Installing XP without a CD drive

Misiowiec

Misiowiec

Misiowiec

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I have a HP Pavilion laptop with a corrupt installation, and I want to reinstall XP. Unfortunately the optical drive is broken (why keep the laptop, you ask…).

Is there a way to install XP without the optical drive, and without access to a network installation? I was thinking of taking out the HD and placing it in a 2.5” USB2 enclosure. Could I then create a boot sector, copy the installation files from the original XP OEM CD and put it back in the laptop which would proceed to boot and install XP? Any ideas how to do this?

Many thanks.
 
Copy the files onto the HDD from the CD via the USB enclosure.

You can't boot off the files you copied so you'll need a floppy or maybe even a USB flash drive. Copy the start up files from www.bootdisk.com onto the media and boot from it.

Then load up the WINNT.exe from the I386 folder.

That should sort you.

Burnsy
 
Thanks for the suggestion Burnsy, I'm coping the files now. A few more things which are unclear though:

1. Will I only be needing the I386 folder?

2. The laptop does not have a floppy drive (nor do any of my PCs), but I do have a USB flash drive - which boot files will I need? Looking at www.bootdisk.com I'm not sure.

3. The harddrive I want to install on is in NTFS format as XP on this PC did not give me the option to format in FAT32. Will this be a problem, and do I need a special bootdisk that deals with NTFS?

Thanks,
Martin
 
Misiowiec said:
1. Will I only be needing the I386 folder?
Click to expand...

Copy the whole disc
Misiowiec said:
2. The laptop does not have a floppy drive (nor do any of my PCs), but I do have a USB flash drive - which boot files will I need? Looking at www.bootdisk.com I'm not sure.
Click to expand...

Try formatting the flash drive and click the 'copy system files'

Misiowiec said:
3. The harddrive I want to install on is in NTFS format as XP on this PC did not give me the option to format in FAT32. Will this be a problem, and do I need a special bootdisk that deals with NTFS?
Click to expand...
Yes, this could be a problem.

Burnsy
 
burnsy2023 said:
Copy the whole disc

Try formatting the flash drive and click the 'copy system files'

Yes, this could be a problem.

Burnsy
Click to expand...

Formatting the flash drive disables the option of copying system files unfortunately. Other ideas?

Any any solution for the NTFS / FAT32 issue?
 
If your other PC has a floppy:

1. Get a bootdisk from bootdisk.com (Win98SE will do)
2. Boot off this disk.
3. Use FDISK to create a new partition on your target hard disc.
4. Format X: (where X is the partition you created). This will format in FAT32.
5. Type sys X: to copy across system files from the floppy boot disk.
6. Boot into windows and copy the XP CD to X:\WinXPCD or similar.
7. (optional) find smartdrv.exe and copy it to the drive - or Windows Setup will be horrendously slow at the start.

Then take the drive back to the laptop and boor up. It should boot into a DOS prompt (Windows 98!).

8. (optional) Run smartdrv if present.
9. run C:\WinXPCD\i386\winnt.exe
10. Voila!

One installed, 'Previous Operating System' will appear in the bootloader. This can be safely removed.
 
If you format FAT32, it doesn't really matter Win 98 should be fine, although using smartdrive like csmanger has suggested is very important unless you want to get old with your PC ;)

Burnsy
 
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