Install Windows XP without a CD drive...

[relsoft]

Has anyone here had experienced installing windows XP using only the USB?

Our office bought a new desktop which does not come preinstalled with XP. There is however an XP CD that came with the package (licensed).  However I can't install the OS on a CD without a cd rom. 

One way I think would do w/o the use of the USB is that I get the HDD and install from another desktop.  However I don't wan't to open the Desktop case since doing so will void the warranty.

What we're they thinking by sending us a WinXP cd when the desktop has no CD drive no Floppy drive?
 

[Jim]

Borrow an external CD drive and hope the BIOS on the target PC is able to boot from CD.

Jim

[relsoft]

Problem is I don't have access to an external drive. :*(

If I could only boot from USB (using BARTPE or the likes which makes winxp run on a CD), all would be well.  I would only need to copy the \i386 folder to the HDD and setup from there.

Or even DOS booted from USB would be fine.

[rain_storm]

if it can be done it will be in the bios menu or the boot menu you will see a usb drive in the boot sequence. My pc can boot from usb floppy cd or hdd but i can only choose 3 of them and one must be a hdd. now the only problem that has me lost is how to get a bootable image of the install disk onto a usb drive

[Jim]

This utility http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,64963-page,1-c,downloads/description.html can format a USB stick to make it bootable.  Lots of places have FreeDOS to make a fully DOS environment.  Where you go from there I don't know - copy all the files off the CD onto the USB stick?

Jim

The original full HP archive is here http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&mode=3&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-UNITY-I23839

[relsoft]

if it can be done it will be in the bios menu or the boot menu you will see a usb drive in the boot sequence. My pc can boot from usb floppy cd or hdd but i can only choose 3 of them and one must be a hdd. now the only problem that has me lost is how to get a bootable image of the install disk onto a usb drive

I already new about that. :*)

Jim, I have a HP usb drive app. however, what you posted is different from mine and my be newer, I'll try it later.

PS: I also found over at a torrent site a USB based WinXP(BartPE).  However I can't test it as I forgot my 1 gb flash drive at work and I only have  an old 128 mb flash drive right now and I need about 256 MB of space.

Thanks guys, I'll tell you later what happens.

EDIT:

Jim, http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&mode=3&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-UNITY-I23839
Is the same as what I have.
:*)

BTW, Jim you mean I could install freedos as bootable using HP? Cool! How'd I do that?
ANyways, once I'll be able to boot of the USB, I could install XP in no time.  All I have to do is to copy (xcopy) the contents of the /i386 folder to the HDD and install from there. :*)


NVM: http://genetikayos.livejournal.com/43998.html

[Jim]

The only things I had to fix were to remove EMM386.EXE and HIMEM.SYS from the CONFIG.SYS file because they crash my PC on startup.  You might *need* them to run setup.exe, though.  I didn't bother to find out *why* they were crashing.

Jim

[relsoft]

Yay! Done.

1. I made a usb portable winxp by setting up a low level fomat and making the flash disk bootable by setting it to "0e, 80"
2. Copied some Bart pe usb files over to the usb
3. Copied the /i386 folder from the xp cd to flash
4. Copied a partition tool to flash
5. Booted from usb
6. Prepare HDD(partition, format, etc)
7. Copy /i386 folder to hdd.
8. Run Winnt32.exe to install.

Thanks for the help guys.