install XP on cdrom-less laptop: possibly from USB drive?

[tart666]

I need to install xp pro on a laptop with no cdroms... what options do I have?

never done this before, but there has to be a way, either putting xp on a usb drive, or a network install, what do you guys recommend?

 

[Cosmic_Horror]

Network install would be the easiest and fastest way. (i haven't done this so i can't give any practical advice, but a quick search on goggle should help)

If your laptop doesn't have a cd-rom check the minimum specs for XP to make sure it will run.....

good luck...

 

[tart666]

it comes with xp home (edit: dell C400, just bought it yesterday, actually), should run xp pro (I hope)

as far as network install, the official party line seems that you need to have 2003 server and AD for the MS net install to work, can anyone confirm? Are there any workarounds?

 

[Sianath]

Not true.

You can do a network based share install without AD or a server. The tough part is that you need to be able to boot to a command prompt with network access. Usually this is done with WinPE in a corp environment, but you may have other options.

You would run setup using the winnt.exe /s:\\<server>\<sharename> (or winnt32.exe if you were doing this from WinPE as it's a 32-bit environment) after using diskpart.exe (WinPE) or FDisk to create a partition, format it, and mark it active.

Probably not easy in your situation, but for academic reasons, I had to point out that it IS possible.