How To Install Windows XP On Asus EEE PC
We recently had a question on the Ask-Us page that prompted me to write this tutorial as this might be very 
handy for people using not only the Asus EEE PC but all PCs which do not have a optical drive.
Pre-requisites before beginning :
- A PC with CD-ROM
- Windows XP installation media
- Atleast 1GB USB flash drive
- USB_PREP8
- PeToUSB
- Bootsect.exe
Now that you have got the required files in place, we can begin on the tutorial.
Step 1: Unzip the files
First, extract the files present in the bootsect.zip . Next you need to copy the PeToUSB executable into the USB_prep8 folder. All these folders can be placed anywhere according to your convenience.After you have 
done all this stuff, you can move on to the next step.
Step 2: Run usb_prep8.cmd
Open up the folder USB_prep8 and you will find a file named usb_prep8.cmd . Run the executable file to launch the command promt box which will ask you to press any key. Press any key and then you will see PeToUSB program launch up. Don’t close the usbprep8 windows until told to do so.
Step 3: Start PeToUSB utility
After you see the PeToUSB window, press the start button present at the bottom of the window. You do not need to tweak any values in the program as they are preset to the appropriate ones. Leave the window open and proceed to next step.
Step 4: Fire up command prompt.
Run command prompt and navigate to the folder where you had saved the file bootsect.exe file. After you have navigated to the directory, type this command in the command prompt and run it, “bootsect.exe /nt52 R:” without the quotes and where R is the drive letter of your USB flash drive. Also make sure there are any programs accessing the drive or any open window of the drive. After modifying the bootsector of the USB flash drive, a notification saying “Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes.” would flash on your screen. You can now close the PeToUSB and this command prompt window while still leaving usbprep8 window open.
Step 5: Configure some settings
You will now notice that the usbprep8 window has changed. You will now have to configure a few settings in this window. Press “1″ to set your Windows XP CD-ROM drive and set the CD-ROM drive letter as the path to installation files.
Press “2″ and assign a letter which is currently not assigned to any of the drives on your PC.
Press “3″ and enter the drive letter of your USB flash drive.
Step 6: Start the process
Press “4″ to start the process.
Press “Y” to format the temporary “T:” that the program creates. Press Enter after the formating is complete. After the files are copied to temporary drive, press Enter again to continue the process. Press “Y” when it asks for confirmation of copying files to the USB flash drive. After the process is complete, the program asks whether you wish to set the USB drive as preferred boot drive, select Yes in the window. Then select Yes to unmount the virtual drive.
Step 7: Boot with USB drive
You can now close the usbprep8 window. Restart your PC and boot from the USB drive and select text mode on the startup menu. You are now on course for a normal familiar windows installation! But you need to delete all the partitions present to prevent yourself from getting the hal.dll error message.
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Written by Ankur Gupta on June 27th, 2008 | Category: Tutorials | 18 Comments »
Tom
August 4, 2008 at 11:31 pm
when im on step 3 its says it cant find any usb key connected even though i have an 8gb kingston usb key connected…
Tom G
pinoysinbologna
August 21, 2008 at 12:49 am
Try changing the drive letter. It might be automatically detected. I tried this using my 4gb and so far no problem whatsoever.
Goodluck!
Thanks for this tutorial.
Excellent
August 25, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Very nice guide man
Thanks for all.
Ninjux
August 27, 2008 at 12:44 am
i can’t run the 4 step…need some help
jerjaysy
August 30, 2008 at 10:41 am
ah. i cant download this file error (USB_PREP8)
rolin
September 2, 2008 at 11:27 am
my laptop has no usb-hdd only usb-fdd how can i install xp without cd rom i tried to used usb prep8 work’s only on my desktop computer
Paolo
September 9, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Unfortunatelly when I go to install xp right after the drive c formatting I get this message “The following value in the .SIF file used by setup is corrupted or missing”. Please help
Thanks
Sammy
September 28, 2008 at 3:36 am
“when im on step 3 its says it cant find any usb key connected even though i have an 8gb kingston usb key connected…”
Tom G
Known problem. I guess ur running vista. Go to control panel, users. There u shut down UAC and restart.
Then this guide works perfectly.
Sammy
September 28, 2008 at 3:38 am
Mail me if you have any problems. palmrest@hotmail.com
taxi4u
October 3, 2008 at 12:54 am
needs some help
i did all the above step by step
at the end of the process i plugged my disk on key to the eee pc usb changed the boot order to boot from the usb
then i had to choose between test mode or gui installation i picked up text mode & i got this message :file is missing: \$WIN_BT\biosinfo.inf
could not be loaded
trying to install xp with the gui got : missing hal.dll
any suggestions ????
Josh
October 10, 2008 at 7:57 pm
This method doesn’t leave your copy of xp untouched. It creates by default a username of “userXP” along with a bunch of seemingly helpful but unmentioned registry tweaks.
Ankur Gupta
October 25, 2008 at 11:17 am
@taxi4u
Your integration process did not go correctly. Either you had a corrupted copy of Windows XP or you messed up the integration process. Format the drive and start over again.
Niceguy
November 19, 2008 at 12:38 pm
This worked fine for me, but how do i implement drivers, updates and programs like adobe reader?
Luka
December 17, 2008 at 2:11 am
TOM, run petousb as administrator
Sunny
December 30, 2008 at 5:36 am
the PeToUSB formating is not working for me.
i format it and it keeps on saying that there was a error. i tried this on a Vista and XP witha Kingston 8GB usb and it still doesn’t work
neil
January 12, 2009 at 10:36 am
Sunny, run the usb_prep8.cmd as administrator and it will start petousb as admin. I had to do that to get it to work in Vista
Johnny 5
January 14, 2009 at 10:29 pm
Try using a usb flash drive that is less than 4 gb
UK
February 11, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Sunny.
download the latest PeToUSB 3.0.0.8, and run it as administrator, i had the same problems when having 3.0.0.7 version… looks like that Vista doesnt like something about it.