Hi I am actually trying to install Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs, not Windows XP, but there is no forum for that so I am posting it here. Please don't be discouraged by this, WinFLP is very very similar to XP, just with less features and more optimizations. Plus I really need help, I'm tearing my hair out :-( My laptop, a weak 400mhz Vaio C1XS picturebook, can boot from a USB floppy but not from a USB CD. And to make matters worse it only has one USB port. I found a boot disk called "Motto Hairu" that allows you to boot with a floppy, create a RAMdrive, and switch the USB floppy for the USB CD. You can then proceed to access the USB CD drive from DOS, while the original floppy is preserved on the RAMdrive. This, unfortunately, did no good for me as WinFLP doesnt come with a winnt.exe file to run the setup from DOS. Even though I could fully access and browse the WinFLP install CD through DOS, I could not install it without winnt.exe (the 16 bit DOS windows installer for those of you who don't know). So apparently the ONLY way to install WinFLP is to boot to it straight from the BIOS (which I cannot do). I Tried hot-swapping the hard drive from the C1XS into the hard drive slot of another, newer notbook I had, one which supported boot-from-cd. I proceeded to fully install WinFLP on the C1XS hard drive through the newer laptop. I swapped the hard drive back into the C1XS and found that when I tried to boot WinFLP on it, I immediately got a blue screen with a "STOP" message, error x0000007b or something. I assume this is because the WinFLP installer created the essential drivers (chipset most likely) around the newer computer that it was being installed on before, not the C1XS. On one more final attempt I tried installing WinFLP up to just before the first-boot-agent, in hopes that it was the first-boot-agent itself that installed the drivers in question. This did not work either, so I guess hot swapping is simply out of the question. Does anyone know a way I can launch the ISO image from DOS and have it behave like I launched it from boot? Or can I do a network install without winnt.exe? Any advice at all would be appreciated. Thanks in advance

try this: http://www.geocities.com/jadoxa/shs... Today's subliminal thought is: 'Calm down ... it's only ones and zeros.' icq 10183575

Not sure if I can help but. (On one more final attempt I tried installing WinFLP up to just before the first-boot-agent,) did you get the same error ? (if dode right would think it should work) Is the hdd NTFS or FAT32 ? (Windows Fundamentals) do you have a site where more info can be read ? You may need to install a boot manager that has the codeing to reboot to cd drive(when bios does not permit). If hdd is fat32 you can try XOSL 1.1.5 www.ranish.com/

Mattie's solution didn't work because I was already able to browse and see the WinFLP CD in DOS, it's just that the CD cannot be started from DOS mode. TopFarmer's solution was very close, as XOSL has something called "Smart Boot Manager" that allows you to boot directly from CD. Unfortunately "CD" means no USB CD drives, so I still couldnt get to WinFLP... I have a 2gb USB pen drive, would that be of any use (since my computer can boot from USB floppy)? I am told that WinFLP installs the same way as Vista, but I have never tried installing Vista so I cannot validate this.

Can try ,not sure but should work. Copy the I386 folder from the cd to the hdd. Use the 6 set XP boot floppy. Run winnt32 I do not have nor can find anything much on WNFLP. If the aove will not work, need more info on (On one more final attempt I tried installing WinFLP up to just before the first-boot-agent) Only hdd on comp ? (a must) What did not work, explain ? On the first reboot , you would need to stop comp after windows closes but right befor restart. If you had wiped the MBR boot code be sure to rewrite it. (XP's RC FIXMBR or 98's FDISK /MBR) AT this point of install (XP) , files have been copyed, boot.ini has been written along with rewritting the VBR boot code, but not the MBR boot code.

sorry for not responding for a while, I've been trying all these different options but nothing seems to work. When I hotswapped the Hard drives before, I did the CD-only part of the WinFLP install and then swapped the hard drives back before the First Boot Agent. This, I hoped, would make the install not "bonded" to my hotswap PC before I ever put the HDD back into the C1XS. However it did "bond", and some critical Plug and Play drivers or chipset drivers or SOMETHING made XP crash into a blue screen the second I tried to boot it from the C1XS The WinFLP install CD boots to a customized-for-WinFLP version of WinPE (Windows Preinstallation Environment), no hard drive required. It then proceeds to run setup.exe from within WinPE. I'm trying to get around this (since I can't boot the CD on the target PC) by installing WinFLP's CD contents to a 1gb NTFS partition on the C1XS's hard drive as per this guide: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/883390 I can only do this because I (again) had to hotswap the hard drives in my laptops. So far I got the WinFLP disk to boot off the hard drive just like in MS's guide, and it gets all the way to setup.exe (EXACTLY like direct booting the WinFLP CD) when it says "Setup.exe: Application has generated an exception that could not be handled" Does anyone have any experience with WinPE or BartPE and would know why this would happen? The installer needs .net framework, but I basically cloned the WinFLP CD onto my hard drive so that logically shouldnt be the problem... I mean if it didn't say that error on the CD, why does it say it on the HDD? Oh, and after a really long time searching I have learned that it is futile to try and figure out how to boot from a USB CD when your BIOS doesnt support it. Smart Boot Manager is the closest thing to that, but it only boots non-usb CD's... Thanks

After reading your last post and MS KB , I now know why one can not start hdd install on a different comp. I will not beable to help. Do you have min. requirments of comp ? must have a nic http://www.answers.com/topic/window...