Installing Windows XP with a twist.

neoboy · 18 Jun 2008 at 00:15

Basically I have a relative old laptop that my parents have been using to browse the web and Windows is now all corrupted and inaccessible and needs reinstalling. I still have the original disc and the like but the problem is that the CD-Drive in the laptop broke a while ago and it took the connection inside the lappy with it (I tried installing a new slimline drive to no avail). So at this point I'm wondering how I can reinstall it. My initial idea was to get an external USB drive, however, I clicked on that in order for it to work Windows needs to recognise it first doesn't it?

I heard that it's possible to put some drivers on a usb stick to be able to use the external USB drives without going into Windows, however, I really wouldn't know where to start. Infact would it be possible to simply transfer files from the CD to a USB stick and install that way? Any help on the matter would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Cobertizo · 18 Jun 2008 at 00:39

Try googling something like "install xp from usb". Or Asus EEEpc Win XP guides, as lots of people seem to install it on their Eeepcs that way. For example:
http://www.modaco.com/content/asus-eee-pc-http-www-eeeasy-com/261632/installing-xp-via-a-usb-stick/

And an over-the-network guide here, if that helps:
http://www.networkcert.net/xp/install.htm#network

Snakedoctor · 18 Jun 2008 at 00:49

To be honest I would expect the drive to be seen and work. It is BIOS, not windows which needs to read the drive. I would check your BIOS settings to see if they allow "Boot from external source" or similar. I mean, how would you expect a pen drive to be bootable when a DVD drive is not? It is the same interface. I have an external USB hard disk which is seen as a possible boot device. This is not a laptop though.

I have a feeling you are referring to the bad old days of win 9x.

MouseMat2004 · 18 Jun 2008 at 10:48

if you have a 360 hddvd drive then these work perfectly as a usb drive.

neoboy · 21 Jun 2008 at 04:57

Little update:

Followed the advice on here. The laptop gets to "the installation is checking hardware" or something similar and then gives me "file \$win_nt$."bt\biosinfo.inf could not be loaded. The error code is 18". Get the same message on it and my fully working XP machine.

I can't find a definitive answer for the biosinfo.inf message but error 18 is:

Reinstall the drivers for this device. (Code 18) Error Code 18 appears when Windows is unable to read the device driver. To solve the problem, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the name of the device in the Device Manager and choose Uninstall from the pop-up menu.

2. Open the Action menu and choose the Scan For Hardware Changes option to reinstall the device driver you just uninstalled.

If the same error code appears again, right-click the name of the device, and then choose Update Driver from the pop-up menu.

So does this possibly mean that my laptop simply doesn't support booting from USB device? Can't be the case though as why would it recognise it in the BIOS and let me change the boot sequence as well as give the initial "checking system" message when it does boot from it.