives. it would be a lot less complicated that trying to boot off a thumbdrive. disk drives are like $10 at the store and disks even cheaper. Hell i even have my old 5.45 floppy. it aint attached but i have it. Are you sure you need a disk to boot the XP onto a Sata drive? Perhaps a flash disk or CD of the Sata drivers can be used during the XP install? I hate it when they dont take hardware backwards compatibility into consideration. The problem is, the drivers that I find for XP SATA are listed as being different than the SATA drivers for VISTA. My fear is (I have the drivers downloaded, and could use the thumb drive) that if I load XP and the XP SATA drivers, VISTA will quit working because the XP SATA drivers will replace the VISTA SATA drivers. I don't know whether or not that is a real fear, but it is my fear (due to ignorance of XP and VISTA). I do have my VISTA re-installation disk, but don't wanna have to go there. I guess I need to wait until there is a time when I will not need my computer for a week or so, and have lots of time just in case (sigh). No need to fear, as the most important part of dual booting two operating systems is resizing your Vista partition to allow space for XP to create a partition for itself. Each OS will reside within it's own space. The bootloader will come up at boot time with a menu to select whether you want to boot Vista or XP. To install XP, you'll need the XP SATA drivers or SP2/SP3 slipstreamed (nLite) as said earlier. The last line of your post is very important, and I agree with you. |
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Posted: 6/12/2009 7:09:15 PM EDT
[#22]
I have loaded xp onto an 8gb usb key & let me tell you...it was fricken horrible.
Better to load a 'nix variant on your key & then run vmware or virtualbox or xen... |
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Posted: 6/13/2009 1:51:29 AM EDT
[#23]
Something else that may be easier but will take some of your computer resources is to do a dual boot system. You can load XP and Vista on to the same machine and have the option to boot into either one upon starting your computer. If your hardrive is large enough (say over 100 gig). Its not hard but you will have to Partition your drive and you can make the partition for XP minimal so as to keep more for your main (Vista).
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Posted: 6/13/2009 7:28:24 PM EDT
[#24]
Quoted: Something else that may be easier but will take some of your computer resources is to do a dual boot system. You can load XP and Vista on to the same machine and have the option to boot into either one upon starting your computer. If your hardrive is large enough (say over 100 gig). Its not hard but you will have to Partition your drive and you can make the partition for XP minimal so as to keep more for your main (Vista). RIF |
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Posted: 6/13/2009 7:46:42 PM EDT
[#25]
make a slip stream service pack 2 or 3 install disk and it should install fine with sata drives
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Posted: 6/13/2009 7:59:20 PM EDT
[#26]
Quoted:
Quoted:
... I cannot install XP onto my current machine, since I have SATA drives, and XP does not recognize them ... Thanks Who says? I have about 15 systems here with SATA drives and XP installed, as well as what I built at home. Just used the XP cd, no extra drivers needed. This. The computer I'm typing on right now has XP Professional and a SATA drive. No special drivers. I built this machine in January 09. The XP disc is at least a couple of years old. |
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Posted: 6/13/2009 8:01:32 PM EDT
[#27]
Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: ... I cannot install XP onto my current machine, since I have SATA drives, and XP does not recognize them ... Thanks Who says? I have about 15 systems here with SATA drives and XP installed, as well as what I built at home. Just used the XP cd, no extra drivers needed. This. The computer I'm typing on right now has XP Professional and a SATA drive. No special drivers. I built this machine in January 09. The XP disc is at least a couple of years old. Maybe he has them in an array that requires drivers to be installed from a floppy during XP installation? That's hwo my machine is anyway. |
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Posted: 6/13/2009 8:17:28 PM EDT
[#28]
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
... I cannot install XP onto my current machine, since I have SATA drives, and XP does not recognize them ... Thanks Who says? I have about 15 systems here with SATA drives and XP installed, as well as what I built at home. Just used the XP cd, no extra drivers needed. This. The computer I'm typing on right now has XP Professional and a SATA drive. No special drivers. I built this machine in January 09. The XP disc is at least a couple of years old. Maybe he has them in an array that requires drivers to be installed from a floppy during XP installation? That's hwo my machine is anyway. Hmmm, I missed the plural. |
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Posted: 6/15/2009 2:17:01 PM EDT
[#29]
Slipstream service packs, fixes, updates, and drivers into installation CDs with nLite. You're welcome.
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