It's no secret that for Linux there are live distributions that allow you to boot from removable media. They are designed for convenient operation on different machines. And what can Microsoft offer about this? Yes, practically nothing. But installing Windows XP on a USB flash drive would be a great option for those who prefer this operating system. Indeed, all new computers and laptops are now preinstalled with Windows 7, and soon a tablet-oriented Windows 8 will be released at all. And here, I installed a USB flash drive and after a couple of minutes my favorite OS was loaded. The people, who are very inventive, have long understood how to install Windows XP on a USB flash drive. Get ready for a fairly complex and lengthy procedure, but also a decent result - a fully functional system running Windows XP on a USB flash drive. Here is the sequence of your actions:
1. First you need to disconnect all internal and external hard drives, as well as all memory cards.
2. Now put the USB flash drive into the system and run the Wndows installer from the boot disk in the "text only" mode, without waiting for the graphic part of the installation.
3. After installation is complete, connect the internal hard drive and boot from it.
4. Using the registry editor (File> Download Hive) we import the SYSTEM registry hive from a USB flash drive called 123 (you can find it: USB drive name: \ Windows \ SYSTEM32 \ Config). Then you need to apply the usbboot.reg patch, which can be easily found through Yandex
5. Now it will be necessary to unload 123 in a regular way.
6. Turn off the internal hard drive and continue installing Wndows on the USB flash drive.
7. As a result, the system boots successfully. Installing Windows XP on a USB flash drive is not so difficult, is it?
8. After installation, you need to convert the USB flash drive so that it is defined as a hard drive. To do this, you need to download the Hitachi Microdrive driver, and also change the contents of the cfadisk.inf file from the driver distribution (put in the cfadisk_install line the device code of our flash drive, obtained from the device manager).
So, the installation of Windows XP on the USB flash drive is completed. Since the flash drive is built on a different principle than the hard drive, it is advisable to configure the system as follows:
1. Disable the swap file. Permanent addition to it from random access memory is useless. This will only reduce the longevity of the media (you remember that flash memory is designed for a much smaller number of read / write cycles than a classic hard drive)
2. Set up the basket - destroy files immediately. The meaning of this is also clear. Still, the flash drive is less voluminous, space must be saved.
3. Disable the "System Restore" service. Firstly, she eats resources for nothing, and secondly, she simply doesn’t need a flash drive. And thirdly, it loads the media with extra hits, lowering the resource.
4. To increase the performance of our system, you can also use the specialized EWF module, which is used on devices that use the built-in version of Windows XP - ATMs, terminals, smart home systems, and so on. This module significantly reduces the number of calls to the hard drive.
This is very convenient when it comes to media based on flash memory and SSD. True, it should be noted that with the advent of more advanced and durable models for SSDs, this statement is no longer relevant. EWF implementation technology is a volatile overlay where applications run. Recording to the hard drive is optional, when you already turn off the terminal. Due to this, excellent performance flash distribution with XP is achieved. A similar technology is implemented in the Linux Puppy Linux distribution. Thus, after setting all the parameters of Windows XP, when the installation of Windows XP has been completed, you can install EWF. By the way, another indisputable advantage of EWF is that the system always remains the same as at the time of installation, unless you want to record to disk. But there is also a small drawback - the area of use of a flash drive with XP will be limited only to a PC with a large amount of RAM (from 1 gigabyte). However, this is not at all a problem for modern PCs, is it?
Perhaps this concludes our educational program, which briefly describes how the installation of Windows XP on a USB flash drive can be done and the distribution settings on a flash drive are given. Of course, you can write more than one publication on this topic, but this is already beyond the scope.