Installing XP on a laptop with no floppy/cd

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

Paul-B wrote:
> Hi
>
> I hope someone here can give me some help. Basically, I have a laptop
> which has no CD Drive and no floppy.


That's an abysmally stupid way to design a computer.


> I have both drives as usb
> attachments, but the laptop can only "see" them if an o/s is installed.
>

That's true.

> Is there any way I can install XP on a new hard drive (the old one
> failed) without using the cd or the floppy drive?


Only by having some sort of OS installed and copying the WinXP
installation files (the \i386 folder) to the hard drive from the CD. Of
course, this precludes the possibility of performing a clean installation.

I'd suggest that you contact the laptop's manufacturer and ask them how
you're expect to overcome their rather glaring design flaw.



--

Bruce Chambers

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Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

"Paul-B" wrote:
> I hope someone here can give me some
> help. Basically, I have a laptop which
> has no CD Drive and no floppy. (snip)


Given your situation, I don't see any way to do it without an external CD
drive and a Windows CD.


> (snip) I have an adaptor, so I can connect
> the laptop hard drive to my desktop pc and
> see the drive, but after that I'm stumped.


That isn't going to work. If you have the laptop's hard drive attached to
a desktop, the Windows installation will configure itself (drivers and so
on) for that desktop, not some laptop it has absolutely no awareness of.

Stewart