Install Xp On Eeepc

Here's my guide to installing Windows XP on your EEEPC. Alot of credit must go to: http://www.eeeuser.com Firstly, let me just say, that this is the method I used to install it. I've read and seen many other methods to do this. This is just what I did. If you feel there is an easier way, or that a step can be done quicker, feel free to post. Hardware you'll need 1.) A USB memory key. 1GB is recommended, but if your going to use a custom nLite installation of Windows XP, then you can get away with a 512MB one. 2a.) A SD Memory Card. Any size will do, even if you have a 16MB one laying around, that's heaps. (Must be FAT not FAT 32) OR 2b.) A Second USB memory key. Any size. (It should be noted I've only tried this with the SD card option)(Must be FAT not FAT32) 3.) A Windows XP SP 2 Installation CD. Software you'll need 1.) Download physdiskwrite. A small utility to use for creating a boot disk for our XP installation. http://m0n0.ch/wall/physdiskwrite.php 2.) A boot disk image. http://freepctech.com/pc/002/files010.shtml Grab the one called 'MS Windows XP System Setup Disk'. Step 1: Creating a SD boot disk Create a temporary directory on your PC and unzip physdiskwrite.exe into this folder. Using your file compression program (WinRAR, WinZip, 7Zip etc) extract the file "WXPBOOT.IMA" to the same folder as physdiskwrite.exe. NOTE: The wxpboot.exe is not an archive, programs such as WinRAR may throw an error, but still extract at least 'WXPBOOT.IMA'. Insert your SD or your 2nd USB memory key into your PC. Next go to into disk management of your PC by going into: Control Panel --> Administration Tools --> Computer Management --> Disk Management

Make a special note of the drive number (not the letter) of your SD card or USB memory key. Next open a command line and navigate to your temp directory where physdiskwrite.exe is located. Type: physdiskwrite -u wxpboot.ima WARNING: It will list all of your drives and ask you which one you want to write to. BE VERY CAREFUL HERE. You need to make sure you aren't writing to any of your actual hard disks. It should only take a few seconds. This device becomes your 'boot disk'. Step 2: Copying XP to your USB memory key Take your windows XP installation CD and stick it in your DVD/CD drive. Copy the folder 'i386' to your USB key (the first one, not the one you put your boot disk onto). If you are using a standard XP SP2 CD without using nLite, it will be around 550MB to put on. I'd highly encourage anyone doing this to grab nlite at http://www.nliteos.com to cut down the size of your Windows XP size. Remove unwanted or unneeded utilites and applications to save room. (I was able to cut the CD size down to 325MB without to much sacrifice). This USB key becomes our 'Windows Disk'. Step 3: Preparing EEEPC Insert your SD boot disk into the SD card slot, or USB port if it's a memory key. Boot your EEEPC and go into it's bios by hitting F2 when it first switches on. Change 'OS Insallation' to 'Start'. Hit F10 to save and exit. As soon as the EEPC restarts hit escape to load the boot loader. At the memu choose either your SD card if you used that, or the USB mem key. It shouldn't take long and at some point will ask you to hit any key to continue. When you finaly reach a command prompt you should see: 'A:\' Type: fdisk <Enter> When asked if you want to enable large HDD support just hit Y or enter. It should show several non-DOS partitions, and a DOS partition named BIOS. We want to wipe all these. Once you've wiped all three partitions create a new partition DOS partition. Save and exit. Restart your EEEPC (ALT+CTRL+DEL will do the trick here) and boot back into your boot disk again.

This time at the command prompt: Type: format c: /s <Enter> Once it's formated ensure that the boot linux boot loader is gone by typing: Type: fdisk /mbr <Enter> Your SSD should now be bootable to DOS without a boot disk. Step 4: Installing XP Pro Insert your Windows USB memory key into the left hand side USB port . The reason for this is that the boot disk assigns this port as 'D:\'. Reboot your EEEPC back into the boot disk. Once there: Type: d: <Enter> Type: cd i386 <Enter> Type: winnt <Enter> The Windows XP installation should start. The first part will be windows copying temp files to your SSD drive. Windows may ask you where the i386 folder is. Just make it's pointed to the 'D:\i386' directory. When it's finished copying these files and is about to reboot, remove your USB memory key/s, and or SD memory card from the EEEPC as you won't require these anymore. Reboot your EEEPC. You should see a windows boot loader appear that shows: Windows Windows XP Install/Upgrade (Or something to that nature). Just let it boot on it's own, it will automatically start the next phase. Now you should see the normal Windows XP installation start. When it asks you would you like to convert your HDD to NTFS, you should say yes. From that point on, it should be a normal XP installation. Once it's complete and booted into windows the first time, restart the EEEPC, go into the bios by hitting F2 and change 'OS Installation' to 'Finished'. It's recommended to install the ACPI driver, and then the chipset driver before other drivers. Hopefully by this stage your in your fully functioning Windows XP EEEPC! Just remember if you want to return at anytime back to the original image, you can create a new bootable restoration disk from the included EEEPC DVD. pontoy