Windows XP 64-bit Installation

Windows XP 64-bit requires specific XP 64-bit drivers. Windows XP is now 20 years old and the last release of XP 64-bit SP1 was in 2009. Because manufacturers had to release two sets of drivers for XP (32-bit and 64-bit) and because XP 64-bit was not popular and has many limitations, very few modern 64-bit XP drivers are available. XP 64 was really only intended to be used for specific applications requiring more than 4 GiB of RAM, it was not intended as a ‘consumer’ desktop OS. 

Easy2Boot uses the DriverPack.net set of Mass Storage Drivers, but there is no 64-bit XP Mass Storage Driver pack available for 10 year-old, or more recent, systems. 

For this reason, you can only install XP 64-bit ISOs using Easy2Boot if the Mass Storage Drivers are already in the XP ISO. This means that 64-bit  can only be installed to very old hardware which uses old chipsets and IDE (or perhaps old SATA) controllers. You will need a modified XP 64-bit Install ISO which has added 64-bit Mass Storage drivers (e.g. as prepared by nLite). 

Modern graphics, USB and audio XP 64-bit drivers are not available. Many 64-bit and 32-bit applications will not run on XP 64.  

Unless your system is over 10 years old and uses IDE hard disks, XP 64 is probably not going to work – use XP 32-bit which has audio, graphics, USB, touchpad, SATA/M.2 drivers, etc.!

Install XP 64-bit using E2B

The following instructions only apply if you are using a 64-bit XP Install ISO. 

For XP 64-bit ISOs, the numbers ‘64‘ must be in the ISO’s file name – e.g. Windows_XP_SP3_64-bit.iso.

If possible, set the BIOS hard disk controller configuration settings to Legacy\IDE (not AHCI/SATA).

Use latest XP 64 SP1 ISO file. 

1. Copy the XP 64-bit ISO files to the \_ISO\WINDOWS\XP folder. 
2. Boot from your E2B drive, press Ctrl-I for the Windows Install menu and then Alt+1 for Step 1.
3. Choose from the list of XP ISOs.
4. You will see some instructions about pressing F6 – on some systems pressing F6 during Windows XP Setup is not necessary. So try without pressing F6 first. 

If required – select 64-bit FiraDisk driver after pressing F6. See Tutorial 30 for how XP ISO installs work using FiraDisk, etc.

Note: Only old systems will show internal hard disks. Modern systems will not list any internal hard disks! 

5. Continue with the text mode setup and allow the system to reboot after the copy-files stage has completed
6. Reboot back to the E2B USB drive (do NOT allow the computer to boot from the internal HDD).
Select Ctrl-I and Alt+2 for Step 2.
7. The system should now boot from the internal HDD and continue the GUI Setup phase of the XP install. It may be necessary to confirm the loading of some drivers during this phase.
8. Once XP has been fully installed, you can delete the storage drivers which show up as errors in Device Manager and then install all drivers for your hardware in the usual way. For details on how to install Windows XP using the 2-step FiraDisk method see the instructions in Tutorial #30 

(Hint: if you get BSOD in Step 1, try without pressing F6). 

If E2B does not seem to work with your ISO and system, try WinSetupFromUSB instead.