Select the right one and then find your drive. The big choices we are concerned with here are the USB Removable or USB Fixed (Thumbdrive/Flashdrive or USB 2.5"/3.5" hard drive). This is a great tool but can get confusing with the multiple options. I would highly suggest saving your MBR if you've been running syslinux boot configurations off the drive currently and believe you might want to go back to doing that. Since it never hurts to assume that something *might* go wrong, you can save your current MBR using "Tools->Backup MBR." it should be very small in size. Find where you downloaded PEtoUSB and run it. We are creating this empty folder to trick PEtoUSB, whose author didn't account for users maybe wanting to try booting from RAM.ġ1. Open the new "Standard_RAM" folder, open the "I386" folder, right-click and create a new folder naming it "system32" without the quotes. Right-click on Standard_RAM.ISO and using 7zip, select the 'Extract to "Standard_RAM\"' option.
IF YOU WANT THIS ON A LIVE CD, BURN IT FROM THE ISO DIRECTLY, IF NOT.ĩ. Determine if you want to burn the Standard_RAM or want it on a thumb drive or USB hard drive. After you're happy with what you ended up with (I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH THAT IF YOU ARE NEW TO WINBUILDER THAT YOU DO NOT CHANGE MANY IF ANY OF THE OPTIONS), navigate to the directory where thuun's build kit is installed and look for the ISO folder. Note that it does take a long time for the build to complete.Ĩ.
You just want to run a default setup and then after confirming it works in Virtual PC 2004, you can look into tweaking the options. I would highly suggest not changing anything else in this area as of yet. Look for "Run on VPC 2004" and be sure to change the amount of "RAM for loaded VPC" to 384 meg or higher if you have 768 meg RAM or more. Scroll down to the bottom of the list and expand the last "Build" folder. If you're new to Winbuilder or Windows PE-type builds as a whole, then click the "Paths" tab and set the target directory to E: or where ever your XP CD is located.ħ.
If you know how to use Winbuilder, you'll be fine.
Extract and then run Thuun's stable Winbuilder compilation if you haven't already. With WinBuilder you MUST point to the root of your Windows XP Install/Build CD.Ħ. If you have used BartPE before, you know you can sometimes point to your C:\Windows directory or other locations. Just note which drive your XP cd is located in. Ignore any windows that pop up and don't run anything from the CD/DVD, it isn't necessary. Mount Windows XP SP2 ISO with MagicDisc/DaemonTools or insert your XP CD into your CD/DVD drive.
Download virtual PC 2004 and install to DEFAULT LOCATIONS:ĥ. (Get the English version, not the German)Ĥ. Download PEtoUSB (PE2USB is a different executable) and extract to a safe location: Please use the version of WinBuilder included in the kit (else it may malfunction).ģ. (Direct link - Note, this might not be the latest version so try the link above first, but if that doesn't work, you can try this one.)
Download Thuun's stable debugged build kit of LiveXP and unpack: How to build a Live Windows XP CD/USB boot disk:Ģ. The system that you run the end product (Live CD or Live USB) on can have as little as 256 or maybe even 128 meg of RAM, but I wouldn't suggest it. Windows computer with 512 meg RAM for testing/building USB Fixed Disk (Hard drive) or USB Removable Disk (Flash drive) I would highly suggest having at least a gig of RAM, but you might be able to pull this off with less. Do not even attempt to build and test this if you have less than 512 meg of RAM. Here are the steps I took to getting my first Windows XP-based build working for both a Live CD and a Live USB build.