Skip to main content

How to create a bootable USB drive with Windows XP Recovery Console

The Windows XP Recovery Console can be brought up in three ways.

  1. From Windows XP installation disc
  2. By installing the Recovery Console to the hard disk so that it’s always handy
  3. By creating a bootable USB flash drive with the Recovery Console in it

The second method I already described. Let’s find out how to do the third, that is, create a Recovery Console bootable flash drive.

For this you will need a tool called USB Recovery Console. Actually, the USB Recovery Console contains just a batch script and some other files. The actual tool that does the formatting and creating of the bootable USB drive is the HP USB Dos format tool, which is not included with the package because it’s copyrighted by HP. This tool will be downloaded from HP’s website, so it’s necessary to have an active Internet connection before you start.

1. After you have downloaded USB Recovery Console, unzip the contents of the package. Right-click on mkrecovery.cmd and click Edit. This will open the batch script in your default text editor.

2. Near the beginning of the file you will find these lines:

SET USBDRV=R:
SET XPSRC=C:\XPSP2\I386

3. Replace “R” with the drive letter Windows assigns to your removable USB flash drive. Change C:\XPSP2\I386 to X:\I386, where X is the drive letter of your optical drive. Save the file.

4. Insert Windows XP’s setup disc into the optical drive, but do not run setup. Exit the installation when it starts.

5. Double click on the modified mkrecovery.cmd to run it.

usb-recovery-console1

6. During the process it will download the HP USB Dos format tool and launch the setup file. Install this tool just like any other software.

hp-usb-format

7. Finally, you will get a “Completed Okay” message.

usb-recovery-console2

Your USB pen drive is now ready to boot into Windows Recovery Console. Whenever you need to enter Recovery Console, just plug the pen drive into the computer and boot from it.

Comments

  1. This seems to be really good but, the link to download the USB Recovery Console is responding this .: "Service Unavailable"

    Any mirror ?¿

    Tks... ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. pls use this http://kupluk2.blogspot.com/2009/11/adding-xp-recovery-console-to-boot-menu.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for your help dude, but could you or some good soul give us a link to the Win XP CD.
    There is loads of us out here who own netbooks and we just use usb.
    Thanks in advance people.

    ReplyDelete
  4. hp usb is nolonger available I get a 404 error when the dos script runs

    ReplyDelete
  5. download the hp tool and manually install it then run mkrecovery.cmd the program will do the rest

    ReplyDelete
  6. The HP tool is now included in the download.
    Check the site for the latest version

    ReplyDelete
  7. Getting messages as it runs down to the following:
    "Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes.
    making ~bt folder ..
    copying boot files to USB drive ..
    1 file copied.
    ntldr not found
    ERROR!!
    press any key to continue . . . "

    I checked and there is no ntldr file on my WinXP Pro CD which is placed in the DVD-ROM drive.

    I've looked at the DOS commands and figure the .cmd file goes south trying to fetch the ntldr file.

    Any suggestions?

    ReplyDelete
  8. method doesn't work! Tried on several computers it and with two different xp cd's both sp3 it will just say "The process entry point...... could not be located in the dynamic link ulib.dll" and if you skip the format.com bit the there is another error Access Denied on the disk

    ReplyDelete
  9. https://www.virustotal.com/file/bb3c2d47828dd095c9d243590e5d38bc9b4c5f184d95d6dcfb7e32148cf5a49d/analysis/1338869928/

    Several anti-virus programs claim this has a virus.

    ReplyDelete
  10. If you want to use this on Windows 7/Vista, change line:

    SYSTEM\$TEMP\format.com %USBDRV% /FS:FAT /q /u /backup /v:ETOOLS /x

    to this:

    format.com %USBDRV% /FS:FAT /q /u /backup /v:ETOOLS /x

    If you don't do this you will get an error like some previous comment mentions.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I get this when I press any key:
    Checking USB drive E: ..
    Checking XP source ..
    Checking required files ..
    ERROR!!
    Press any key to continue . . .
    By pressing the key the window shuts down and nothing happens...

    ReplyDelete
  12. Spaigia,
    that error occurs when you havent correctly modified the source location for the xp disk.
    Steps 1-5

    ReplyDelete
  13. The default file is currently set to xpsp3, so if yours is 2, it will also have to be changed. It can't find a file that doesn't exist.

    I have noticed that the message will also occur when it's looking for xpsp anything on an older original that predates the xpsp file. Which is my current hangup and question. Do I just delete that part or ?

    ReplyDelete
  14. I tried this, although it make the USB bootable, after i choose the Recovery Option, i was not able to use any of the commands like chkdsk, fixboot.
    It just freezes and it stall, i had to reset everytime it does that.
    Someone prove me wrong.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Record CPU and Memory Usage Over Time in Windows?

Whenever the computer is lagging or some application is taking too long to respond, we usually fire up task manager and look under the Performance tab or under Processes to check on processor utilization or the amount of free memory available. The task manager is ideal for real-time analysis of CPU and memory utilization. It even displays a short history of CPU utilization in the form of a graph. You get a small time-window, about 30 seconds or so, depending on how large the viewing area is.

How to Schedule Changes to Your Facebook Page Cover Photo

Facebook’s current layout, the so called Timeline, features a prominent, large cover photo that some people are using in a lot of different creative ways. Timeline is also available for Facebook Pages that people can use to promote their website or business or event. Although you can change the cover photo as often as you like, it’s meant to be static – something which you design and leave it for at least a few weeks or months like a redesigned website. However, there are times when you may want to change the cover photo frequently and periodically to match event dates or some special promotion that you are running or plan to run. So, here is how you can do that.

Diagram 101: Different Types of Diagrams and When To Use Them

Diagrams are a great way to visualize information and convey meaning. The problem is that there’s too many different types of diagrams, so it can be hard to know which ones you should use in any given situation. To help you out, we’ve created this diagram that lays out the 7 most common types of diagrams and when they’re best used: