how do you install WinXP on a laptop w/ no Cd-rom?

[jimmyshawg82]

Hey everyone,

I wanted to know how you can go about installing windowsXP on a hard drive of a laptop without using any cd-rom or floppy drives what-so ever?

I have an HP Omni-book 900 that has no such thing on it.

I have heard of partitioning a hard drive and moving all the setup files for XP onto the partition, and than installing XP onto the main partition from that.

I'm a little flaky on how to do it though, anyone know where I can get this kind of information, or tell me how this is done?

Thanks, John

 

[HermDogg]

You have to boot the thing somehow. I'm assuming that the 900 has no network boot (that's the 500mhz edition right?), so basically your only option is to pull the hard drive and install it somewhere else. Let me know if I'm thinking of the wrong model/specs.

 

[jimmyshawg82]

well, this model is 300Mhz. It has no ethernet or modem plugs. How can I install it somewhere else and have it work with the hardware of the HP laptop? Won't it have config issues?

 

[Shawn]

How much ram does it have? I wouldn't even try installing XP on that unless it has at least 256MB. But if you don't have an external cd-rom or floppy you won't be able to install anything without pulling the hard drive.

If you were to install Win98 it's much easier. Pull the hard drive. Format it and make sure you tell it to copy system files so that it boots. Then copy the win98 directory on the cd to the hard drive. Put the hard drive back into the laptop and run c:\win98\setup.exe and it'll install.

 

[Noema]

That computer sounds to old to run XP decently.

 

[jimmyshawg82]

I have no problem pulling the hard drive, and partitioning it and what not. I can add extra ram to it too. I run into these ultra portabe systems now and then and i would like to know how to install windows XP on them. I know it can be done, I had a friend of a friend who would do it for me, but he's in jail now.

 

[Steven the Leech]

The idea here is to have all required files allready on the internal harddrive when you power up your ThinkPad for installation, including of course a minimal system to boot up and start the installation process.

Convenient, but how do you get the files there?

* One option is to copy them via network boot (see above).
* Some Linux distributions offer ways to download the installation files from a FTP server and to choose this directory as installation source instead of a CD-ROM.
* A second way, if you already have a 'working' copy of DOS or MS Windows installed, is to start the installer from loadlin or GRUB. This is detailed here.
* Another one is to remove the harddrive from the ThinkPad and connect it to the other machine. Again, this can be achieved in several ways:
o putting the harddrive into an UltraBay secondary HDD adapter of a second ThinkPad
o putting the harddrive into an external casing and connect it to the second machine via USB, PCMCIA or whatever
o connecting the harddrive via a 2.5" (laptop) to 3.5" (desktop) harddrive adapter

Follow one of the following instructions.
[edit] Installing Windows 2000 or XP

* Attach the harddrive to the host computer and install a minimal bootable DOS system i.e. by booting a Win98 Emergency Boot Disk and performing the command "SYS X:" (where X = the laptop's harddrive).
* Copy FDISK.EXE to the laptop harddrive.
* Return the harddrive to the laptop and boot to DOS. (If you have Win98 installed by default, you can skip the first two steps and simply reboot in Windows to DOS.)
* Run FDISK and set up your new Windows system partition on this laptop. (If you do not do this on the laptop, after reboot you will receive the infamous "NTLDR IS MISSING" error. This error may still occur if the partition is greater than 7.8gb in size)
* Then return the drive to the host and format the drive as FAT32. (DO NOT format as NTFS.)
* Repeat the "SYS X:" step to make the new partition bootable.
* Copy Himem.sys and Config.sys, too. Otherwise SMARTDRIVE.EXE won't run
* Get SMARTDRV.EXE from the internet and copy it to your Thinkpads harddrive.
* Also, from the Win2K or WinXP CD, copy the I386 folder to the harddrive.
* Return the laptop's harddrive to the Thinkpad one final time and boot to DOS.
* Run SMARTDRV.EXE first, then change directories to I386 and run WINNT.EXE, this will allow the installation to begin.
* During installation, choose NOT to format the destination partition, since it contains the installation files. If you want that filesystem to be NTFS you can convert it after installation from within Windows.
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/...s_without_CD-ROM_drive
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/...s_without_CD-ROM_drive

 

[jimmyshawg82]

man, thats a lot of info. I will look into all of these options. Thanks!