I'm trying to install Vista on a laptop which has no internal optical
drive, and I don't have an external one to plug in, so I have to use a
flash drive.
Apparently correct instructions for making a bootable flash drive from
the Vista install DVD are at [url]http://kurtsh.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!DA410C7F7E038D!1665.entry[/url]

The instructions are:
1. diskpart
2. select disk 1
3. clean
4. create partition primary
5. select partition 1
6. active
7. format fs=fat32
8. assign
9. exit
10. xcopy d:\*.* /s/e/f e:\

I followed those instructions using another machine which does have a
DVD drive (and I did verify that "disk 1" for diskpart was the flash
drive). Then when I boot the laptop from the flash drive, it does
start up Vista and give me the standard installer screen (with options
to install or repair). But when I select install, it gives me an error
message titled "Load Driver," saying "A required CD/DVD drive device
driver is missing. If you have a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB
flash drive, please insert it now."
Why does it need a CD/DVD driver? There's no optical drive attached to
the system! Obviously it already has whatever drivers are needed to
access the usb drive, because it already booted from it and started
the graphical installer.

Why is it asking for a device driver, and where do I get it? Since the
above instructions are apparently successful for other people, what
might I be doing wrong?