Installing Windows without CD or USB

darael

darael

darael

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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 I know XP is soon to be outdated, but I don't think Windows 7 would run too well.
 
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?
 
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
 
Download XP from a reputable source. Seeing the laptop came with XP installed you could make the downloaded image into an OEM image. The laptops BIOS will hold SLP1.0 info for which ever maker it is. HP, ASUS etc etc.

All you need then is the matching OEMBIOS Set files adding to the XP image and bobs your uncle. A genuine OEM install.

Which manufacturer is It ?
 
Sparx said:
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?
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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.
edscdk said:
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
Click to expand...
I might just give that a try.
 
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 ?
 
tnx said:
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 ?
Click to expand...
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. :o

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 said:
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. :o

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.
Click to expand...

A well stocked "spares drawer" A man after my own heart. Everybody should have one.;)

What make is it ? If you knew somebody with the same make laptop this might work.
Use their laptop to install XP onto your drive then when your drive is put back into the old laptop it may not kick up a fuss and work properly.

But it sounds quite old, it has faults, i.e. no cd drive working. Nowt lasts forever. It maybe time to find room in your spares drawer for a laptop.
Poor thing.
 
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.
 
MagicBoy said:
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.
Click to expand...

I've come across this problem in the last couple of weeks as I've had to re-configure my work PC's
The best solution I've found is -
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...site-has/341e63e6-aeb5-4b71-8c0b-9c62ce0b959f

IE8 is needed.

As MagicBoy suggested the PC may take a while for the first update to work.
 
MagicBoy said:
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
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. :D
 
darael said:
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.
Click to expand...

Possible, but unlikely. If the service is grabbing all the CPU it'l be difficult to fix until it's cleanly shut down. For reference I virtualised an old PC with an XP install from 2004 a few weeks ago. I let that run and it took over two hours even with a couple of MacBook Pro i7 cores and a fast SSD thrown at it. God knows how long it would have taken on the original 2.6GHz P4 which has gone for recycling.

We've had no problems at work, but we manage the updates with WSUS so it doesn't go via the Microsoft internet service.

Glad you managed to get Win 7 on it. It'll be fine for basic use, an extra 1Gb of RAM would help performance.
 
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