Where's my cookie?

[Oddysey]

PR;

You want to stay legit? I've got no heartburn with that, amigo!

I did exactly what you want, using the method most commonly recommended around the innerwebs, BartPE.

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

That requires an original CD with a valid key, and any updates you want to slipstream in. The reason you know it's legit? You'll have to authorize it, just like the CD you bought from Microsoft (or one of its agents).

Now, to make it work from a USB thumbdrive requires all of that, plus a visit to this site:

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/510...28902.html

Presto! your basic bootable CD, in thumbdrive form.


You can also find instructions on more-or-less duplicating your original Installation CD onto a thumbdrive, here:
(EDIT: see footnote below.)

http://www.ngine.de/article/id/8

This page describes modifying several text files, it's a bit less automated, if you will. More hands on, ya know. But still all legit.

There are several other articles out there (Google, anyone?), some of them more verbose than strictly necessary, some of them too brief to do any good. I think I've picked the best of the bunch, but I'm willing to look at others.....

HTH


Oddysey

Apologetic Footnote:
Having reviewed this message the next morning, I see that this website is currently down, for whatever reason..... I found a copy in Google's cache by searching for 'usbstor' and that site. The terms to enter into the search box look like this:

usbstor site:www.ngine.de/article/id/8

Google's cache is pretty well maintained, but it doesn't last forever. Presuming that you're interested in the first place, then if you get the above page in question, copy it onto your local hard drive and keep it until you've checked it out more closely, or you've decided that you really don't need it.