In this blog I posted the things that I used that I think is necessary for simplicity of use.
1. Prerequisites:
All you need is:
> a USB Flash Drive with at least 1GB of storage or an external HDD*
> the original Windows XP Setup CD
> BartPE program creator
2. Preparing BartPE
> use PEbuilder and build the file only not an ISO
> while the file is being processed let,s go to the usb drive. NOTE: Make sure you have no important files on the usb drive for it's content is to be erased!
> let's use the HP format tool button to format the usb drive.
> on the HP format tool only use fat32 filesystem or the system will not boot.
> when the build is finished copy all the files to the newly formatted usb drive
> rename i386 directory to minint
> copy setupldr.bin and ntdetect.com from the renamed i386 directory to root directory or you can download all the boot files from here
> rename setupldr.bin to ntldr
> create a boot.ini file containing the ff:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\minint
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\minint="XPE" /fastdetect
3. Making it bootable
> we'll gonna use the bootfiles in the Vista installer (so better have one)
> use diskpart to make the partition active (see my other posts regarding diskpart)
> then use bootsect.exe in the vista installer.
ex: bootsect /nt52 d:
> after seeing that there is no error on the updating of the bootcode it should be bootable now.
note:
* not all HDD can be used as a bootable drive
