OPK Install Using a flash drive?

[Guest]

I've run into a little bit of a situation durring an install of OEM XP home
on a laptop.
This particular machine has a cd rom and floppy drive, however there is only
one bay that these can be used in ( only one drive at a time can be used ).
This said, I can't use the cd & floppy method to preform an OPK install. Also
at this time I won't have access to an OPK cd until sometime next week.
My question is this, is there a way to use a usb flash drive instead of a
floppy drive and if not, might this not be a good thing to include in the
future?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

System Builder Community Forum
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/newsgroups/topics/sysbuilder.mspx

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.mspx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| I've run into a little bit of a situation durring an install of OEM XP home
| on a laptop.
| This particular machine has a cd rom and floppy drive, however there is only
| one bay that these can be used in ( only one drive at a time can be used ).
| This said, I can't use the cd & floppy method to preform an OPK install. Also
| at this time I won't have access to an OPK cd until sometime next week.
| My question is this, is there a way to use a usb flash drive instead of a
| floppy drive and if not, might this not be a good thing to include in the
| future?
| --
| Darrin McMurry
| WorkNet Systems
| Flagstaff, Az.

 

[Guest]

Hey Mac_D21,

First off, posting this type of discussion would be great over on the System
Builder discussion group that Carey was nice enough to provide the URL for.

The quick answer is that at this time you cannot use a USB flash drive
(though it is something we are working on...). You can, however, you an
external USB floppy drive for the process.

Regarding not having the OPK tools, you need to take a look at
http://oem.microsoft.com/script/contentPage.aspx?pageid=554376. This is an
article located on the Microsoft OEM/System Builder website that I think you
would like.

If you are a System Builder, make sure you take a look at the Back Room
(oem.microsoft.com/backroom) where we have tons of new information to help
you do your job better.

Thanks,
Steve Winfield, Manager
US System Builder Tech Team (aka BOB)

 

[Robert Moir]

Hey Mac_D21,

First off, posting this type of discussion would be great over on the
System Builder discussion group that Carey was nice enough to provide
the URL for.

The quick answer is that at this time you cannot use a USB flash drive
(though it is something we are working on...). You can, however, you
an external USB floppy drive for the process.

If the machine offers bootable USB key support, and you have a large enough
USB key, could you not start from a bootable USB key with the contents of
the XP setup disk on it, run a disk partitioning and formatting tool if
needs be (probably a 3rd party one), copy over the XP setup disk i386 folder
from the usb key, and then run setup?

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the pointer, new to this site. Will try to send my questions to
the proper place in the future.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the fast reply Steve,
The page you linked me to is the procedure that I was trying to use this
time around. After the initial failures I went out and purchased a usb floppy
and tryed it again, no luck. XP isn't picking up the floppy. ( Bios issues? )
Again, thanks! But at this point it looks as if I and my customer will just
have to wait a few more days.

 

[Guest]

Hi Robert,
Thanks for the ideas!
Unfortunatly this machine wont boot to a usb device and my usb flash drive
is only 256Mb ( XP cd is 556Mb. ) Also, I'm not sure, but I think the boot
files for the cd aren't easily transferable ( they don't show up while
exploring the disk ). Another problem with this would be NTFS ( you need an
OS that will mount NTFS if you are going to install to that file system ) And
finnaly, an OPK install is a little different than the regular install (
requires custom files and tools that setup only looks for in certain
locations ). These dificulties are anti piracy measures put in place to
protect the software from piracy and aren't usually a problem if the machine
you install to is new and it adhears to the regular standards.