Vista - USB Bootable Vista Installation Flash Thumb Drive

Yep, frrom within the "Computer" window.

I'm currently running Vista Ultimate 32 but I'm getting a new PC on Monday and want to install 64 bit. I have both discs that came with Vista. Anyways I'm formatting a 16 gig USB flash drive and I just tried doing the C:\>i:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt60 l: command and got...

This version of i:\boot\bootsect.exe is not compatible with the version of Windows you're running. Check your computer's system information to see whether you need a x86 (32-bit) or x64 (64-bit) version of the program, and then contact thesoftware publisher.

Anyway around this?

Thanks

Ugh, I see that you can't now that I read closer. Anyway I could boot from the 64 bit disk and get to a recovery console and type that command to make the USB flash drive bootable that way?

UPDATE: I booted off the Vista 64 disc and did a recovery. I went to a cmd prompt and ran that command again. Of course the drive letters were different so I had to look for them.. It told me access was denied but it said it successfully made it a boot drive. I booted back into Vista 32 and copied the 64 bit files over to the flash drive. I booted off the flash drive and it began the install process so I cut out. I think I'm all set for Monday!

Hello Kamakzie, and welcome to Vista Forums.

I'm happy to hear that it seems that you have sorted your problem out. Thank you for sharing your results.

Shawn

I'll let you know if it works tomorrow when I install on the new PC.

Umm I might be lost but I think you could help me out. I am running Vista Home 32bit on my laptop and want to create a bootable USB thumb drive containing XP-Pro to put on my netbook.
So I have an XP-Pro CD actual CD and a .ISO of it, I want to use my Vista laptop to prep the USB, then copy the files over.
So far I have followed these steps:

1. diskpart
2. select disk 1 (your primary hard drive is denoted disk 0)
3. clean
4. create partition primary
5. select partition 1
6. active
7. format fs=fat32
8. assign
9. exit

I downloaded bootsect.exe and placed it in my Vista \windows\system32\ directory.
Next I ran cmd-line> bootsect /nt52 :J

I know that the Vista forums say run /nt60 :J however the XP-Pro advise says use /nt52 :J . I feel that my situation is slightly unique and I'm a little confused on which is correct.

Now I'm copying all the data from my XP CD to the thumb drive using Copy -> Paste in Vista. I'm a little concerned my flash drive might be bad because it is only transfering at 450kb/sec, => 3.5hrs to go.


Is there a better way to do this ?

hmm.
After copying all the files over and restarting I got the following error: "NTLDR missing".

What am I doing wrong.
Thanks
-Brian

A Vista 7?

LOL, nice catch GaMt.

I was doing some updating, and copying over some stuff from our Windows 7 version of this. Guess what I missed while editing.

Fixed.

Thank you,
Shawn

hehe.. :P
nice guide btw. Though I'm not sure if theres a txt version of the install?
Because I tried to install it on another computer, and well the video card sucks on that one, and everything else on it :P
Slower then dial up hehe

I'll try Ubuntu next.

Hi Shawn,
new to the forum. So is it possible to prep my XP install using this method or does running bootsect from a c:\ containing vista specifically prep the USB for Vista.
I tried the tutorial and got "ntldr not found" instead of xp setup screen I was hoping for.
Thanks
-Brian