Installing Windows XP on a Netbook

Netbooks are very popular these days. They are very portable and handy, but if you need to install  Windows on them, it can be a pain. Here I'll describe how to install Windows (XP) on a netbook.


You may have noticed that one really big problem is the lack of CD-ROM drive.
Earlier I have described how to install Windows over the network, this howto is very limited because in many cases the network card is not recognized.
In this case, installation from the USB key is the best choice. You have 2 options:

1. Create bootable USB flash drive with WinToFlash 

• I had problems with fonts displaying in this program, maybe it is fixed at the time. Despite of this the application is very intuitive, by clicking on next next next... you should easily install it.
• another problem was that after installing the system (Windows XP) on the computer - it won't boot. This is caused by Windows itself. It detects wrong root partition (C:\), not the one on which it is installed but the one where it was installed from (USB key). You can fix this by editing a file boot.ini on partition where the Windows is installed. To edit this you need to boot some LIVE system (Linux, Hirens)

File boot.ini contains:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional"
where you need to set proper number for partition(X). Partitions are counted from number 1. So if you have your system on a second partition, change the line to following:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional"

2.  Second, easiest way, is to Download Hirens Boot CD

• and create from it a bootable USB drive with tools USBFormat and grub4dos (Hiren's manual).
• next you need to copy from the installation CD Windows XP the directory i386, either on the USB key with Hirens or on some other USB key. 
• Follow these steps:
• boot from Hirens USB flash drive and choose Start Mini Windows XP, if everything goes well you'll boot into Windows XP.
• Here you can format your harddrive (not necessary) where you want to install your Windows.
• Copy on this harddrive the directory i386. After it is copied remove all removable (USB) drives.
• Now right click on My Computer > Manage > Disk Management, and choose with right mouse button the HDD where you will install your Windows and change its letter (Change Drive Letter) to C:. NOTE: first you need to change existing drive C: to another letter. 
• Now enter the copied directory i386 (it should be in C:\i386) and run winnt32.exe.
• The installation should start...

NOTE: I've  encounter problems during the installation. The installer was missing some files, but in my case the files weren't important so they could be skipped.