I have successfully copied the entire Vista DVD to a 40GB USB HDD and
booted/installed Vista from it. The thing to remember is, the HDD needs
to be formated as NTFS, the partition needs to be "active" and you have
to rename "bootmgr" to "ntldr".
I followed these steps: (all from the command prompt)


Code:
--------------------

1. diskpart
2. list disk
3. select disk #n (where #n is the number you identify as the disk you need to copy the Vista DVD to)
4. clean
5. create partition primary
6. select partition 1
7. active
8. assign letter=z
9. exit
10. format z: /q
11. xcopy [Vista Drive Letter]:\*.* /s/e/f z:\
12. rename z:\bootmgr ntldr

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



After that just reboot, enter BIOS, set bootorder to USB first, save
and exit and then you should be good to go. (it can also be used on
faster medias like memory sticks. this will also speed up the entire
installation process)


--
warptwist

Thanks for this info. I wonder if Vista could be installed to a 16 GB thumb
drive? Conventional wisdom has always been it couldn't, but I wonder if
there is a way..

CH

"warptwist" wrote in message
...

I have successfully copied the entire Vista DVD to a 40GB USB HDD and
booted/installed Vista from it. The thing to remember is, the HDD needs
to be formated as NTFS, the partition needs to be "active" and you have
to rename "bootmgr" to "ntldr".
I followed these steps: (all from the command prompt)


Code:
--------------------

1. diskpart
2. list disk
3. select disk #n (where #n is the number you identify as the disk you
need to copy the Vista DVD to)
4. clean
5. create partition primary
6. select partition 1
7. active
8. assign letter=z
9. exit
10. format z: /q
11. xcopy [Vista Drive Letter]:\*.* /s/e/f z:\
12. rename z:\bootmgr ntldr

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



After that just reboot, enter BIOS, set bootorder to USB first, save
and exit and then you should be good to go. (it can also be used on
faster medias like memory sticks. this will also speed up the entire
installation process)


--
warptwist

On Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:02:40 -0500, "Chad Harris"
wrote:

Thanks for this info. I wonder if Vista could be installed to a 16 GB thumb
drive?

You mean installed FROM a thumb drive (like the installation files
were copied to it) or TO a thumb drive and and then booted from it?

If the former, try it and see.

If the latter, no way. Vista doesn't understand seeing itself on a
removable drive.

DDW
--
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If you are able to clean partitions, activate partitions and format the
thumbdrive NTFS, I don't see the problem.
Unless you can't re-partition after cleaning. In that case you would
end up with a useless thumbdrive...


--
warptwist

DDW and Chad


This is another leach post from User-Agent: vBulletin USENET gateway. The OP will not see the answers that was posted to him by you and Chad. Lately these posts are showing up more and more. Have to check the Properties of posts starting with and if it is from Usenet Gateway then let it just be

--
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.

"DDW" wrote in message ...
On Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:02:40 -0500, "Chad Harris"
wrote:

Thanks for this info. I wonder if Vista could be installed to a 16 GB thumb
drive?

You mean installed FROM a thumb drive (like the installation files
were copied to it) or TO a thumb drive and and then booted from it?

If the former, try it and see.

If the latter, no way. Vista doesn't understand seeing itself on a
removable drive.

DDW
--
Reply via this group
No email please