How do I install a program from a thumb drive?

[DHC6twinotter]

So, I've got a program on our pc that I'm trying to install on our new Netbook PC. Since there is no CD rom drive, I'm trying to install it from a thumb drive. I thought this was an easy process, but maybe it's a bit more tricky than I thought.

Anyways, here's what I tried:

OS is XP.

1. I placed the CD into our PC (not the netbook) and began installation.
2. When prompted for an install location, I selected the thumb drive.
3. Program installed from the CD to the thumb drive.
4. Insert thumb drive into Netbook.
5. Sorted through the files and clicked on the install folder.
6. Got an error, and now I'm lost.

What am I missing? Does my thumb drive require software to make it bootable?

Thanks folks.

[Seanz0rz]

used to be able to do this way back in the day. sadly modern windows requires an entry into registry.

to run a program off a flash drive you need something like sandisk's u3 file system on the thumbdrive.

thats as much info as i have, you just cant do it like you tried.

now to install FROM (and not to)a thumbdrive, simply copy the files from the cd to the thumbdrive. in my computer, right click on the cd drive, click explore. highlight all, drag them to the thumbdrive (in explorer of course, just like moving files from one folder to another). wait for that to finish, eject the thumbdrive, put it in the netbook, and find the setup.exe or whatever, and run that.

if you need any more help, just give me a call. im not sure how much ill be around the computer the next two days, but ill deff be back monday evening (pdt)

[DHC6twinotter]

used to be able to do this way back in the day. sadly modern windows requires an entry into registry.

to run a program off a flash drive you need something like sandisk's u3 file system on the thumbdrive.

thats as much info as i have, you just cant do it like you tried.

Thanks Sean. I think I do have a U3 thumb drive somewhere, so I'll try that if I can't get this to work. Ideally, I'd preffer not to run the program from the thumb drive, but completely install it on the Netbook. Then erase the thumb drive.

now to install FROM (and not to)a thumbdrive, simply copy the files from the cd to the thumbdrive. in my computer, right click on the cd drive, click explore. highlight all, drag them to the thumbdrive (in explorer of course, just like moving files from one folder to another). wait for that to finish, eject the thumbdrive, put it in the netbook, and find the setup.exe or whatever, and run that.

I think this is more along the lines of what I'm trying to do. I'll give it another shot.

Thanks Sean.

[Seanz0rz]

yeah then you deff want that second option.

[DHC6twinotter]

I've been trying to open the installer.exe file, which I'm assuming is the installation file. Nothing else sounds close. Still not working though. I'm going to take a break for a half hour or so. lol.

[tulsa_sr5]

did you copy the whole folder over & then move it from the thumbdrive to the netbook? Usually setup.exe is what i've seen to run. It will prob use other files in that folder though.

[DHC6twinotter]

did you copy the whole folder over & then move it from the thumbdrive to the netbook? Usually setup.exe is what i've seen to run. It will prob use other files in that folder though.

Yep, I copied the entire folder from the PC to the thumb drive, then moved it from the thumb drive to the Netbook's desktop. No setup.exe file that I can find, but I'll check again.

[DHC6twinotter]

Doh! I figured it out. So it was actually super easy to do.

Instead of inserting the CD into the computer and installing it, I should have just inserted the CD, canceled the autoplay, opened the CD file, and copied everything from there. And, low and behold, there is even a file labeled setup.exe! haha.

So if I understand correctly, because I was trying to transfer a program that was already installed on one pc, none of the setup files would transfer to the thumb drive since they were already setup (and thus non-existant). That's why all I could ever find at first were un-install files (which is kinda what made me think of what I was doing wrong).

So anyways, all figured out now. Super easy.

Thanks guys. Always nice to learn something new.

[DHC6twinotter]

BTW, I LOVE this netbook. Super quite too, and the battery lasts a while. It's been running off the battery for the past 3 hours while I've been installing and deleating programs. Still has 60% left.

[tulsa_sr5]

Cool! Which netbook did you get? I love my eee but there are a ton more options than when I got mine.