bootable usb pendrive

[Davros]

can I just copy the contents of a windows xp cd to a usb pendrive or do i have to do something to it to make it bootable ?

 

[Rikimaru]

Use Rufus.

 

[Blazkowicz]

Rufus works for a UEFI Windows 7 installation too. Highly recommended (Microsoft tool wastes your time and fails at the hard drive partitioning step!)

 

[Grall]

Amazing that windows itself can't make a bootable USB drive. Ridiculous, really, it's such a basic thing you'd expect it to be able to do with an absolute minimum of fuss and hassle...

 

[Davros]

Thanks people.
the rufus web page says this :

It can be especially useful for cases where:
you need to create USB installation media from bootable ISOs

can I not select the xp cd as a source or do I have to make a bootable iso,
Is there a difference between a bootable iso and an iso, If I make an iso of the xp cd will it be automatically bootable because the cd is?
If not what software do you recommend to make a bootable iso.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

The installation cd is always bootable so you can probably ignore that message and select your xp cd as the source. Think that should work because the software is supposed to add the bootable part anyway.

I always use win to flash (https://wintoflash.com/home/en/) and that has never failed me.