Installing Windows without CD or USB

[darael]

I've been lumbered with an old laptop with about 1gb of RAM and a Celeron CPU with XP installed. XP refuses to update and after a few hours of trying to repair XP without a CD and repair Windows Update, I have simply given up before I chuck the thing.

I was reading up on how to install Windows from a harddrive, and it seems you run into a brick wall if you have a x64 system and are trying to copy x32 files and bootsect. Obviously I'm not willing to install x32 on my system just to prepare the drive.

Can anything be done with VirtualBox? What else can I try, just to get Windows reinstalled? I know XP is soon to be outdated, but I don't think Windows 7 would run too well.

 

[darael]

Why can you not download a copy of Windows XP and burn it to a disc and boot from it?

What are the laptop specs?

The machine has no access to a CD drive. The drive in the machine doesn't work, I have tried another internal CD drive with no success - therefore have concluded the port for the CD is dead. The laptop won't boot from an external CD drive, either.

start the install in a difference machine, after its done the file copying switch the hdd back...

if its a sata laptop drive you can do it in your desktop machine

I might just give that a try.

 

[darael]

I have never heard of starting an install on one machine and finishing it on another ? Will have to look into this, if not just for my own curiosity.

This lappy sounds old if it wont boot via USB, this may mean the hard drive will be the old IDE\ATA\PATA drive and not a SATA drive, you may run into problems connecting such a drive to a modern machine.

You say you have been "lumbered" with this laptop, does this mean you have been giving it for nothing or somebody as asked you to mend it ?

It's IDE, but I'm lucky enough to have an IDE port on my motherboard and the appropriate adapter. Sometimes when I look in my spares drawer, it's like the antiques roadshow.

I was given the laptop in hope I could do something with it. But if not, just leave it as it is and it'll make-do. To get Windows Updates working would just be a bonus.

 

[darael]

There's a known problem with Windows update on XP since the summer. It'll sit there and use all the available CPU for a couple of hours (shows as svchost.exe) due to it processing an ever increasing list of superseded updates. Upgrading to IE8 helps somewhat. MS have tried to fix it a couple of times in the monthly patch Tuesday but it's not helping a huge amount in my experience.

I'd suggest letting it run overnight.

Have tried letting Windows Update run for many an hours, but no joy. I keep getting errors when I try to repair the components/services related to WU, so have concluded that the install is shot.

Right now, I am installing Windows 7 from another computer onto the harddrive and the laptop seems to be installing Windows fine. If this fails, then it's a trip down XP lane.

 

[darael]

Update. Worked as intended, but as not expected. I half expected W7 to throw some error when the harddrive was put into the laptop. But no, booted up first time and W7 seems to work just fine.

I accept the laptop, with only 1GB of RAM, is a bit wimpy. But for what the laptop will be used for, I'd much rather have an up-to-date OS for the sake of speed.

I expect this 30GB harddrive will soon be full.