Install XP with no floppy or cd drive

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Hogrod

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How can I install XP onto a hard drive when the laptop has no floppy or CD drive?
I do have an external 2.5" USB and another computer with a CD drive, and a CD with XP on it.

Any ideas? I've spent 3 days trying to figure out a solution to no avail.
 
laptop can't boot from USB. BIOS does not allow it
 
What make and model is the laptop?

I have a "clean" partition image of XP that I use when my PC crashes - it has a full install, but no drivers loaded - when I do a full restore then boot on the HDD, XP will then install all the drivers for whatever PC hardware setup the PC has.

A few ways I can think of are:
Get an image of an installed/backup XP image (like Acronic True Image) onto the laptop HDD - this can usually be done by hooking up the laptop HDD to your desktop PC, and restoring - then hook up the the laptop again and boot - you can then load the drivers via USB stick.

Otherwise hook up the laptop HDD to the PC, disconnect you current boot HDD and then load XP onto the laptop HDD - when it comes to the driver installation, just cancel each one until the setup is finished - connect back to the laptop and boot - laod drivers from USB stick.

Make a smaller bootable partition on the laptop HDD, and load the full XP image/files onto the bootable partition - insert HDD back into the laptop, then select that partition to boot from and install to the larger partition.
 
Hi what i do is not very elegant or technologically clever, but if you take your CD drive out the other pc and connect it to a external hard drive chassis, the bios should recongnise and boot from it.

Thats what i did to install XP on my EEE.
 
andytl5 said:
How can I install XP onto a hard drive when the laptop has no floppy or CD drive?
I do have an external 2.5" USB and another computer with a CD drive, and a CD with XP on it.

Any ideas? I've spent 3 days trying to figure out a solution to no avail.
Click to expand...

I would take the hard drive out the laptop and put it into the external 2.5 USB bay. Now plug it into another machine and format the drive and install DOS onto it. (you get several utilities to format it and transfer the DOS system files over)
Now copy the XP CD contents over to drive, put it back into the laptop and boot.
You should now be in DOS, change to the directory you copied the XP CD to and run setup. (There is a DOS Based setup file on the xp CD, It hink it's called winnt32.exe)
 
Last edited:
howardb said:
What make and model is the laptop?

I have a "clean" partition image of XP that I use when my PC crashes - it has a full install, but no drivers loaded - when I do a full restore then boot on the HDD, XP will then install all the drivers for whatever PC hardware setup the PC has.

A few ways I can think of are:
Get an image of an installed/backup XP image (like Acronic True Image) onto the laptop HDD - this can usually be done by hooking up the laptop HDD to your desktop PC, and restoring - then hook up the the laptop again and boot - you can then load the drivers via USB stick.

Otherwise hook up the laptop HDD to the PC, disconnect you current boot HDD and then load XP onto the laptop HDD - when it comes to the driver installation, just cancel each one until the setup is finished - connect back to the laptop and boot - laod drivers from USB stick.

Make a smaller bootable partition on the laptop HDD, and load the full XP image/files onto the bootable partition - insert HDD back into the laptop, then select that partition to boot from and install to the larger partition.
Click to expand...

thank, I'll give that a try.
 
Deenem said:
I would take the hard drive out the laptop and put it into the external 2.5 USB bay. Now plug it into another machine and format the drive and install DOS onto it. (you get several utilities to format it and transfer the DOS system files over)
Now copy the XP CD contents over to drive, put it back into the laptop and boot.
You should now be in DOS, change to the directory you copied the XP CD to and run setup. (There is a DOS Based setup file on the xp CD, It hink it's called winnt32.exe)
Click to expand...


Ok I was thinking about the DOS route. My problem is how to a get into a position on the other machine where I can plug in the external HDD, format and install DOS? What do I need installed on the other machine?

EDIT: The other machine has XP on it with CD ROM, no floppy
 
Last edited:
Daveogg said:
Hi what i do is not very elegant or technologically clever, but if you take your CD drive out the other pc and connect it to a external hard drive chassis, the bios should recongnise and boot from it.

Thats what i did to install XP on my EEE.
Click to expand...

I see what you're saying, I'll do that if all else fails :D
 
I'm surprised no-one has mentioned PXE / Lan booting, and performing the installation that way! (Provided the network card supports PXE boot!)

I used this method to PXE-Install a 10 year old laptop (also no floppy, cdrom, usb-boot) options. I was able to install the Ubuntu DVD onto this laptop via the network. Extremely easy!
 
Ryder_JHB said:
I'm surprised no-one has mentioned PXE / Lan booting, and performing the installation that way! (Provided the network card supports PXE boot!)

I used this method to PXE-Install a 10 year old laptop (also no floppy, cdrom, usb-boot) options. I was able to install the Ubuntu DVD onto this laptop via the network. Extremely easy!
Click to expand...

I looked at it, but could not determine what software I needed to get PXE working. I've got a LAN, and if you've got some tips I'd appreciate it.
 
deenen's way will be the quickest/least hassle.
just make sure smartdrv is loaded when you boot into dos prior to running winnt32, otherwise the "copying files" process will take years.

once done and in xp it is trivial to convert the installation to ntfs if desired.
 
werner said:
deenen's way will be the quickest/least hassle.
just make sure smartdrv is loaded when you boot into dos prior to running winnt32, otherwise the "copying files" process will take years.

once done and in xp it is trivial to convert the installation to ntfs if desired.
Click to expand...

That makes sense, but how do I install DOS onto the HDD via USB? Any tips?
 
There is another route. With the HDD attached to your main PC via USB. You can use Vmware and create a virtual machine but use the physical disk as the storage space (not a file) and start the XP installation from there.

It's a bit overkilll, but it is fairly easy.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. Used a spare cdrom drive from one laptop and slotted into the laptop without a cdrom. Installing now.

I presumed I could easily install XP without the need for an external interface. Swapping the cd drive turned out to be the quickest solution (for my level of expertise anyway!) :D
 
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