How to Install Windows XP without Using CD

[Guest]

Hi,

I have an old laptop for which I want to reinstall Windows XP. I have
Windows XP CD. But the problem is the laptop's CD-ROM is dead. So even though
the first boot device is the CD-ROM, when I boot up the laptop with Windows
XP CD in the CD-ROM, it doesn't detect the CD so it boot into Windows without
giving me a change to install Windows. Is there a way to install Windows
without using the CD? I do have other PCs and an USB external hard drive. Is
it possible to copy the Windows CD to the USB external hard drive and boot
using that hard drive to install Windows?

Thanks in advance!

dtwhsieh

 

[Mario Schmidt]

Hi,

I have an old laptop for which I want to reinstall Windows XP. I have
Windows XP CD. But the problem is the laptop's CD-ROM is dead. So even though
the first boot device is the CD-ROM, when I boot up the laptop with Windows
XP CD in the CD-ROM, it doesn't detect the CD so it boot into Windows without
giving me a change to install Windows. Is there a way to install Windows
without using the CD? I do have other PCs and an USB external hard drive. Is
it possible to copy the Windows CD to the USB external hard drive and boot
using that hard drive to install Windows?

You may want to use BartPE to boot from USB and then use winnt32.exe
(and suitable paramaters for copying whole stuff first) for setting up
Windows XP from BartPE. Just copy all files from the XP CD onto the USB
media where you installed BartPE.

 

[Wes Groleau]

I have an old laptop for which I want to reinstall Windows XP. I have
Windows XP CD. But the problem is the laptop's CD-ROM is dead. ...

Borrow a CD drive. If necessary, borrow a hardware geek
to put it in for you.

Or buy a similar laptop on eBay and use it for parts.

Or put your hard drive in another machine, install, then put it back.