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Title.

I'm aware that practically no USB-booter like Rufus or whatever works for some reason, but E2B does... but is there any way to modify the XP x64 ISO to natively USB-boot?

Well XP 64 setup should be the same as the counter part, so i highly doubt that would be possible. If you want to install XP via USB, E2B is the way to go.

Various people have tried converting XP into .wim format, which could allow installation from USB.

R3n wrote: ↑24 Jan 2021, 04:12 Various people have tried converting XP into .wim format, which could allow installation from USB.

Fair enough, that seems like the way to go for XP x64. Are there any known issues if anyone has tried it?

Compa wrote: ↑25 Jan 2021, 14:00

R3n wrote: ↑24 Jan 2021, 04:12 Various people have tried converting XP into .wim format, which could allow installation from USB.

Fair enough, that seems like the way to go for XP x64. Are there any known issues if anyone has tried it?

Don't know, haven't really looked into it.

Compa wrote: ↑25 Jan 2021, 14:00 Fair enough, that seems like the way to go for XP x64. Are there any known issues if anyone has tried it?

All i can say is good luck, because it's not at all natively bootable from a USB; better use another way, you will save yourself from a constant headache.

I guess that solves the question then. A bigger question would be 'why isn't it natively bootable and why did MS decide to deliberately sabotage USB booting for x64 XP?' but I wonder if that can even be theoretically answered, let alone accurately.

After a bit of thought, the narrative didn't flow the way I thought it did; in 1996, USB 1.0 released and windows 95 (Of all things) supported it. With that in mind, I think what I said above is probably false. I didn't get around installing XP on the local machine as of yet sadly so i can't really confirm or deny; but some really did suffer just by the process of installing it, heard it has something to do with the ACPI i believe.

You mean installing Windows XP x64 from USB? I do that all the time with WinSetupFromUSB. I prefer USB installs of NT 5.x for the most part, and if the drive is formatted NTFS it will be considerably faster than from CD/DVD. The only caveat is that it seems to fail with non-ACPI HALs, but those aren't a thing with XP x64.

Is it possible that you attempted USB setup from a Dell machine?

Yup, an OptiPlex 3010, and a 390. Both of which return 'no bootable device' (unless E2B is used of course but that sort of defeats the purpose of a 'natively bootable XP x64 setup from USB' given it seems to install FiraDisk Enumerator which... I don't exactly want if I'm doing a clean install of an OS...)

What I'm mainly trying to figure is why you can't simply write to the USB like with x86 XP and every other x64 Windows, instead requiring a 'loader' like E2B or WinSetupFromUSB. Seems to be an issue for XP x64 specifically, which implies to me that... either nothing has been written to support its bootloader booting from USB, or Microsoft deliberately sabotaged USB booting support for it specifically for whatever reason.

Compa wrote: ↑29 Jan 2021, 11:58 Seems to be an issue for XP x64 specifically, which implies to me that... either nothing has been written to support its bootloader booting from USB, or Microsoft deliberately sabotaged USB booting support for it specifically for whatever reason.

I'm gonna go with that. MS likely didn't want to allow support, or there was/is a known conflict between file systems on the OptiPlex hardware/drivers. Hard to say without trying it myself. I still have a few retired XP oriented OptiPlex systems at work, two 390's and one 960. Maybe one day.

EDIT: I noticed "Compa" won't be writing many replies in the near future, but it was an interesting concept.

Iceman wrote: ↑19 May 2021, 06:34

Compa wrote: ↑29 Jan 2021, 11:58 Seems to be an issue for XP x64 specifically, which implies to me that... either nothing has been written to support its bootloader booting from USB, or Microsoft deliberately sabotaged USB booting support for it specifically for whatever reason.

I'm gonna go with that. MS likely didn't want to allow support, or there was/is a known conflict between file systems on the OptiPlex hardware/drivers. Hard to say without trying it myself. I still have a few retired XP oriented OptiPlex systems at work, two 390's and one 960. Maybe one day.

EDIT: I noticed "Compa" won't be writing many replies in the near future, but it was an interesting concept.

For reference, I'm Compa. Welcome to the board, btw

Kouto wrote: ↑19 May 2021, 07:36 For reference, I'm Compa. Welcome to the board, btw

Ahh! Thank you very much, a pleasure to be here

Iceman wrote: ↑20 May 2021, 03:36

Kouto wrote: ↑19 May 2021, 07:36 For reference, I'm Compa. Welcome to the board, btw

Ahh! Thank you very much, a pleasure to be here

No prob, unlike other places we're more laid back about off topic and banter/chatter in threads.


(Also, I absolutely had to make a Mega Man reference, I'm sorry XD)

I had forgotten about this topic. But the Dell thing is quite important in this case. For NT 5.x setup to "find" the install USB, you need a modified NTDETECT.COM. My situation is a bit messy these days (temporarily moved and relying on a win10 machine for Internet access) so it will take a bit before I can find it but it is essential.

Warning: don't use this modified NTDETECT if you're installing Windows 2000 on an HP PC. It will have no problems finding USB devices but not HDDs. Worked OK on my ThinkPad T60 however (albeit unnecessary).

That's extremely interesting.
(I wondered why Rufus treated it as non-bootable, guess it's intended to prevent issues on their GitHub tracker)