HELP ME, before I kill it!

Hi Guys...

I'm at the end of my rope! I want to install Windows XP onto a thumb drive so that I can simply boot off the drive when I need Windows via the F12 option at startup. I have an 8GB thumb drive, my Windows XP install, with SP3, my external DVD drive, etc.

When I try to install, I select the thumb drive, which is FAT32 formatted. When I try to install to it, it says that the volume is not XP compatible, and cannot be installed to. I have tried everything - I have reformatted, partioned and repartitioned, and nothing is working.... What the heck is going on?

Please help - I really need this to work for my job.

PS: I also downloaded the .zip files of the AAO specific drivers from the Acer website - what do I do with these, assuming I ever can install this bloody operating system.

Thanks - I really need the help!

 

I think that you are deleting the wrong partition from the drive. or, probably one of the Acer's Engineerers messing around with the drive. They'd probably think that it is funny that they write protect the hard drive.

 

XP officially does not support being installed on USB drives, let alone being portable.

Of course, there are ways around that. TinyXP for instance - though that is illegal. BartPe based builds are legal, but tend to be relatively crippled. Might want to take a look at them - I personally like ubcd4win.

BartPE: http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
UBCD4WIN: http://www.ubcd4win.com/