Air Stealth Technology and Military Science

A stealth fighter is just that we cannot detect its presence with radar.The observer can rely on the time difference from emission to reception to locate the enemy fighter. Aircrafts usually have a curved surface in order to minimize air resistance in flight. Thus, electromagnetic waves impinged in any direction will be partly reflected to their original direction, leading to a large signal on the radar detector.

Work on stealth has its roots in long-standing efforts to reduce the visibility of military aircraft through camouflage paint schemes. As electronic sensors have replaced the eyes of pilots as the primary means of tracking other aircraft, more intricate means of defense were needed.

Often the use of special materials (typically carbon, carbon fibre composites, or magnetic ferrite-based substance) renders aircraft invisible to radar, stealth reduces the ability of an opponent’s sensors to detect, track and attack an aircraft.

A variety of technologies are may be combined in order to make itself “invisible” to radar. These technologies include a smooth surface, “flying wing” design, radar absorbent materials (RAM) and electronic countermeasures (ECM).
Radar absorbent material (RAM): when radar impacts radar absorbent material, the energy acts as though it “sees” infinite free space instead of a boundary. The absorbed electromagnetic energy is dissipated as heat and very little energy is reflected.
Disadvantages: additional weight, expense, heating problems and aerodynamic drag.

Electronic countermeasures (ECM): are referred to as any electronic effort intended to disturb normal radar operation. The defence may utilize ECCM to overcome and mitigate the effects of ECM on the radar.

To understand, why a reflexed airfoil is able to provide longitudinal stability to a wing, two things are important:

1. Total Force and Moment: the pressure forces, which act on the surface of each wing section, can be replaced by a single total force and a single total moment. Both act at the quarter-chord point (c/4) of the airfoil. When the angle of attack changes, the moment stays nearly constant, but the total force changes.
2. Center of Gravity : When the angle of attack of a plane changes, the plane rotates (pitches) around its center of gravity.

The planes low radar cross section (RCS) reduces the range at which ground-based and air-based radars can detect the aircraft. String reel target manipulation systems are used to support targets for low frequency RCS measurements.The RAM absorbs most of a radar’s signal, and the aircraft’s wing-shaped and rounded design redirects much of the remaining power away from the radar source.
RADAR ( Radio Direction Finding)

A radio transmitter is a device that oscillates an electrical current so the voltage goes up and down at a certain frequency. This electricity generates electromagnetic energy, and when the current is oscillated, the energy travels through the air as an electromagnetic wave. A transmitter also has an amplifier that increases the intensity of the electromagnetic energy and an antenna that broadcasts it into the air.
A radio receiver is just the reverse of the transmitter: it picks up electromagnetic waves with an antenna and converts them back into an electrical current. Radar is the use of radio waves to detect and monitor various objects.

The radar device emits a concentrated radio wave. Radio waves move through the air at a speed of light ( c )so the radar device can calculate how far away the object is based on how long it takes the radio signal to return.

The other elements of air defense detection and tracking are infrared (IR) light, electro-optical (EO) sensors.
IR light is an electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light. Infrared light has a range of wavelengths, just like visible light has wavelengths that range from red light to violet.

Limitations
Some of the materials used require special and costly maintenance. The maneuverability of an aircraft can be compromised by the introduction of stealth design features. As was the case with the F-117A.

FLIRS (Forward looking infrared System)

FLIRs make pictures from heat, not visible light. Heat (also called infrared, or thermal energy) and light are both parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, but a camera that can detect visible light won’t see thermal energy, and vice versa.


The wavelength of infrared that FLIRs detects differs from that of night vision, which operates in the visible light and near infrared ranges (0.4 to 1.0 micrometres). Stealth aircraft may rely on an airborne laser radar, although such a sensor may prove of limited utility in bad weather. There are limits to the utility of stealth techniques. Since the radar cross-section (RCS) ( radar cross section is the measure of a target’s ability to reflect radar signals in the direction of the radar receiver) of an aircraft depends on the angle from which it is viewed.

Stealth aircraft are designed to minimize their frontal RCS. But it is not possible to contour the surface of an aircraft to reduce the RCS equally in all directions, and reductions in the frontal RCS may lead to a larger RCS from above. Thus while a stealth aircraft may be difficult to track when it is flying toward a ground-based radar or another aircraft at the same altitude, a high-altitude airborne radar or a space-based radar may have an easier time tracking it. Another limitation of stealth aircraft is their vulnerability to detection by bi-static radars.

Programs

F-117 (Nighthawk) — The F-117 first flew in 1983. The original F-117 program envisioned over 100 aircraft, but soaring costs (each aircraft costs over $100 million), performance problems (several of the aircraft have crashed in training flights), limited payload (the aircraft can carry only two 900 Kg laser guided bombs internally), and the lack of a clearly defined mission all contributed to the curtailment of the program.

ATB (Advanced Technology Bomber)- B-2 — The Stealth Bomber project was first announced in 1980. In November 1988, the B-2 has been the focus of criticism of the growing cost of the program/project.

The B-2 will be the most expensive aircraft ever procured!

Acoustic Detection

How owls developed stealth technology !!!?

The owl's wing is broad and rounded compared to that of other birds, which makes for less flapping, and a quieter ride through the air. That reduces some sound, but an owl is quiet even compared to other birds when they glide. It's more than just a difference in wing measurements. It's the fact that owls are fully upholstered in order to maintain silence.

The inside of music studios, concert halls and movie theaters is covered with blocks of fabric. These muffle sound and prevent echoing. An owl's hard surfaces, specifically its legs and feet, are covered with soft feathered that muffle noise.
It's the wing feathers that are really counter intuitive, though. Most people, when designing something that makes little noise, will make it as sleek and rounded as possible. That turns out to be a mistake. A sleek, streamlined thing won't have any extra parts banging off each other or creaking in the wind. As we've seen before, though, it will have turbulence. Turbulence is moving air and moving air makes noise.
On the front of the owl's wing are feathers shaped like combs. The teeth of the combs lined the leading edge of the wing, and like the bumps on a whale's flukes, break up the stream of air moving over the wing. At the other side of the wing, the feathering is uneven, creating a fringe-like back edge. The combination takes the air that would all splash off the wing at the same time, and instead lets it out in isolated dribbles.

The result? Evolutionary advantage. Silent death. The ninjas of the animal world. All kinds of ancient myths. Supernatural mystery. And David Bowie. I don't know how the last one fits in, either.

B-2 Stealth Bomber

Currently in action in Libya, we take a look at how this formidable member of the United States Air Force works

The ‘flying wing’ shaped Stealth Bomber (nicknamed ‘Spirit’) is a unique aircraft that’s designed to make it as invisible as possible. Its shape means there are very few leading edges for radar to reflect from, reducing its signature dramatically. This is further enhanced by the composite materials from which the aircraft is constructed and the coatings on its surface. These are so successful that despite having a 172-foot wingspan, the B-2’s radar signature is an astounding 0.1 square metres.
The B-2’s stealth capabilities, and aerodynamic shape, are further enhanced by the fact its engines are buried inside the wing. This means the induction fans at the front of the engines are concealed while the engine exhaust is minimised. As a result, the B-2’s thermal signature is kept to the bare minimum, making it harder for thermal sensors to detect the bomber as well as lowering the aircraft’s acoustic footprint.
The design also means the B-2 is both highly aerodynamic and fuel efficient. The B-2’s maximum range is 6,000 nautical miles and as a result the aircraft has often been used for long-range missions, some lasting 30 hours and in one case, 50. The B-2 is so highly automated that it’s possible for a single crew member to fl y while the other sleeps, uses the lavatory or prepares a hot meal and this combination of range and versatility has meant the aircraft has been used to research sleep cycles to improve crew performance on long-range missions. Despite this, the aircraft’s success comes with a hefty price tag. Each B-2 costs $737 million and must be kept in a climate-controlled hangar to make sure the stealth materials remain intact. These problems aside though, the Spirit is an astonishing aircraft, even if, chances are, you won’t see one unless the pilots want you to…

Inside the Spirit

The B-2 is an unusual combination of complexity and elegance, the entire airframe built around the concept of stealth and focused on making the aircraft as hard to detect as possible.

Windows
The B-2′s windows have a fine wire mesh built into them, designed to scatter radar.
Composite materials
Any radar returns are reduced by the composite materials used, which further deflect any signals.
Carbon-reinforced plastic
Special heat-resistant material near the exhausts mean the airframe absorbs very little heat.
Rotary launch assembly (RLA)
The RLA allows the B-2 to deploy different weapons in quick succession.
Bomb rack assembly (BRA)
The bomb rack assembly can hold up to eighty 500lb bombs.
Air Intakes
To further reduce the B-2′s signature, the engine intakes are sunk into the main body.

Landing gear doors
The landing gear doors are hexagonal to further break up the B-2′s radar profile.
Crew compartment
The B-2 carries two crew, a pilot and a mission commander with room for a third if needed.
Flying wing
The B-2′s shape means it has very few leading edges, making it harder to detect on radar.
Fly-by-wire
The B-2′s unique shape makes it unstable, and it relies on a computer to stabilize it and keep it flying.
Engines
The B-2′s four General Electric F118s don’t have afterburners as the heat these generate would make the aircraft easier to detect. (IR signature)

The Statistics

Manufacturer
Northrop Grumman

Armament

Stealth Technology

View more presentations from Heather Brooks

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Anti stealth technology

View more documents from Hossam Zein

Password Guessing Attack

Password guessing attacks can be carried out manually or via automated tools.

Password guessing can be performed against all types of Web Authentication

The common passwords used are:

root, administrator, admin, operator, demo, test, webmaster, backup, guest, trial, member, private, beta, [company_name] or [known_username]

Passwords are the principal means of authenticating users on the Web today. It is imperative that any Web site guard the passwords of its users carefully. This is especially important since users, when faced with many Web sites requiring passwords; tend to reuse passwords across sites. Compromise of a password completely compromises a user.

Attack Methods

Often Web sites advise users to choose memorable passwords such as birthdays, names of friends or family, or social security numbers. This is extremely poor advice, as such passwords are easily guessed by an attacker who knows the user. The most common way an attacker will try to obtain a password is through the dictionary attack'. In a dictionary attack, the attacker takes a dictionary of words and names, and tries each one to see if it is the require password. This can be automated with programs which can guess hundreds or thousands of words per second. This makes it easy for attackers to try variations: word backwards, different capitalization, adding a digit to the end, and popular passwords.

Another well-known form of attack is the hybrid attack. A hybrid attack will add numbers or symbols to the filename to successfully crack a password. Often people change their passwords by simply adding a number to the end of their current password. The pattern usually takes this form: first month password is "site"; second month password is "site2"; third month password is "site2"; and so on. A brute force attack is the most comprehensive form of attack, though it may often take a long time to work depending on the complexity of the password. Some brute force attacks can take a week depending on the complexity of the password.

Hacking Tool: WebCracker

• 
  
  WebCracker is a simple tool that takes text lists of usernames and passwords and uses them as dictionaries to implement Basic authentication password guessing.
• 
  
  lt keys on "HTTP 302 Object Moved" response to indicate successful guess.
• 
  
  lt will find all successful guesses given in a username/password.

Webcracker allows the user to test a restricted-access website by testing id and password combinations on the web site.This program exploits a rather large hole in web site authentication methods. Password protected websites may be easily brute-force hacked, if there is no set limit on the number of times an incorrect password or User ID can be tried.WebCracker is a simple tool that takes text lists of usernames and passwords and uses them as dictionaries to implement Basic authentication password guessing.

• 
  
  It keys on "HTTP 302 Object Moved" response to indicate successful guess.
• 
  
  It will find all successful username/password given in the list.

Hacking Tool: Brutus

http://www.hoobie.net/brutus/

• 
  
  Brutus is a generic password guessing tool that cracks various authentication.
• 
  
  Brutus can perform both dictionary attacks and brute-force attacks where passwords are randomly generated from a given character.
• 
  
  Brutus can crack the following authentication types:
• 
  
  HTTP (Basic authentication, HTML Form/CGI); POP3; FTP; SMB; Telnet
  
  

Brutus is an online or remote password cracker. More specifically it is a remote interactive authentication agent. Brutus is used to recover valid access tokens (usually a username and password) for a given target system. Examples of a supported target system might be an FTP server, a password protected web page, a router console a POP3 server etc. It is used primarily in two ways: To obtain the valid access tokens for a particular user on a particular target. To obtain any valid access tokens on a particular target where only target penetration is required.

Brutus does very weak target verification before starting; in fact all it does is connect to the target on the specified port. In the context of Brutus, the target usually provides a service that allows a remote client to authenticate against the target using client supplied credentials. The user can define the form structure to Brutus of any given HTML form. This will include the various form fields, any cookies to be submitted in requests, the HTTP referrer field to send (if any) and of course the authentication response strings that Brutus uses to determine the outcome of an authentication attempt.

If Brutus can successfully read forms of the fetched HTML page then each form will be interpreted and the relevant fields for each form will be displayed. Any cookies received during the request will also be logged here. Brutus handles each authentication attempt as a series of stages, as each stage is completed the authentication attempt is progressed until either a positive or negative authentication result is returned at which point Brutus can either disconnect and retry or loop back to some stage within the authentication sequence.

Hacking Tool: ObiWan

http://www.phenoelit.de/obiwan/docu.html

• 
  
  ObiWan is a powerful Web password cracking tool. It can work through a proxy.
• 
  
  ObiWan uses wordlists and alternations of numeric or alpha-numeric characters as possible as passwords.
• 
  
  Since Webservers allow unlimited requests it is a question of time and bandwidth to break into a server system.

ObiWaN stands for "Operation burning insecure Web server against Netscape". It is called Project 2086 now, after 2068 the number of the RFC which describes the HTTP/1.1 protocol. 11.1 is the section which describes the basic authentication scheme. This is the mostly used authentication scheme for web server and used by ObiWaN.

Web servers with simple challenge-response authentication mechanism mostly have no switches to set up intruder lockout or delay timings for wrong passwords. Every user with a HTTP connection to a host with basic authentication can try username-password combinations as long as he/she like it. This allows the attacker to prod the system as long as he wants to.

Like other programs for UNIX system passwords (crack) or NT passwords (lophtcrack) ObiWaN uses wordlists and alternations of numeric or alpha-numeric characters as possible passwords. Since web servers allow unlimited requests it is a question of time and bandwidth to break in a server system. The first way is to run ObiWaN more than once. The following example tries to crack username eccouncil on the intranet.

./ObiWaN -h intranet -a eccouncil -w list.txt 

To run it with alphanumeric variation with a depth of 2

./ObiWaN -h intranet -a eccouncil -w list.txt -A 2 

To run it in brute force loop mode

./ObiWaN -h intranet -a eccouncil -w list.txt -b 6 -B 8 

Hacking Tool: Munga Bunga

Munga Bunga's HTTP Brute Forcer is a utility utilizing the HTTP protocol to brute force into any login mechanism/system that requires a username and password, on a web page (or HTML form). To recap - A password usually only contains letters. In such a case the quantity of characters in a charset is 26 or 52, depending on usage of registers - both of them or just one. Some systems (Windows, for example) don't make any difference between lower-case and uppercase letters. With an 8-characters' long password the difference would amount to 256 times, which is really significant.

Brute force method can sometimes be very effective when it is combined with the functionality of the program. Munga Bunga is a tool which can be used for breaking into emails, affiliate programs, web sites, any web based accounts, launching DoS attacks, flooding emails, flooding forms, flooding databases and much more; though DoS attacks and flooding activity are not supported or documented in the documentation. Apart from this, the attacker can write definition files. These are files ending in the .def extension, and contain information about a particular server, and the data to submit to it. They are used to extend the power and capability of the program, based on the user's own definitions. The software comes bundled with some definition

The tool claims to be capable of brute forcing, any thing that can be entered via a HTML form with a password and username. The attack methodology goes as follows: The attacker uses a password file in order for the program to attempt and enter the account(s), with the specified passwords. In addition, he can write a definition file for the form he wants to crack into.

Hacking Tool: PassList

Passlist is another character based password generator.

Passlist is a character based password generator that implements a small routine which automates the task of creating a "passlist.txt" file for any brute force tool. The program does not require much information to work. The tool allows the user to specify the generation of passwords based on any given parameter. For instance, if the user knows that the target system's password starts with a particular phrase or number, he can specify this. This makes the list more meaningful to the user and easier for the brute forcer. He can also specify the length required such as the maximum number of random characters per password, apart from the maximum number of random

A partial list is given below.

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  Refiner is used to generate a wordlist containing all possible combinations of a partial password, which an attacker may have obtained by other means. Refiner will then generate a text file containing all possible combinations.
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  WeirdWordz allows the user to just select an input file and as an output file, makes all sorts of combinations of the lines/words in the input file.
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  Raptor 1.4.6 - creates words using many different filters from html files to create a wordlist.
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  PASS-PARSE V1.2 - Pass-parse will take any file and turn all the words into a standard type password list, while stripping anything that's not alphanumeric. The main idea behind it is that while trying to crack the password of a personal website, the password may appear on the site when the person describes their interests. This will parse through an html file and create a list of words from that page to try as passwords.

How To Setup a USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 7

f you have a netbook and would like to upgrade it to Windows 7, you may be wondering how to do it without a clunky external DVD Drive. Today we show you how to install Windows 7 from a USB flash drive.

Installing Windows 7 from a flash drive is essentially the same as installing it from a DVD. Most of the work is setting up your flash drive so it becomes a bootable device with the OS on it. Here we will take a look at a couple of utilities that will allow you to easily create a bootable USB drive and copy Windows 7 to it.

Note: You’ll need a minimum of a 4GB flash drive to dedicate to the installation files.

Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

If you have an ISO image of Windows 7, using Microsoft’s free utility is a quick and easy option to get the image on your USB flash drive. It requires XP SP2 or higher and if you’re using an XP machine you’ll need .NET Framework 2.0, and Microsoft Image Mastering API V2…both of which can be downloaded from the link below. It seemed to work best if I formatted the flash drive as NTFS before using the download tool. But that could be because of the flash drive I used…your mileage may vary.

It’s a pretty straight forward process, first browse to the location of your Windows 7 ISO file and click Next.

Select USB device…this also helps you burn the ISO to DVD as well if you need that option.

Choose your flash drive and click Begin copying.

Now just wait for the process to complete. The drive will be formatted and files copied to the flash drive.

When the process is finished you will be able to see the files on the flash drive as you would if you opened the installation disc. Now you can start the installation on any computer that allows you to boot from a USB drive.

WinToFlash

If you want to transfer a Windows 7 installation disc to USB…another super easy utility to use is WinToFlash. Just follow through the straight forward wizard, and you’ll be ready to install Windows 7 from your flash drive in no time.

The neat thing about this utility is it also offers different advanced features and tasks for other versions of Windows too.

It’s as easy as choosing the location of the Windows installation disc and the USB drive. Where in this example the DVD is drive (E:) and the flash drive is (F:). They recommend to turn off your Antivirus to increase the process speed, but we had MSE running on our machine and it didn’t seem to affect performance at all.

Next, you’ll need to agree to the Windows 7 EULA and hit continue.

Now just wait until the drive is formatted and the files are transferred over to the USB drive. The amount of time it takes will vary between systems. In our test it took around 10 minutes to complete over to an 8GB flash drive.

That’s it! Now the drive is ready so you can install Windows 7 on your netbook or any other computer that supports booting from a USB drive.

Conclusion

WinToFlash is still in Beta and doesn’t require installation to use. Microsoft’s tool apparently became Open Sourced recently, requires installation, and a few other requirements like .NET Framework. Both of these tools are free and each one works a bit differently, so you’ll need to decide which will work best in your situation. If you don’t want to manually create a bootable flash drive and copy the install files over, then you might want to check out these extremely simple to use utilities.

Download WinToFlash

Download Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

Create a Bootable Ubuntu USB Flash Drive

We’ve already covered how to use an Ubuntu Live CD to backup files from your dead Windows computer, but using the boot cd can sometimes be a little slow. We can speed up the booting process by installing Ubuntu to a bootable USB flash drive instead.

To accomplish this, we’ll use a tiny software package called UNetbootin, which is designed to make the installation process simple and easy.

Create the Bootable Flash Drive

You’ll first need to download the UNetbootin software and save it somewhere useful, since there’s no installation required, just double-click to run.

I chose to use an already downloaded ISO image of the Ubuntu installation cd, and then chose my flash drive, and clicked the OK button. Yes, this step is as simple as that.

The process will extract the files from the ISO image (or download them), copy them to the flash drive and then install the bootloader. Depending on what you are installing, this really doesn’t take very long.

Once the process is completed, you’ll be prompted to reboot… which you don’t necessarily have to do unless you want to test booting the flash drive on the same machine you are using.

Otherwise you can hit the Exit button.

Make Sure the Partition is Active

If you get a boot device error when you try and boot from the flash device, it could be that your partition is not marked as active. What we’ll do is use the command line diskpart utility to fix this… if you are in Vista open an administrator mode command prompt by right-clicking and choosing Run as Administrator.

Now you’ll need to run this command to figure out the number of your flash drive:

list disk

This will show you the list of drives, and you will use the disk number in the “select disk” command:

select disk 1

select partition 1

active

The “active” command will actually mark the current partition as active, which is why you need to select the disk and then the partition. At this point you should be done.

Booting From the Flash Drive

Now that you are all finished, you can try and boot from the flash drive. Every BIOS is different, but most of them will have a message like “Press F12 for the Boot Menu”, which is highly suggested. The boot menu will allow you to select the USB drive as the boot device. (apologies for the simply horrible camera phone screenshots)

Instead of the regular Ubuntu boot menu that you might be used to seeing, you will see the UNetbootin menu, which has essentially the same options.

Useful Note

If you are having issues booting Ubuntu Hardy (8.04) on a Dell machine, you might want to switch back to using Ubuntu 7.10 instead.

I was able to boot all the way into the desktop in about 35 seconds using the flash drive… way faster than using the regular live cd.

Stay tuned, we’re going to explore even more options for bootable CDs and USB drives that help you repair your computer

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Installing Windows XP from USB

The procedure here is provided without any warranty or support. It worked for me and so it might for you. Some of the procedures described here can wipe all of your data. Thought I’d warn you.

Step #1: Prepping BartPE
First we’ll prep the USB drive we’ll be using for booting. This is by far the largest step in the process, though it shouldn’t be difficult for anyone to follow. It requires a functional Windows system.
1.Download BartPE builder
2. Install BartPE. We’ll be assuming that you install to C:\pebuilder.
3. Start PE Builder from the Start Menu. Point “Source:” to the location of your Windows XP setup files containing SP3.

QUOTE

Note: “Source:” is drive letter of your physical CD/DVD-ROM drive which is holding XP SP3 setup CD, a virtual drive mounted with XP SP3 ISO works as well

4. Make sure the “Output:” is set to “BartPE”.
5. Set “Media output” as “Craete ISO image” and filename as “c:\pebuilder\pebuilder.iso”
6. Hit “Build”.
7. When it’s done building, image file “c:\pebuilder\pebuilder.iso” should be created properly

Step #2: Creating bootable USB
1. Satrt UltraISO (V9.3 or newer version, download here)
2. Choose ‘File’->’Open’from main menu and open file “c:\pebuilder\pebuilder.iso”
3. Choose ‘Bootable’->’Write disk image’ from main menu
4.Insert the USB drive you intend to boot from
5. Choose proper “Write Method”,USB-HDD+ is recommanded
6. Hit “Write” to get a bootable USB drive
7. When it’s done, copy the Windows XP setup files to the USB drive. Please note that you’ll only need the i386 folder.

QUOTE

If no errors occurred in the above process, you should now be all set to boot from USB!

Step #3: Configuring the BIOS
You should now reboot and go into the BIOS configuration to boot from USB. Instructions for doing so wildly from system to system, but generally entail the following:
1. Reboot the system.
2. While booting (before Windows starts loading), get into the BIOS configuration screen by hitting something like F1, F2, Delete or Escape. Hotkey instructions are generally provided on the screen.
3. Go to the section that contains your boot devices.
4. With your USB drive plugged in, the USB drive should be listed. If it isn’t, your system might not support booting from USB. Assuming that it is supported (as is the case with virtually all modern hardware), promote your USB drive to the primary boot device.
5. Exit from the BIOS configuration, saving all changes.
If you’re completely new to BIOS configuration, BIOS for Beginners over at Tom’s Hardware might be a good primer. Be aware though, that you can seriously screw up your system by providing incorrect settings!

Step #4: Booting into BartPE
Assuming that you properly configured your BIOS and your USB device supports booting, BartPE should now load. Depending on the speed of your USB device, this may take a while.
If it isn’t working, then double-check the following before making a scene:
• Is your BIOS properly configured for booting from the USB disk? (Is the USB device listed and does it have top priority?)
• Have you correctly prepared the USB disk in step two? (Restart the procedure.)
• Does your USB stick properly support being booted from? (Try another one!)

Step #5: Prepping the Hard Disk
You need to make sure that your hard drive is partitioned and formatted properly. Especially if you’ve had Linux or some other operating system on it, you’ll need to repartition and format it. BartPE contains DiskPart for disk partitioning and A43 File Manager to format your drive.

QUOTE

If you are sure that your hard drive is set up properly (i.e. it has only run Windows, it contains a valid FAT or NTFS partition) then you can safe yourself the hassle and skip this step.

This procedure will destroy any data on the hard drive.
To repartition:
1. From the Go menu, navigate to DiskPart.
2. Enter the commands needed to repartition your drive. For example, try the following: select disk 0 (select the first disk), clean (purges the entire drive, essentially resetting it), create partition primary (creates a single partition from the entire disk), assign (assign the partition a drive letter), exit (quits DiskPart).
This procedure will destroy any data on the hard drive.
To format:
1. From the Go menu, navigate to the A43 File Manager.
2. Right-click on the target drive (e.g. C:) and click Format. Should be self-explanatory.

Step #6: Launching Windows XP Setup from USB
With your drive all ready, you can now launch the Windows XP setup with a few custom parameters. Let’s assume that the files are available at X:\i386.

QUOTE

Plugging in a device now won’t work. Remember that all USB devices will need to be plugged in right from the start while using BartPE.

1. Run the following command:
X:\i386\winnt32.exe /syspart:C: /tempdrive:C: /makelocalsource /noreboot

QUOTE

Note: Replace “/tempdrive:C:” with the drive which has enough space to hold windows setup files, you may change the partition which you want to install Windows to at next step #7.

2. Proceed with the installation. When asked to convert the installation volume to NTFS, answer No. The setup program incorrectly believes that your USB drive (which is formatted as FAT) needs conversion.
3. The setup program will then silently close, which might make you think that something went wrong. Don’t worry though.

Step #7: Continue Windows XP Setup from Harddisk
1. Reboot your system
2. Unplug USB drive during post stage
3. Change your BIOS setting back to boot from hard disk again as needed
4. You can now continue to finish setting up Windows XP.

Congratulations

source!