Installing Windows FROM a USB drive

[Hugsie]

Is there a way to install Windows XP (or windows 2000) from a USB thumb
drive? I want to be able too boot from the USB drive, and have the windows
installer come up, as if I were installing from a CD using a CDrom drive.

My new laptop (EEE PC 900) has no optical drives, and I really don't want to
get an external optical drive just to install windows.

It would been wonderful if I could find some way to simply copy a bootable
ISO of a CD onto the thumb drive and allow it to boot as if it were a boot CD.

 

[Jim]

Is there a way to install Windows XP (or windows 2000) from a USB thumb
drive? I want to be able too boot from the USB drive, and have the
windows
installer come up, as if I were installing from a CD using a CDrom drive.

My new laptop (EEE PC 900) has no optical drives, and I really don't want
to
get an external optical drive just to install windows.

It would been wonderful if I could find some way to simply copy a bootable
ISO of a CD onto the thumb drive and allow it to boot as if it were a boot
CD.

Only if the BIOS supports booting from a USB device....
Jim

 

[Hugsie]

Only if the BIOS supports booting from a USB device....

Jim

it does, i wouldn't ask if this little laptop didn't. Regardless your reply
doesn't answer my question.

how can i get a bootable ISO of a cd to boot up and install on a USB thumb
drive as a boot device, so i can install OSes, including windows, to be used
on PCs w/o optical drives? (e.g. EEE PCs)

 

[John John (MVP)]

it does, i wouldn't ask if this little laptop didn't. Regardless your reply
doesn't answer my question.

how can i get a bootable ISO of a cd to boot up and install on a USB thumb
drive as a boot device, so i can install OSes, including windows, to be used
on PCs w/o optical drives? (e.g. EEE PCs)

You didn't search too hard, in the first few search hits I found this:

http://www.eeeguides.com/2007/11/installing-windows-xp-from-usb-thumb.html

John