Install Windows XP on Asus Eee PC
Guide on how to install Windows on Asus Eee PC, how to upgrade and tweak it and play games
Summary
- Introduction
- What do you need
- Creating a bootable USB stick (or hdd)
- Installing Windows XP from the USB stick
- Installing ASUS Eee PC drivers
- ASUS Eee PC Tips and Tricks (hardware & software)
- Article references
In December 2008 i bought online with my credit card (thanks to ePayment) four Asus Eee PCs 4G Surf (two white and two black models) from PCfun. I liked the white ones better so i kept one for myself and the rest i gave them to the family members. Being my first gadget, i was and i'm still very excited about its features. All models come with a friendly linux distro from which you can connect to the Internet very fast. When i got my Eee PC out of the box it took me about 1 to 2 minutes at most to connect to a free wireless network and surf the net. Sweet! I downloaded an MP3 and listened to it just to check the sound and the incorporated speakers from the LCD panel.
I like Linux, but running it as a desktop has no use to me, so i quickly decided to install Windows XP. Let's see how i did it.
PS: most of the tips here might also work with any other desktop or notebook as well.
- your desktop computer (this is NOT your ASUS Eee PC)
- one image or a cd with Windows XP
- a stick (1Gb is fine) or a USB hdd - make sure you don't have partitions on it or you may loose them in the process
- USB Multiboot software (choose one of the following download locations: CD Forum download, BootLand download, Siginet download)
- your ASUS Eee PC later
3. Creating a bootable USB stick or USB hdd
If you are in hurry or know what you are doing but forgot some steps, check out this great video tutorial (go to 02:45 min to skip the chit-chat):
- Extract USB Multiboot and browse USB_MultiBoot_10/ folder and then run USB_MultiBoot_10.cmd
- Press any key
- Type H and press ENTER
- HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool screen will appear. If this does not find your USB device you can format it manually from Windows and press 'Close' or you can go back and try option P. Check 'Quick format' and press 'Start'
- In the multiple option screen press 0 and hit enter to toggle between USB Stick and USB harddisk. This is very important because the Windows XP will not install proper if you have a USB harddisk like this one. The 'USB Stick' medium is selected by default.
- Type 1 and press ENTER and then select the Windows XP source (this is the CD or a path on the HDD where your have your XP installation files)
- If you get a message about 'winnt.sif' press 'YES'
- in the 'Unattended Install' screen fill the fields with values (also with your serial). If you fill the fields now you will not need to complete them later in the Windows XP installation screen. When you're done press 'Cancel (no changes)'
- Type 2 and press ENTER and select your USB device
- Type 3 and press ENTER, you will see some files copying on the USB drive. During this you might be asked 'Copy XP and extra sources on the USB?' and press 'Yes'. Now wait couple of minutes (this depends on your system and USB drive speed). You will also get the message 'FileCopy to USB-Drive is Ready - OK - Success' and press YES (Make USB-stick in XP Setup to be Preferred Boot Drive U:)
- All done just press any key
4. Installing Windows XP from the USB stick
- Connect the USB drive to your ASUS Eee PC
- Start your netbook and in the first screen press F2 to enter BIOS.
- In the BIOS screen go to 'Advanced' tab and change 'OS Installation' to 'Start'.
- Next in the 'Boot' tab under 'Hard Disk Drives' select the USB drive as the 1st Drive
- Also in the 'Boot' tab but under 'Boot Device Priority' section you should see the USB drive as the 1st Boot Device
- 'Exit & Save Changes' made in the BIOS.
The netbook will reboot. You wait couple of seconds and see the following screen:
1. Begin TXT Mode Setup Windows XP, Never unplug USB Drive Until Logon
2. and 3. Continue with GUI Mode Setup Windows XP + Start XP from HD 1
4. Start GRUB4DOS Menu - DOS FPY IMAGES + Linux + XP Rec Cons + VISTA Attended Setup XP, Never unplug USB Drive Until After Logon
You will select 1 and press ENTER. This will start the standard Windows XP setup install (format quick NTFS, create partitions etc). After the setup finished to copy all the files needed it will reboot. Now select 2 and 3 (it's a single tab option). This will continue your installation (the classic graphical Windows install). This might take 20 to 40 minutes. When this is done the netbook will reboot (DO NOT UNPLUG THE USB DEVICE YET!), select the 4th option then the last 'Start/Boot Windows XP from HDD'.
5. Installing ASUS Eee PC drivers
Now you are logged in in Windows XP but you can't do anything because you need the Asus EEPC drivers which can be found on your CD that is shipped with your Asus package. If you don't have the CD then download the drivers from the following locations: RapidShare.de , MegaUpload.com . You will need to unrar the archive and copy it to the stick (create a folder like asuseeepc_drivers/). This folder will contain the following subfolders: ACPI, Audio, Chipset, LAN, Touchpad, vga, Wireless. I suggest you first install the ACPI and Chipset drivers and then the rest. Try to locate the .exe that triggers the installation to start.
6. ASUS Eee PC Tips and Tricks
a. Hardware
There is a big difference between the white and the black models of ASUS Eee PC 4G Surf. The black model Eee PC 4G SURF (4GS-PK008) has a hatch (turn it upside down and you will see it) that allows you to comfortable change the RAM. The white model Eee PC 4G SURF (4GS-W010) lacks of this ability and you will have to disassemble the netbook to upgrade it.
My ASUS Eee PC 4G Surf came with 512Mb of RAM memory and i've succesfuly upgraded it to 2Gb. If you want to upgrade it follow this nice video tutorial.
My ASUS Eee PC 4G Surf came with a solid state HDD with the capacity of 4Gb (this is the internal harddisk). After you install Windows XP you will have around 3 to 2.5 GB left. You can use an external USB drive as a secondary partition and install software, play games, etc. It has to be an USB device with resonable access speed.
If you find browsing with the Touch Pad hard, then i may suggest you go buy the following Microsoft Optical Mouse 500 which i tested and it's tiny, it also has a short cable.
b. Software
I recommend using Windows XP on the ASUS Eee PC with the following settings: System Restore OFF, System Properties -> Advanced tab -> Performance -> Settings -> Visual Effects set to 'Adjust for best performance', here also on the Advanced tab -> Virtual memory change 128 Mb and maximum 256 Mb if you HAD a memory upgrade on the netbook!
Go to Start -> Cmd and in the command prompt type sfc.exe /purgecache. This command does magic, i had 780 mb free space, and after this command i had about 1Gb.
To save space go to C:\WINDOWS\Driver Cache\i386 and delete all the files. You can do the same with the files and folders from C:\WINDOWS\Downloaded Installations when you're done installing software on your Asus Eee PC. Eg. If you install Dreamweaver 8 you will probabil find there a folder called Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 with the main .exe installer and some other files.
Make sure you disabled the system restore from My Computer -> System Restore tab
If you ever install a SHDC card on your netbook i adivse you to format it to NTFS. By default they come in FAT format. It's simple, and you cand do it on the fly without loosing data that is already written on the card: Go to Command Prompt and insert convert E: /fs:ntfs . Replace E: with the letter drive of your card. It can take up to a minute, depending on the card speed.
I was able to run Heroes3 Complete series directly from an external USB device. In the game you will have a small scroll on the bottom of the screen but that will not bother your on this kind of static games. I also played this game wireless with other ASUS Eee PC (now that's a dream come true!)
I was able to run Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 (download here) being installed on C: and running the .vhd (663Mb) and .vmc (12kb) directly from stick. I installed Windows 98SE, mounted Hopkins FBI game and succesfully played it.
I have succesfuly played Starcraft BroodWar on my ASUS Eee PC. I ran it directly from an attached USB stick, also played on BattleNet dozens of games. If already bought Starcraft but want a light version, download this one (100mb) from theabyss.eu.
When you are watching movies on Youtube with Firefox it is recommended to go in Full-Screen mode by pressing F11 or go to 'View' -> 'Full Screen'
If you want to read Word, Excel or Powerpoint files on your Asus Eee PC, download the following free applications from Microsoft's site: Microsoft Word Viewer 2003, Microsoft Excel Viewer 2003, Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 2003. Note that you can only read, not write! For that you need the Microsoft Office CD or iso.
c. General
Never lift the Eee PC by the display panel
Fully charge the battery before first use and whenever it is depleted to prolong battery life. Be aware that it takes much longer to charge the battery when the Eee PC is in use.
On the lower right of your Eee PC keyboard you will see four LED indicators: 
Power indicator, 
Battery Charge Indicator, 
Solid State Disk (SSD) indicator and 
Wireless indicator. When the Battery Charge Indicator blinks that means that the battery is less than 10% and AC power is not connected.
It is actually not recommended to use your Eee PC on soft surfaces as beds or sofas because it blocks the vents and the bottom of the netbook can get hot. For example if you let it in your bed and you are watching a movie, you might hear a little noise of fans increasing the speed of ventilation - this is normal.
If you want to use you Eee PC with a projector you can use the 15-pin D-sub monitor port, located on the right side, which supports standard VGA devices.
Your Eee Pc has three USB 2.0 slots and 1 memory card slot. This will allow you to attach removable devices such:
- USB mouse
- USB external optical disk drive
- USB external hard disk drive
- USB flash memory disk
- MMC (Multimedia Card)
- MMC Plus
- RS-MMC (Reduced Size) (with MMC adapter)
- SD (Secure Digital)
- MiniSD (with SD adapter)
- microSD
- SD adapter
Comments
This works great! Thanks for the tutorial!!
hi, everery thing worked as i hoped, until the installation on my eee pc.
when i enter txt mode it should copy all files but then it says:
setup cannot copy file: difault.dif
i could press exit to skip it, but it doesn't work, since some time later i get the pop-up only with another file.
would you know the cause of this problem?
by the way: i used windows service pack 3 ultimate.
and i have a eee pc 900 (black)
please respond.
@Max - what is the size of your USB device? Is it a USB stick or a USB hdd?
Did you formated the drive as NTFS? I would also suggest on using a Windows SP2 cd or iso and then update it online.
Hi,
I've tried to instal windows xp sp2 on my asus eee pc 900(white), but the installation keeps getting an error about an missing or corrupt hal.dll file in windowsrootmap/system32.
I've followed each step precicly as described, and even tried to manually copy the hal.dll. no succes either.
please help
ramin
If you get hal.dll error after installing Windows XP then check comment #14 on http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=20018
Please ignore my previous comment. Somehow I did not realize that the "comment #14" Josh referred to meant that I should have deleted *all* the partitions Asus set up, including the one they labeled "BIOS." That was indeed the problem.
I have the same problem as Ramin. I had sent my 8G in for repairs and they reimaged it in Linux, so I tried following all the above instructions, including copying the files from the same slipstreamed WinXP-SP3 CD I had used first time around. When I get to "Now select 2 and 3 (it's a single tab option)" I get the error that "<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll" is missing or corrupt. I tried re-copying it to that location on the USB stick but no change. What of I do now?
Very useful and detailed. Thanks very much!
Hi, cool post. I have been wondering about this topic,so thanks for writing.
Great post! Just wanted to let you know you have a new subscriber- me!
hi
tuturial is great and i have installed xp successfully but it asks for a password at the startup under a guest
i would appriciate any help thnx
Hey my computer keeps saying NTLDR is missing press any key to restart but it wont restart ?? please help any ideas?
I was having this same issue. After having the PC for 1 day, it went into sleep mode, and when I tried to restart it, it kept giving me the "hal.dll" error. For the last 6 days I've been trying every google remedy for this, from running the restore dvd to creating a bootable usb drive, but to no avail. I FINALLY figured out what to do to fix it! Maybe this will work for you...
1. Just deleting the partitions isnt enough. There seems to be something else missing that isnt displayed when trying to delete them.
2. I had an Acronis Disk Image boot CD that I tried in my external drive. There is a drive cleaner/partition remover on it, and I tried running that. It took about 20 minutes to completely run on both ssd drives, but after it was done, I reran the restore dvd, and everything works flawlessly now!
Its as good as the day I got it!! Hope this tip helps someone else out.
had xp media center installed on an Eee PC 4g surf for a while now and itruns smooth after some initial tweeking. the problem that I am having is thatto date, i have never been able to get thesound drivers to work. I tried installing them from the dic, via a usb cd/dvd rom. tried installingvia a usb memory stick, and tried downloading from various sites.
Everything seems to install fine, but the drivers never seem to work, and in control panel, it tells me that there is no installed sound device. I can't get anything out of the speakers or headphone jack.
Very good. Thank you.
very good post. The ASUS user manual came with instructions for installing XP from a disk but not from a USB flash drive. Thanks for taking time and also for the links to all the drivers and usb flash utility. I used a 4gig data traveller with no problems. Also upgraded the RAM by opening up my white EEE pc as per the youtube video link, although the plastic tabs were a pain to unsnap. I used a large needle, did it very gently but still managed to snap one plastic tab. Anyhoo, everything works great, upgraded to 1 gig RAM and win xp sp2. service pack 3 didn't install due to lack of disk space. I'll try installing it from a usb stick again. Thanks once again for the great post.
acuma am instalat si eu xp pe un asus eeepc 900 si merge de tuna ii foarte tare thanks a lot for you post! you are great
Am instalat si eu xp-ul pe un assus eeepc 900ha si a mers ca uns.Am instalat si SP3 pe el si nu am avut probleme deloc. MULTUMIRILE DE RIGOARE pentru tutorial si pentru video.
Si acum pentru baietii destepti.....Thanks a lot! This works great! Thanks for the tutorial and for all :-) !!
can you put windows xp on my asus eee pc 4GB. for me i will bring ti to you send me a email to tell me ware and i will met you. i cod not do it my self can you help me pleeeeease
Done and done, excellent guide!
Excellent. Thanks a lot.
Thanks a lot! It took 4 hours (usb is super slow) butI got it up and running no problem. The wife (it was a gift for her) is especially happy she was not feeling that Xandros distro.
hey great manuak yiu just saved me lots of money, I followed it up ... hey .. I di this but at the end f the day I've realized that the netbook comes with a DVa that migh fix this recurrent issue.
My feedvack is : please tell the peope that if they have te dvd would be eaier.
Thanks!
hi... pleeeeease can someone offer any help please... I recently had windows xp installed on my sons eee 701, and now I have no space left on drive C for anything. I've got an 8GB SDHC, and also plugged a 16GB usb flash drive in, and though I moved a few files over onto those it still hasnt helped the lack of space problem... I may be missing something really obvious here, but I admit to being totally clueless with computers. I cant download certain programmes, cant install windows updates, and its driving me mad. I had windows xp installed by someone who claimed to know what they were doing, and now I'm regretting it big time... how easy is it to reinstall the linux OS, or is there a clear and simple solution staring me in the face that I just havent thought of? Any help or advice would be hugely appreciated... big thanks in advance! =]
Hi Could anyone help I have the 4g Surf pink (701).
I tried to install from usb and it failed so I then tried via cd using my usb Dvd drive.
It installs windows restarts i go to bios put to finish save and exit it then starts to boot and I get cannot find Ntdlr.
Any help I would appreciate.
Thank you
Great tutorial!! Thx.
Great tutorial thanks!,
Could someone help me?
i installed Xp and everything, but i dont know how to connect it to my wireless network..
thanks
My 1.3 mega pixels camera is not regestering to the computer -it can not be found in "scanners and cameras". How do I reinstall it?
It's working! I succeded to install xp from a flash drive to eeepc 1005ha, n280 with hyperthreading.
After windows installation, update all drivers from the cd i received when i purchased the notebook. everything is working fine.
I even installed windows 7 on it and it's also worked perfectly.
The only thing is I have a menu when I opened the notebook with 2 choices :
Start XP or repair it from usb, how do I remove that menu ?
thanks for your help!
1. Start in Win XP
2. Browse to C:\boot.ini -> Double click Boot.ini
3. File -> Save as Boot.ini.old -> Close Boot.ini.old (Just in case!)
4. Double Click Boot.ini again
5. delete entire line which says "USB Repair Not..."
6. File -> Save
7. Reboot
this is what im looking for!!!! more power to you men!
i bought my asus eeepc 4g surf w/ xp on it so i did not experienced linux..
my netbook had a virus so i reformated it.. after the reformat my screen wont fit the lcd panel.. you can only see 3/4 parts so you have to scroll down the mouse to see the other 1/4.. any tips on how to solve this kind of problem? btw after the reformat the netbook was acting crazyl.. 1 more thing the (FN)+f1 to f12 etc does not work after the reformat.. strange too..
I have an eee pc runing linux, some programs I want to use will not run on llinux, I would like to reformat will a 4g solid state drive be big enough to take xp
Not really. Try http://www.litepc.com/ or search Google for 'Windows XP USB flash edition'.
HELP!!!!
I am tryng to reinstall with USB Multiboot, and am ready to do so - but I cannot find the OS Installation option in my Asus Eeepc (1001HHA) BIOS Advanced section.
The only options displayed are:
IDE Configuraton
Onboard Devices Configuration
and
CPU Configuraton
Please H E L P!!!!!!!!!!
Hello,
I don't think that is needed on 1001HHA. You just have the USB prepared with Windows, find in BIOS -> Boot devices, put USB on 1st place. Reboot, and install.
I am guessing you are now on the 'Advanced' tab. You need to go to 'Boot'. Don't forget to save the settings.
Top instructions. Everything was easy to follow and worked first time.
I'm Stuck! I'm in that step where everything is supposed to be installing. "installing windows" is half way through and now I have this pop up windows saying "files needed" : some files on Windows XP Professional CD2 are need.
Insert Windows XP Professional CD2 into the drive selected below, and the click ok
Ofcourse is a a netbook, what do I do know, what are the files that I need to save on a new flash drive?
Hello,
Have you created your bootable USB following the steps described at: '3. Creating a bootable USB stick or USB hdd'. If yes i would recommend you to download a Win XP PRO .iso file from torrent, and not install one that requires multiple CDs.
YOU ROOOOOOCK MEEEN !perfect !!win xp!!
Thanks for this great tutorial men..i really enjoyed it and felt like making my pc useable!i have only one little problem.everything works fine but usb 2.0 drivers are not installed even after alla the drivers i installed.is there something special to do about it??
Salut...Frate tutorialul este de nota 10 dar am o problema,dupa ce selectez 1 de la punctul 4 imi arata ca setup is starting windows....dar ramane asa...practic se blocheaza.
whoosha...just the JOB
however I format my usb stick in command prompt say me that stick is not volid fat,fa32 or ntfs and he do not recognized.How I format this?? Thanks
What model do you have?
Try this from the command line
CONVERT E: /FS:NTFS - with E: being your USB drive
the PetoUSB didn't recognize my Flash Disk..
it always says.."NO USB DISK FOUND!"
wat should i do?..
try to select usb hard disk instead of usb stick that wil do
the PetoUSB didn't recognize my Flash Disk..
it always says.."NO USB DISK FOUND!"
wat should i do?..
Hi dude use winflash to make your usb pendrive xp installer. Ive used this program to make both a SD card and also a flash pen drive xp installer its very easy to use too. Hope this helps you regards Richard Quadrant
run PetoUSB as administrator.
Thank you very much. Very comprehensive and concise instructions. Progressing through the install now.
i really want to install windows xp from my linux cz i dont like it i aint got hardly anything to be honest just the laptop and i just dont know what to do so would u send a email to me so i know u got this message
When I try to boot with the USB I see this:
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \system32\hal.dll
Any idea what I did wrong? I created the USB image as per above..no problems.
In Bios check that your device order is USB-SSD-Others. And boot order has to be USB-xxx-xxx.
I had a SD-memory in the slot and it caused problems with installation (it was second device after USB-stick before I moved it to the last).
Also like in other threats they say: at the begining of installation, delete ALL partitions from SSD.
Remember to start the 2And3 GUI installation after TXT-version is finished.
same problem here
When I run the multiboot it tells me a file is missing and when I hit any key it closes that's it.
Thanks for the video. It helped me a lot.
when i'm on the copying files, it will took me almost 10 mins every percent, why is that it is so slow. my eeepc is asus 701. Thanks in Advance
I followed your instructions but am unable to get the machine to boot from the usb drive.
All help appreciated
You just made my day! You are my hero! I've been looking for these instructions for the past two years. Thanks a lot!
Successfully installed XP Pro from original source disc - easy though it took quite a while, but worked perfectly. Xandros was OK but a pain if one had to install anything extra & virtually no printer support. XP may have its limits but it makes the '900 into a really great little machine !
Hi, I have a eeePC 4G that I really want to install XP. Having trouble doing this. When I try to boot from the USB stick, I only get a black screen with blinking cursor. nothing else happens. I changed the BIOS to start OS installation and the boot sequence and priority to the USB drive. I would appeciate any help you could provide.
Extract USB Multiboot and browse USB_MultiBoot_10/ folder and then run USB_MultiBoot_10.cmd CHECK+ok
Press any key CHECK+ok
Type H and press ENTER CHECK+ok
HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool screen will appear. If this does not find your USB device you can format it manually from Windows and press 'Close' or you can go back and try option P. Check 'Quick format' and press 'Start' CHECK+ok
In the multiple option screen press 0 and hit enter to toggle between USB Stick and USB harddisk. This is very important because the Windows XP will not install proper if you have a USB harddisk like this one. The 'USB Stick' medium is selected by default. CHECK+ok
Type 1 and press ENTER and then select the Windows XP source (this is the CD or a path on the HDD where your have your XP installation files) CHECK+ok
If you get a message about 'winnt.sif' press 'YES'
in the 'Unattended Install' screen fill the fields with values (also with your serial). If you fill the fields now you will not need to complete them later in the Windows XP installation screen. When you're done press 'Cancel (no changes)' CHECK+ok
Type 2 and press ENTER and select your USB device CHECK+ok
Type 3 and press ENTER, error !!!!
It says there is no NTFS nor FAT 32 and I did the above correct. Than I also formatted NTFS straight from windows. Same error keeps coming
you will see some files copying on the USB drive. During this you might be asked 'Copy XP and extra sources on the USB?' and press 'Yes'. Now wait couple of minutes (this depends on your system and USB drive speed). You will also get the message 'FileCopy to USB-Drive is Ready - OK - Success' and press YES (Make USB-stick in XP Setup to be Preferred Boot Drive U:)
All done just press any key
done everything step by step making bootable usb 4gb drive and win xp home. it starts copying files to the eeepc and half way through i get a check for disk space error, check for hardware bios updates *** stop bunch of hex numbers and below that a pci.sys addresws hex numbers. it does not give me the option to format or partition before copying files so my guess is that the SSD is full. how can i format manually before OS instalation.
did you find any solution. i have the same problem.
thanks
Please help....I have the Asus Eee pc seashell series and can't figure out how to turn off numbers on keyboard letter keys? J is 1 when I try to type! I've tried the number lk key and it doesn't work! Also tried caps lock! ???
can i just say, ive been trying to do this for approx 7 weeks now and failed humptine times, today i came across this, you are the man! perfect and if you was here now i would give you a big sloppy kiss, thanks very much xx
Heya... im gettin stuck at the part where im supposed to choose the drive where it will be installed, when i press 2 and choose my drive all i get is: G: has NOT FAT FAT32 or NTFS Format and is not VALID. yes its formatted tried to both FAT 32 and NTFS and i still get this messgae,even tried switching it to Usb Hdd and still nothing... any advice would be nice :)
I have the same problem , I thought for a while that my USB stick doesn't support booting , till I found a product called flashboot , it is perfect it worked fine with my flash , so seems the solution presented here has some comptability issues with many types of flash drives. but I'm not sure of that also , my proof is that my very same flash drive is now bootable using flashboot
Will this work with a SD card? Please reply.
Please please , I always get this error "has NOT FAT FAT32 or NTFS Format and is NOT Valid" , I tried several USB stick types , I also tried USB harddisk , but nothing is working, I tried all format tools with all types of file system , how can I solve that ?
I have an asus Eee PC (T101MT) ghtablet/notebook with a corrupted win 7 starter.
I followed your instr except: Advanced tab has no OS Installation? it has: ide config, onboard dev config, and cpu config.
in the boot hard disk drives shows 1-usb: sandisk cruzer 2-HDD.
however boot dev priority shows 1-remov and 2-USB san cruzer, 3-atapi cd rom (none).
under this config there is NO HDD??
when i make san curzer drive 1, it boots to win 7?? or wants to install to usb cruzer?
your help would be appreciated. thanks
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