It worked. The text-mode setup launched. It copied files from the "CD" (the USB). But then came the first reboot.
“You can’t install Windows 2000 from USB,” his friend Maya had said. “It doesn’t have native USB mass storage drivers during setup. It’s like trying to put diesel in a horse.” install windows 2000 from usb
He partitioned a 2GB USB stick (anything larger confused the old BIOS). He installed Grub4Dos to the master boot record. Then, he copied the entire Windows 2000 CD contents to a folder named WIN2000 on the drive. He edited menu.lst : It worked
So Leo dove into the rabbit hole.