When I got my Eee PC, I also got an XP license with it, as I never intended to use the OS that came with it. I did not get a USB CD-ROM though because I figured flash drives have been around long enough that I should be able to use it just as easily as a floppy disk to boot and install an OS. Boy was I wrong.

After a lot of time spent searching, trying various methods only to end in failure, and experimenting, I finally found a way to do it that doesn't involve Bart or PE anything, nor any really arcane tools (okay, maybe one or two :-).

This guide is an adaptation of instructions posted by cityfun in this thread: http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?pid=12725

Naturally, all instructions here are at your own risk. This method worked for me, but your mileage may vary. If you are careless, you could potentially nuke your computer's hard disk doing some of this stuff, so be careful. Hey, I said it was easy, not safe and fun!

Edit: Please see footnotes at the bottom for variations on these requirements before beginning. I also suggest reading through this thread, as many helpful posters have addressed common questions and suggested other variations on this install. My thanks to all who have contributed!

What you need:

1. A USB memory stick AND a SD card. One of these has to have enough space to contain the XP install files.
2. Physdiskwrite (http://m0n0.ch/wall/physdiskwrite.php)
3. Boot disk image: MS Windows XP System Setup Disk (http://freepctech.com/pc/002/files010.shtml)
A computer running Windows 2000/XP (I am pretty sure Vista won't work since physdiskwrite is a 16-bit app) and a USB slot or SD card reader attached
4. Windows XP installation files (off your MS CD, or from wherever)
5. A tool for extracting archives. I used WinRAR, but there are plenty of others out there.
6. Some knowledge of DOS. I do not go into the minutia of every command or DOS tool. Luckily, Google is an able companion for help if you get stuck.

The goal of this whole thing is to get your Eee PC into the following state, which will allow for Win XP to be installed:

1. SSD has a single FAT32 partition that is "active" and has a functional boot loader.
2. The complete i386 folder from your XP CD is copied to your SSD

What to do:
-On your XP computer, download physdiskwrite and the boot disk image mentioned above. Unzip physdiskwrite to a temp directory. I was able to "unzip" the system setup disk executable using WinRAR as well, to get the actual image file rather than the disk maker. WinRAR throws an error and says that the archive is corrupt, but it gets the image out and it works just the same.

So, you should have a temp filder (say c:\temp) with two files: physdiskwrite.exe and WXPBOOT.IMA.

-Insert the flash memory device you DO NOT intend to use to hold your XP install files.
-Open a command line and navigate to your temp directory.
-Type: physdiskwrite -u wxpboot.ima

It will list all of your drives and ask you which one you want to write to. BE VERY CAREFUL HERE. You need to make sure you aren't writing to any of your actual hard disks. If you are not sure which one is your flash disk, do the following:

Control Panel --> Administration Tools --> Computer Management --> Disk Management

You will see a list of all your drives. The numbers should correspond to the numbers listed by physdiskwrite. Also, your flash disk should not list a manufacturer like Maxtor, Seagate or Western Digital :-)

Now that you are sure you are writing the image to the correct drive,  enter the drive number at the command prompt and it will write the image to your flash drive. It should take just a second or two.

-With your "boot disk" created, go ahead and copy the XP install files to your other flash drive.

-When that's done, insert your "boot disk" drive into the Eee PC. Hit Esc during startup and tell it to boot from whichever one you just used physdiskwrite on. DO NOT insert your XP flash drive yet.

It will pause a time or two for you to hit a key. At the end, you should end up at A:\. If you did, congratulations, you are almost there.

-Type fdisk

The only "fixed disk" available to fdisk now should be your internal SSD. You can check this by selecting the option to view all physical disks. If that option is absent from the menu (and it should be at this point), then it is only seeing your SSD. You can further verify this by looking at the current partition information. It should show several non-DOS partitions, and a DOS partition named BIOS (well, my machine did anyway). Delete all of these partitions. Create a new primary DOS partition using all of the SSD's space. Fdisk should automatically set it to "Active", but just make sure by viewing partition info after all of this is done and check that the A flag is present.

-Insert your XP install flash drive and reboot the machine. You should boot from your boot disk again.

-Back at A:\ prompt, format the C drive:
A:\format c: /s

-When that is complete, we need to make sure the Linux boot loader is gone once and for all. type:
A:\fdisk /mbr

Your SSD should now be bootable to DOS without a boot disk

-Copy the WinXP install files over to your SSD:
A:\md c:\i386
A:\xcopy B:\i386 C:\i386 /E
(note: this command assumes your XP install files are in a folder called i386 on your XP flash drive. Adjust as necessary). Be sure to use the /E switch so that it copies all the subdirectories. If you omit that like I did the first time, you get to the GUI part of the installation and then it asks for files that don't exist.

That copy operation will take a while. Go get a donut or something.

When that's done, navigate to c:\i386 and run winnt.exe

The Windows installer should start, and you should be home free from there!

If you totally screw up and want to restore the system, there is a system restore utility on the ASUS DVD that will make your USB drive into a bootable restoration disk.

Hopefully you are kicking it in XP on your Eee PC. Have fun!

Edit: I am using the space below to address some issues I've seen posted in the thread. I will add to this list as necessary.
1. Yes, you can delete the i386 folder from your C drive if you copied the files over. The only time you'd need those files is if you add/remove Windows components. What you can do is stick the i386 folder on a SD card or USB drive and point Windows there when it asks for the location of a file.

2. According to bretton and others in this thread, you can use two USB drives rather than a USB + SD. You can also install Windows directly from the USB drive rather than copying the files over if you wish. I do not suggest installing Windows from an SD card, as data transfer rates from the card reader are pretty abysmal and it will take forever. Just bear in mind that if you install windows from a removable drive and you attempt to add/remove windows components, you will need to have the drive with your install files handy, as mentioned above.

3. Results may vary depending on which version of Windows you are installing. For this particular installation, I was using an OEM copy of XP Home SP2. I do not have the time or money to test many other versions of Windows, but it looks like several users have posted issues with their versions. Remember, for this method you should be using a full XP install, not an upgrade version.

4. Yes, you can use nLite on your install files, but be sure to retain the manual setup files. If you i386 folder does not contain the winnt.exe file, your install will be hosed.

5. Several users have posted a link to a relatively new method for installing XP with one USB drive. I haven't tried it, but the link is here for your convenience: http://www.eeeguides.com/2007/11/instal … thumb.html
Obviously I can't comment on it or support it. Linked by oldpueblo, et al.

-Hanns

Last edited by Hanns (2008-01-07 4:01:59 pm)