Booting XP from a USB drive.

First of all we need is a USB flash drive with a capacity of at least of 512MB.Now we have to format the drive using the FAT 32 or FAT 16 depending on the configuration of the BIOS. Then enter a name for the volume label. Then copy the boot.iniand NTDETECT.COM files from the windows directory to the flash drive.
Second step is to create a folder and insert your windows setup CD into the drive and copy whole CD into the new folder. In order to produce an exact copy of windows XP we need a utility called “NLite”.We need to install .NET Framework to install NLite. Now run NLite and select the new folder we have created in the second step as the root folder and click on “Next “after it completes reading the folder until we reach “Task Selection”. Activate the options for Service Pack and hot fixes.Inorder to reduce the file size remove all “unnecessary” files which is highlighted as safe for deletion.NLite just creates a minimized copy of XP. In order to create a bootable version of XP we need another tool called “Bart’s PE”. After installing Bart’s PE run “PEBuilder” and make sure that USB flash drive is plugged in and select the folder we have created in the second step as the source and deactivate the “Create Iso” and “Burn to CD option”. Click on the build option as windows is ready to boot from a USB flash drive.
Note: To include some useful tools like Firefox then follow these steps. First of all download the plug-in for the utility you want to install and copy it to the Plug-in folder of your Bart’s PE Installation. There are plug-in for other applications too. Just activate the plug-in for the tools you want to install. Read the help file associated with each plug-in which describes how to install that plug-in.