Options for install on laptop

gpuerrilla · 2 Mar 2006 at 13:34

My fiance has a work laptop which broke and got replaced. Now she wants me to repair it as the new one isnt as good as her old one.

I have the exact replacement HDD for the model however Im stuck as the cd-rom drive spins but doesnt do anything else. I would like to install windows on this HDD but is proving complicated as theres no floppy and cd-rom borked. What options have I got?

TIA

Th0nt

bledd · 2 Mar 2006 at 13:39

does it have a network card?

look around for cd drive, can buy replcaements for not too much usually!

BigBoy · 2 Mar 2006 at 20:22

either network boot or USB boot with i386 folder on it should do the trick

gpuerrilla · 3 Mar 2006 at 13:59

Sorry this thread must have missed being flagged as I didnt know anyone responded. I have a 512mb usb stick however dont know if that will hold the i386 folder Bigboy. Can you expand?

BigBoy · 3 Mar 2006 at 14:32

First off can the BIOS be set to boot from usb?

If yes then you need the stick formated so it is bootable do a google for booting from usb and there are loads of guides. then on a working pc copy the i386 folder from the Winxp cd onto the usb stick (512mb should be plenty) then just run the winnt.exe from inside the folder once booted.

gpuerrilla · 3 Mar 2006 at 17:54

BIOS options are only network, hdd and cd-rom.

gpuerrilla · 5 Mar 2006 at 20:42

Anyone had a similar experience?