EEEPC Windows XP Installation on USB harddisk, thumbdrive, SD card

I have a EeePC 1000, Linux SSD version. Since EeePC does not come a cdrom, the usual way is installing Windows XP through cdrom will not work.

After research for sometime on the internet, I have found some different fragmented sources about installing XP on this machine. So I will document my whole process of install XP on my EeePC 1000.

You will need an Original Windows XP CD(of course), a spare USB thumbdrive (atleast 1GB), and USB multiboot software. You will be able to install XP using external usb harddisk or SD card.

Follow these steps:

1. Download and unpack usb_multiboot_10.zip to any folder.
   *The path to the folder must be without space, i.e.: "c:\usb_multiboot_10\"
2. Insert your USB thumbdrive.
   *Be sure to backup your data on the thumbdrive, it will be reformatted!
3. Run USB_MultiBoot_10.cmd from the multiboot folder
4. The Format Utility will appear, choose NTFS and start format.
   *If you are doing this from a Vista machine, you may need to run PeToUSB.exe as adminstrator in order for this program to recognize the jump drive.
   *(Right click PeToUSB.exe > Properties > Compatibility > “Run this program as an administrator” checked.)
5. Set options 1 and 2. Set option 0 only if you want to use USB HDD instead of a USB thumbdrive.
6. Choose 3 after setting all other options. It will create the image and write it to the thumbdrive as well as making the thumbdrive bootable.
7. Answer Yes to all questions that come up (these vary depending on options selected).
8. When it finishes copying, remove your usb stick and insert it in the EeePC to install XP.
9. When you turn on the EeePC, hold down “Esc” to choose the boot device and select the USB thumbdrive.
   *You’ll need to do this at each reboot until XP is fully installed and you’ve logged in.
10. Choose Text installation at first time and GUI INSTALLATION AFTER REBOOT TWICE!
    1. Choose step 1 to start installing
    2. After reboot, choose step 2
    3. After reboot, choose step 2 AGAIN to log into XP
       *As soon as you arrive at the Windows XP Desktop you can safely remove the USBStick / SD card.

IMPORTANT! DO NOT REMOVE USB STICK UNTIL YOU SEE XP’s LOGIN SCREEN!

Known Problems

If you get the hal.dll not found error message, start again from your USB-Drive and choose option 2 "Gui-Installation" which should work now.

(If option 2 doesn’t work choose option 4 and "Windows XP from HD" on the next screen.)
Follow the installation process until you reach a usable windows desktop.
The error message is misleading, it’s nothing wrong with your hal.dll
- your boot.ini has a corrupted entry which is easy to fix:

1. Search for boot.ini (normally it’s located on C:\)
2. Open the boot.ini
3. Delete the line that referres to “Windows-USB-Boot” - it should be the last line
4. Save&Exit

Your Eee should now boot Windows normally without the pen drive.