re-instal winxp without cdrom?

[kusazero]

hi, i got an old laptop (hp omnibook 500) from a friend, however, he did not gave me the base (cdrom, floppy drive, etc) for it, so, i am left with a laptop with no other bootable device. i already copied winxp files into a partition of the HDD, but i would like to have a clean install (format c:, then install), any ideas to that? is there a pure command promt for winxp (rather than having a psuedo command prompt safe mode from F7)?

ps: i made a usb boot disk, but doesnt seems to work.

thanks

 

[Live2Die]

Did you make sure that in the bios you can actually boot from a USB device. If not then that is why the USB device will not work.

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Life is a mind game
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[kusazero]

well, i am not sure, but, i am putting the posibility of using a USB disk to boot out of the equation, any other ideas?

 

[Live2Die]

Check in the bios if you can boot from USB. If not borrow from a friend or co-worker a USB floppy drive or go out and buy one then follow these instructions.

http://www.tech-recipes.com/windows_installation_tips578.html

--------------------
Life is a mind game
Wanna Play?

 

[kusazero]

thanks for the reply, but, i am still looking for a more viable solution

 

[kusazero]

i have 2 partition on my HDD< i tried copying all the files into D: and install directly from winxp (c. well, it rebooted, went into the install sequence, but when it comes to the step i need to choose partition, it doesnt allow

1) me to delete the original partition at c:

2) me to install winxp to c: (reason being same partition is not recomended to have multiple OS)

i would like to ask if there is anyway to overwrite situation one by forcing the installation process to clear my c: partition.

thanks

 

[kusazero]

bump, help of any sort appreciated, thanks

 

[Live2Die]

So what your saying is that the XP CD files are on the D drive, you have an installed (working) copy of XP on drive C: and when you try to re-install XP you can't delete the c: partition.

Am i correct

--------------------
Life is a mind game
Wanna Play?

 

[bcastner]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307848&sd=tech

 

[JBruyet]

Kusazero, try booting from a floppy or a bootable CD, then try bcastner's suggestion. I don't think current OSes will let you reformat the C: partition unless you boot from somewhere else.

FWIW,

Joe Brouillette

 

[Live2Die]

JBruyet

If you were to read his original post you would have found out that he has NO FLOPPY OR CDROM. so he cannot boot from them

--------------------
Life is a mind game
Wanna Play?

 

[JBruyet]

Live, if he borrows or buys a USB floppy drive he should be able to get it done.

kusazero, you're fairly limited in options. I'm not sure that a "more viable" option exists.

Joe

 

[Live2Die]

According to a reply that is not a viable solution. I had asked him already to do that

--------------------
Life is a mind game
Wanna Play?

 

[J741]

There are really only about 3 ways to do this if you don't have a floppy drive or CD drive. They are as follows:


Method 1: USB.
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Use a USB floppy diskette drive to perform the installation.


Method 2: Network.
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Change your BIOS settings to boot from network first, then connect the notebook to a network which has a Windows 2003 Server configured for remote installations of Windows XP via the PXE network boot sequence.


Method 3: Hard drive only.
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Physically remove the hard drive from the computer, and attach it to a regular computer from which you can modify the drive. Erase all partitions currently on the drive, and create one Primary, Active partition containing the FAT32 file system. Boot to a DOS or Windows 9x system disk. use the SYS command to copy the DOS boot files to the notebook's hard drive. Copy the \I386 folder from the Windows XP installation CD to the hard drive. Put the drive back into the notebook. Boot to the DOS command prompt. Change to the \I386 directory. Run WINNT to start the Windows XP setup process. Do NOT elect to format the drive during the installation process.

For more information see MS KB Article 307848

- James.

My memory is not as good as it should be, and neither is my memory.

I have forgotten more than I can remember

 

[kusazero]

well, thanks for all the replies, i would have to use one of the ways suggested, or try to see if the USB disk could be used.

live2die, yes, you are correct

 

[kusazero]

if i use a laptop HDD to IDE adapter, and format it on my desktop, and copy all the needed files into the said laptop HDD, can i make it bootable?

 

[J741]

That is the process I laid out for you in "method 3". It makes use of DOS for the boot process.

I don't know how you could do the same with the NT boot loader to start Windows XP directly, without using the XP boot CD.

- James.


My memory is not as good as it should be, and neither is my memory.

I have forgotten more than I can remember

 

[kusazero]

can i make 2 partition while making the DOS system? so that i could put my installation files at the 2nd partition (using fdisk). thanks

 

[htmlman]

I hope he has his key code if he is going to format the drive and reinstall. Google for magicjellybean and down load the file and run it to see your key code befor you do the install. If it is on on a tag on the machine.

 

[kusazero]

what keycode? or did u meant winxp's cd-key?