Install XP to Memory Stick/USB Flash (1 Viewer)

[odonnghaille]

Has Anyone successfully install XP to flash card and then installed Media Portal on to it.

I seen boot times on you-tube videos from MS were very fast and complete slient operation, you cant go wrong with that.

USB Keys are dropping in price the whole time, I got an 8GB for e15. Alot of us mod are computers so my idea is to crack open the keyring an then solder the card to my motherboards usb pins.

My wish is to install the OS an MP! But the only info i can find on the net is how to install xp from a flash.

Any help would be appriecated

 

[x4mer]

I tried installing it on a CF card, but boot times were slow as hell. I think it had something to do with the BIOS on my Gigabyte 690G board not liking the card though.

As for USB....

SolutionBase: Boot Windows XP from a USB flash drive

 

[odonnghaille]

Thanks x4mer! Hows canada in this weather, hoping to get over there this year for a wks fishing in calagry.

Had a look over the page, i think it might be a bit outdated, it was published in 2005.

I found a really really good write up in the fourms here,

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...-frontend-compact-flash-tutorial-howto-38610/

 

[x4mer]

Way too much snow this year. There's nowhere to put it anymore.

As far as a I know, USB can't be done the same as CF. Something about USB polling under XP causes the boot drive to be dropped, if the boot drive is a USB key.

 

[yumcimil]

It's doable. It requires a fair bit of messing around with the Windows installation files to begin with, I don't have the URLs for it offhand, but a quick google should do the trick.

In terms of mediaportal, two things. Firstly, for some reason, menu navigation is *much* slower than with a HDD. The other,, is that I'm currently having an odd issue where config fails if it can't find a local hard drive. I resolved it by setting up an iSCSI drive, but you might also be able to set it as a fixed disk with BIOS emulation.

All of this is extremely technical. Really not for the fainthearted at all. I'm pondering just getting a cheap SSD instead, since it's a *lot* of hassle.

Current flash drive I'm using is a Kingston HyperX 4GB stick. There's no pagefile.

 

[odonnghaille]

Thanks for the extra info guys, ill defo take that on board yumcimil I hope someone else gets to read that excellent info and ill take on board from your experiences and reconsider my options.

Thanks again!