Question : is it possible to install Windows XP onto a laptop which does not have a cd or dvd rom?

Hi Everyone;

        I have a friend of mine with a failed hard drive which does not boot into Windows XP at all.  While I have not carried out any diagnoistics yet, I am wondering if XP can be reinstalled onto this laptop which does not have a cd or dvd rom.  It does have several external USB ports.  But, I am hoping we do not have to go out and purchase an external cd or dvd rom. A windows xp cd did not come with the Acer One laptop when it was purchased from Radio Shack.  

          Hypothetically speaking of course, I am wondering if we can access the harddrive of the failed HDD and perform a clean wipe and reinstall from there.

         Any help regarding this tricky situation will be appreciated.

          Thank you

          George

Answer : is it possible to install Windows XP onto a laptop which does not have a cd or dvd rom?

hey George - just found your Question ; from my notes :
Sometimes it isn't possible to install Windows XP from the CD. But with the assistance of Windows 98 you can load Windows XP quite easily.

Follow these steps:
-connect the drive to a desktop PC, as only disk
-boot from a bootable win98SE floppy
-format the drive as fat32 (to be able to be recognised by win98)
-issue the command sys C:
-copy the xp cd to a folder (or just the i386 folder)
-copy the himem.sys and smartdrv.exe files to the root (you find them on any win98 system
-create an autoexec.bat file containing :     smartdrv.exe
-create a config sys file containing :           device=himem.sys    
now put the drive back in the lappy, boot it up, and navigate to the i386 folder, start the xp setup by typing :
winnt

download smartdrv.exe here :   http://vetusware.com/download.php
http://searchwinsystems.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid68_gci955465,00.html
http://www.fan.tv/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=14023&PN=1