For a long time, Microsoft didn’t sell Windows install media in the form of bootable USB flash drives. Instead, it prefered to stick to old-school DVD media, despite the fact that many notebooks today are too small to even include an optical drive, and many DIYers are building PCs which forego one on purpose. However, things have moved on, and for the first time, Microsoft has begun to sell. Previous versions of the OS (XP, 7 and 8.1), all require the user to create their own bootable USB drive. Thief Gold Patch Windows 8 on this page. Creating a bootable Windows USB drive used to be a chore, but today, one solution can pretty-well suit most people. However, there are times when a flash drive has some quirk that prevents it from working with a particular solution, so for that reason, this article takes a look at five different methods.

Illustrated walk-through: Creating a bootable USB flash drive for Windows XP. The ability to boot Windows XP from a USB Flash Drive (UFD). This tutorial will explain how to install windows xp with usb drive. Screenshots provided to make make bootable usb and copy windows xp installer. Ever wanted a copy of Windows you can take with you wherever you go, to use on any computer you want? It's possible: here's how to install a portable version of. Ever wanted a copy of Windows you can take with you wherever you go, to use on any computer you want? It's possible: here's how to install a portable version of.

Guide Index: • • • • • • • • • Benefits of USB Install Media Even if the target desktop or notebook has an optical drive, there are a couple of reasons to consider first creating a USB-based installer. Admittedly, the time and effort of creating the drive might make it best-suited for system builders, but for people like us, who juggle test machines, USB is a no-brainer. To start, USB media is more durable than disc-based media. Discs can be easily scratched, while well-built USB flash drives can generally handle a bit of abuse.

Then, there’s the convenience. Ever walk around with a disc in your pocket? It looks a bit odd. For us, performance and reliability are the key reasons why we’ve opted to use USB-based installers in lieu of discs. Even if a DVD has been burned at the highest commercial speeds, it won’t be able to compete with flash memory which offers far improved IOPS performance (operations per second) – it’s the same reason why SSDs are much faster for booting an OS and loading applications than a mechanical hard drive; the seek times are minuscule in comparison.

While it’s beyond the scope of this article, those who truly want a fast install experience can slipstream USB 3.0 support into the install media, which on current chipsets and an SSD target can allow you to install Windows 7 or 8 in under 4 minutes flat. USB Installer Tools & Successes Over the course of this article, we’re going to be looking at five different solutions that accomplish the exact same thing: Creating a USB-based Windows installer; if one doesn’t work, the next one should (at least, that’s the hope). To give an overview of what to expect from each solution, refer to this success table. Windows 10 Windows 8 Windows 7 Windows XP Rufus Yes* Yes Yes Yes UNetbootin Yes Yes Yes No diskpart Yes Yes Yes No Microsoft USB Tool Yes Yes Yes No Media Creation Tool Yes No No No * Requires Rufus 2.1.6 or later. Killdisk 7 Keygen. Given the fact that Windows XP has reached end-of-life status, we’re including a mention of it here because we’re sure someone down the road will be able to make use of this information.