how to install xp with no cd?

stuey

I have a dell inspiron 3600 with a busted cd drive. I need to reinstall xp on it. It has a floppy drive and no ethernet port. My idea was as follows

Make a bootable floppy with NTFSPRO [done]. copy the i386 folder onto the laptop [done]. boot from cd and run winnt.exe from the hardrive [done]. windows asks for location of install files c:\i386 [done]

Then i get this error (see jpeg).

I thought my solution was pretty smart until this error happened. Im using VMWare at the mo to mess around with the idea

SantaHoe

Is it possible that there is an option in the bios preventing anything writing to your harddrives boot-sector/master boot record?
I had a mobo a few years ago that would bring up a visual warning if the boot sector was about to be written to... either that, or I'm going nuts again and imagining things.
Worth a look though.

stuey

nah cause im working with VMWare (virtaul machine) at the moment. so dont think that is it

Capt'n Midnight

At a guess it's cos Winnt can't write to the NTFS partition and can only write to FAT. At least 2K offered the options to make three boot floppies which loaded the NTFS drivers. (yet another reason why I don't like using NTFS for the system drive if you can avoid it)

Resize the partition so you can setup a FAT32 one perhaps ?
Partition Magic might be able to change NTFS back to FAT ?

Run the setup on another HDD until it gets to the point where it says remove disks to restart.. If you could copy the files in the temporary folders ~BT etc. to the laptop and then hope the boot loader still works.. But I'd reckon that would be a complete waste of time.

Remove the HDD from the laptop - put into another with a working CD install XP, (optional step run sysprep) and pop back again.

stuey

Resize the partition so you can setup a FAT32 one perhaps ?

No cd drive to run PM you see cause i thought of that. I knew the issue was all to do with NTFS.

Remove the HDD from the laptop - put into another with a working CD install XP, (optional step run sysprep) and pop back again

Thought of this as well. Put i want to try and getting it to run without aving to take the lappy apart. I challenge if u like

lomb

what u need is an usb external cd writer drive i had one let it go for 30 im sure u can pick one up and then let it on after.

stevenmu

SantaHoe wrote:

Is it possible that there is an option in the bios preventing anything writing to your harddrives boot-sector/master boot record?
I had a mobo a few years ago that would bring up a visual warning if the boot sector was about to be written to... either that, or I'm going nuts again and imagining things.
Worth a look though.

Some mobos (or maybe all these days, not sure) have a virus protection option, probably something to do with that.

That could be the OPs problem but my first guess would be a VMware issue, ahev you tried installing without VMware ?

Gurgle

I have at least one spare CD drive, free if you want it - PM.

seamus

If you're really stuck, and if the BIOS will allow it, it should be possible to bodge an internal CDROM drive for a PC, with a USB External HDD case, and allow to boot from that.
That's if you're really stuck, and have an external HDD case. Everyone has at least one old CDROM drive lying about

Also, as stevenmu says, what about without VMWare?

pickarooney

I don't get it, you say the CD drive is bust and you're still booting from it and trying to install the OS from it?

Gurgle

seamus wrote:

If you're really stuck, and if the BIOS will allow it, it should be possible to bodge an internal CDROM drive for a PC, with a USB External HDD case, and allow to boot from that.

Does an Inspiron not have a 5¼" bay ?

- edit - duh! - An Inspiron is a laptop!

lazygit

This may be a 98 thingy but from the DOS prompt type LOCK C: and press enter and select Yes

stuey

pickarooney wrote:

I don't get it, you say the CD drive is bust and you're still booting from it and trying to install the OS from it?

No im booting from a floppy. The contents of the i386 folder are copied onto the hard drive already.
Its not a VMWare issure. Im pretty sure of that.

I think Im going to get another cd drive fir it. More expense cause at the moment i cant see another way around it.

SantaHoe

stevenmu wrote:

Some mobos (or maybe all these days, not sure) have a virus protection option, probably something to do with that.

Yeah, but afaik they're mostly for preventing the bios being written to... since I haven't seen the mbr warning in my last few PCs even with virus protection enabled.

That could be the OPs problem but my first guess would be a VMware issue, ahev you tried installing without VMware ?

I don't get it, you say the CD drive is bust and you're still booting from it and trying to install the OS from it?

Yeah I think we're missing some pieces of the puzzle here tbh.
My impression is that he tried to install normally, then fell back to VMware to narrow the problem down... (IE. using virtual drives and a virtual bios to eliminate them as suspects)
I put the whole "booting from CD" down to a typo or slip of tongue.
But how did you copy over the \i386\ folder and from where?

To the original question asked in the title - "how to install xp with no cd?" - the method you're using should work under normal conditions.

stuey

Ok I'll go through everything again. And i never said i was booting from a cd. )(I think) If i did, I amn't

First of all the lappy already has XP installed (NTFS). Its full of viruses tho and totally messed up. Still bottable tho. So i booted up into windows and copied the i386 folder from my working xp cd across my wireless network to the laptop. There is nothing wrong with the cd. I then rebooted, booting from a floppy with NTFSPRO dos. I deleted the old windows folders and files from the hard drive. I then ran winnt.exe from the i386 folder on the harddrive and then the error that is in the jpeg above comes up.

In actual fact Im only working in VMware at the mo. I dont want to wipe the lappy if i dont know i can get XP back on to it.

For those of you that think VMWare is at fault. I have tried it on a spare pc of mine and the exact same is happening. Im using VMWare cause its far simplier for troubleshooting and means I wont crew up the laptop

lazygit

you cant install XP onto an NTFS Harddisk using a Bootable Floppy even using NTFSPRO.
You could try to convert the NTFS drive to FAT32 using Partition Magaic 8 if you have it.

stuey

yeah i have come to the conclusion myself. It seems totally stupid tho. Cause windows will install onto a preformatted ntfs partition but only if you boot from a cd.

I cant use PM cause i haev no cd drive. Can PM go onto a floppy.

I just tried the exact smae method but using a FAT partiton and it worked fine.
Damn Microsoft

stevenmu

SantaHoe wrote:

Yeah, but afaik they're mostly for preventing the bios being written to... since I haven't seen the mbr warning in my last few PCs even with virus protection enabled.

My curiosity was aroused so I did a quick check and it does protect the boot sector too. I'd guess that the software is capable of recognising when it's a known OS installer attempting to write to the boot sector. Based on that I'd go one step further and guess that maybe older BIOSes won't recognise XP and therefore deny it access to the boot sector.

Stuey you should disable this option in the BIOS if it's enabled, at least untill you get XP reinstalled. If possible try getting the latest BIOS for your laptop too. You mention that it's currently full of viruses, one of these could have already damaged the boot sector and that's what's preventing xp setup writing to it. Try some AV software (AVG for eg is free). When that's done you could try running recovery console, one of the options at the start of XP setup, this is kind of like a dos prompt, running "fixmbr" and "fixboot" in this may help repair any damage done by a virus.

You may be better off just using your network connection to backup all your files off the laptop, partition and start again.

stuey

Does anybody know what VMWare is!!!!!!!

Im using virtual machines at the moment. And i know that its not the virtual machine software at fault

SantaHoe

stuey wrote:

Does anybody know what VMWare is!!!!!!!

Yeah I do
It's a good idea.
Rules out a fux0rd bios and harddrive, nice going.

stuey wrote:

And i never said i was booting from a cd. )(I think) If i did, I amn't

stuey wrote:

boot from cd and run winnt.exe from the hardrive [done]

^ That's what confused us I think.

You said you can't use partition magic because you've no cd drive... couldn't you copy it to the laptop over the wireless network?
Or even if you can't copy it across because it needs to install from the CD, you might try one of the downloadable-from-the-internet equivalents.

stuey

SantaHoe wrote:

You said you can't use partition magic because you've no cd drive... couldn't you copy it to the laptop over the wireless network?

Ur a genius how come i never thought of that!!!!!
Altho I have had a lot of trouble with PM before I think it is worth the shot

Thanks a mil

GiMiC

Partition Magic also runs from a couple of floppy disks (one for boot, one for the program itself). Might be a better option than running it from the laptop HD as you can get conflicts when running the partioning software from the drive/partition you're re-partitioning.