How to install Xp from another source rather than CD Drive

PowerHouseDan

Hey i have a Xp cd and want to reinstall it on my laptop but my cd drive on my laptop does not work anymore what other options do i have to install it?

Mr. Presentable

If you have another PC you can share the cd drive on that with the machines networked

http://www.mcmcse.com/windows_xp/guides/additionalinstall.shtml

PowerHouseDan

How do i go about booting from that then? What do i have to do in the bios?

Ghost Train

there are a few different ways... but all a but trickier than with a cd

if you have a floppy drive, you can make a netbootdisk.com and do it over a network connection. just copy the xp cd files to a shared folder on another pc. run winnt.exe from the shared folder

if you can boot to a usb hard disk you can do it that way. Just put windows 98 system files on the drive and copy xp cd files to disk. boot to dos, run smartdrv.exe, goto the i386 folder and run winnt.exe

if you copy the cd folders to the laptop harddisk (has to be fat32 format) then boot from win98 floppy disk and run the winnt.exe on the harddisk

if the laptop boots with an external usb cd drive, that would also be an easy solution.

Mr. Presentable

Do you have a floppy drive?

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;310994#XSLTH3135121122120121120120

Ghost Train

if its a sata drive or you have a way of sticking the drive in a normal pc, you can start the install on a regular pc, setup will copy files to the harddisk. when it comes to the first reboot, stick the hard disk back in the laptop and continue the install