how to install windows from a hard drive

gareth170 · 25 Apr 2007 at 11:20

hi

i just wanna know can windows be install from a hard drive? i mean copying the vista dvd to a hdd then booting from that to install windows. i know i can use Acronis True Image Home but i just wanna know can this be done and how...

IAmATeaf · 25 Apr 2007 at 13:57

Can't see why this wouldn't work, have done a install like this for XP and Win98SE on a laptop which had no CD drive. You need to make a bootable FAT32 partition, then copy the entire contents of the CD into a folder and start the install from the HD. For XP I then used the convert command to convert the FAT32 to NTFS after the install had completed.

gareth170 · 25 Apr 2007 at 15:14

u mean start the installer in windows? but i wanted to know is it posable to install it without having windows on first ..

IAmATeaf · 25 Apr 2007 at 15:42

gareth170 said:
u mean start the installer in windows? but i wanted to know is it posable to install it without having windows on first ..

Umm no that's not what I meant. You'll need to boot up off a window 98 boot disk, then use fdisk to create a partition, then use format to format the partition with the /s flag to make the partition bootable. After you've done this the PC should boot up off that partition, you then need to copy over the XP files onto that partition and then do the install from the copy. Now this copy bit presents a problem as if you already have a CD drive then I can't see the point of doing the above as you could just boot up off the CD and do the install so I assume you don't have a CD. When doing my old laptop years ago I created a network boot disk which loaded the relevant network drivers so that I could then map a drive to another PC to do the copy so you'll have to figure out a way of getting the files there.

gareth170 · 25 Apr 2007 at 16:05

IAmATeaf said:
if you already have a CD drive then I can't see the point of doing the above as you could just boot up off the CD and do the install.

im disabled and when my gf is at work, its very difficult for me to keep puting the dvd in everytime i wanna reinstall windows