"a i" wrote in message
...
On Sep 14, 1:40 pm, "David WE Roberts" wrote:
Possibly slightly on topic as I am looking for a DIY solution :-)
As usual, posting here because of the wealth of IT knowledge.

Briefly, Windows XP has an historical flaw.
Despite having the underlying capability to handle USB devices at boot
time
it doesn't configure the USB drivers fully until part way through the
boot.
This means that you can start booting from a USB HDD if your BIOS supports
it but XP then does something to USB which means it won't read from a USB
HDD during the critical parts of the boot sequence.
Sadly, the drivers are all there, just not declared in the correct way and
in the correct places of the configuration files and registry.
snip
IIRC I used the method described here the one time I needed to do
this:-

http://preview.tinyurl.com/487zpnn

Sadly AFAICT this uses BartPE which installs a radically cut down version of
XP - designed for the times when the USB flash drives were very small.
I would prefer a full install of XP with the USB issue resolved.

Thanks for the link, though.

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

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