flashing windows XP directly on to the hard drive

[paoloc162]

I have a winbook z1 from 2001-ish and the cd drive failed and it does not support usb boot. I don't want to order a new one so i tried to install windows XP directly on the hard disk with virtual box but i am unable/incompetent to do so. does anyone have ideas or solutions?

 

[krebizfan]

If you have a bootable XP disk image for the Winbook*, you could write the disk image over to the hard drive. An external USB enclosure could make that easy. What OS would be on the host system that would need to write the image? That determines what tool should be used.

I hope you have either 256 or 512 MB to have XP run at a reasonable speed.

* Problems can happen if the XP is for the wrong hardware.

 

[orac81]

XP installs are tricky because of the protection, a disk image of an install on one machine won't run on another.

Often the factory install CD with a machine like that writes an exact disk image with everything set up. You could try and find a copy of that CD iso on the web, but without a CD drive its tricky - for an Acer I used a desktop PC to install to a blank hd, then put that hd in the laptop.

Sometimes there was a factory install image on a hidden hd partition, the ibm laptops did that.

Try to download a pdf with a manual for that machine.

Failing all that, install an older Linux, say Puppy Linux (Tarhpup or Xenial for 256-512mb ram) and install wine for Windows apps. If you can't boot cd/usb, you will have to do that on another machine, then move the hd over.

Puppy Linux Discussion Forum - Index page

forum.puppylinux.com

Not easy.

 

[Timo W.]

XP installs are tricky because of the protection, a disk image of an install on one machine won't run on another.

That is complete b*llshit, sorry. There is nothing preventing an XP install from one PC to boot in another one. You need to re-activate, of course, but that should be clear to anyone.

The only thing you need to make sure is to remove custom drivers for graphics, sound etc, as they may cause a blue screen otherwise when booting on different hardware.

 

[Timo W.]

but i am unable/incompetent to do so. does anyone have ideas or solutions?

It would probably help to tell at which point you are failing at..?

 

[orac81]

That is complete b*llshit, sorry. There is nothing preventing an XP install from one PC to boot in another one. You need to re-activate, of course, but that should be clear to anyone.

The only thing you need to make sure is to remove custom drivers for graphics, sound etc, as they may cause a blue screen otherwise when booting on different hardware.

Sorry I don't think thats right.

It might be that a "pro xp" install will offer options to do that, but not these home edition installs, I have specifically had a situation where a disc from a laptop with a home edition will not run at all when placed in a desktop with different hardware. It makes no attempt to run in "safe mode" if the hardware is wrong. (it may work with 2 pcs with similar make/hw.)

Whereas a Linux install will work that way.

In any case, you would need to get (buy?) a new license key from MS when the hw changes. Do they still supply that?

The other option is to get (buy?) the pro version of XP on CD, install, then phone MS for a license key. But I was guessing this user doesn't want to spend a load of money on license keys.

Admittedly there are hacks around for free XP activation, but its not officially endorsed. (unless thats changed?)

 

[ldkraemer]

Try this:

To boot a WinBook Z1 tablet from a USB drive, connect a USB keyboard, then press the power button and immediately tap F2 to enter the BIOS. Navigate to the "Boot" section to select the USB drive as the primary boot device, save changes, and restart, notes and 8 for similar devices.
Steps to Boot WinBook Z1 from USB:

• Prepare USB: Ensure your USB drive is bootable (e.g., created via Rufus or similar tools).
• Connect Keyboard: Plug a USB keyboard into the tablet's USB port.
• Enter BIOS: Turn on the tablet and repeatedly tap the F2 key.
• Change Boot Order: Inside the BIOS/UEFI setup, navigate to the Boot menu.
• Select USB: Move the connected USB drive to the top of the boot priority list.
• Save and Exit: Save the settings (often F10) and restart the tablet.

Alternative Methods:

• Windows Startup Settings: If you can access Windows, go to Settings > Update & Security > Recovery > Advanced Startup > Restart now. Then, select Use a device > USB drive.
• Boot Menu Key: Some models may allow pressing F11 or Delete during startup to open a direct boot menu.

Note: If the tablet fails to boot, you may need to disable Secure Boot within the BIOS settings, as noted in the official documentation for similar devices.


ISO Image:
https://archive.org/details/WinXPProSP3x86


Larry

 

[orac81]

Ok, well I stand corrected, it seems the XP pro cd is available to download nowadays, the comments there mention the key code to enable it.

But isn't that ISO generic? You may need to find and add device drivers for that machine to work properly.

 

[bakemono]

Put DOS (preferably Win98 DOS) on the HDD. Copy the i386 directory from the XP CD to it. Boot to command prompt. Load SMARTDRV. Go in the i386 dir and execute WINNT.

This has always been the best way to install 9x/NT/2K/XP except for masochists who like slow removable media.

 

[orac81]

Put DOS (preferably Win98 DOS) on the HDD. Copy the i386 directory from the XP CD to it. Boot to command prompt. Load SMARTDRV. Go in the i386 dir and execute WINNT.

This has always been the best way to install 9x/NT/2K/XP except for masochists who like slow removable media.

I have done this, and if you can't find the original install CD, its probably the best option. If the laptop can't boot a CD, you can put the hdd into another pc and setup dos and copy i386 on that, then move the hdd back to the laptop for install.
But that is a generic XP Pro CD, it may not have the drivers you need for that machine. You will have to try and find the right version of old drivers from the manufacturers site, or somewhere like archive.org.

 

[MiaM]

Put DOS (preferably Win98 DOS) on the HDD. Copy the i386 directory from the XP CD to it. Boot to command prompt. Load SMARTDRV. Go in the i386 dir and execute WINNT.

This has always been the best way to install 9x/NT/2K/XP except for masochists who like slow removable media.

+1 on SMARTDRV! My experience from the older NT4 is that if less than 75% of the installation is done, it's worth restarting it to enable SMARTDRV if you forgot to do that. On a particular slow machine the install time was 3h without and 40m with SMARTDRIV (can't remember what machine that was, probably a 486DX2-66 or so)

The downside of installing from a FAT partition is that the NTFS file system resulting from converting from FAT to NTFS is said to be slightly inferior to formatting to NTFS directly.
================

In general it might also be worth checking if the computer in question is able to netboot. There for sure is a lot of work in setting up a PXEboot environment with enough stuff to install XP, but might still be an option.

 

[orac81]

I tend to have 2gb FAT as a first partition, then ntfs or ext4 for others, sized as needed. With Grub or grub4dos, you can set up various versions of DOS, Linux, Windows etc to boot.

Grub4dos can boot off an floppy/hd drive image file for older OSs.

There is a problem with older versions of Windows not running directly on more recent processors. Drivers are an issue too.

Manufacturers used to put the drivers up for xp, but some of those sites are starting to go, so you might have to try archive/wayback/bitsavers, or trust a download from an unknown site.

In the end it often seems better to just run Linux+Wine for win32, letting Linux manage the low level drivers. It seems to have the widest range of old to new drivers across different hardware. An old version of TahrPup or Xenial Puppy Linux +Wine would run in 256mb, if you give it a swapfile.