Tom's Hardware > Forum > Windows XP > Windows XP General Discussion > Laptop HD crashed; no floppy; no CD-Rom and Bios doesnt support USB

Laptop HD crashed; no floppy; no CD-Rom and Bios doesnt support USB

Forum Windows XP : Windows XP General Discussion - Laptop HD crashed; no floppy; no CD-Rom and Bios doesnt support USB

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silvad59   11-14-2009 at 02:39:39 AM

How do I reinstall Windows XP on my laptop (Compaq V5000 - which is several years old)? The laptop's cd-rom is dead. There is no floppy disk drive. The hard drive has crashed. I have read on some websites that I can make a bootable usb drive. However, I have not been succesful in making a bootable USB thumb drive when the laptop's BIOS doesnt support a USB device to be bootable.

The only thing I do have is my desktop computer (which is working fine) and a USB external case for the laptop internal hard drive.

Any ideas?

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Zoron   11-14-2009 at 05:03:40 AM

It may not boot from a USB flash drive... but how about a USB DVD or floppy drive? If not, then your only option is to replace the faulty optical drive. There is simply no way to install a working version of Windows on another computer and bring it over to the laptop... that is unless you know someone with the same laptop. If the hard drive isn't completely dead, you do have the option of ghosting it to the new drive. Those are about the only options you have available.

------------------------------ Desktop: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit; Intel Q6600 CPU; E-VGA 780i SLI motherboard; E-VGA E-GeForce 8800GT; OCZ Vista 4GB dual-channel kit; Ultra X2 750W power supply; 2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB in RAID 0. Laptop: Acer Aspire 8730-6314;
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TheViper   11-14-2009 at 05:03:44 AM

If the CD drive doesn't work, there isn't much you can do other than getting a replacement CD drive (or trying to fix this dead one).

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silvad59   11-14-2009 at 05:06:18 AM

Ok Thank you for the quick replies. The cost to replace the CD-Rom is $190 dollars. So I dont think it is worth paying almost $200 dollars for the CD-ROM. I have tried installing the OS from a USB-External CD but that didnt work out.

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TheViper   11-14-2009 at 05:11:29 AM

$190 to replace the CD drive? That's insane.

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silvad59   11-14-2009 at 05:28:06 AM

What do you mean ghosting the laptop drive to the new drive? The laptop hard drive is still good. How do I ghost a version of XP to it?

Reply to silvad59
Zoron   11-14-2009 at 11:29:31 PM

If the old drive is still good, you can clone the old drive to the new drive. But if it's your XP installation that's hosed and not the hard drive, then that suggestion won't work.

------------------------------ Desktop: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit; Intel Q6600 CPU; E-VGA 780i SLI motherboard; E-VGA E-GeForce 8800GT; OCZ Vista 4GB dual-channel kit; Ultra X2 750W power supply; 2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB in RAID 0. Laptop: Acer Aspire 8730-6314;
 Reply to Zoron
silvad59   11-15-2009 at 12:50:07 AM

The old hard drive is still good. I just cant install the OS on the old laptop hard drive because I dont have a CD-ROM or Floppy. And the old hard drive's OS is gone so it wont even boot up to windows.

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