Need to Install Windows XP on a machine with Ubuntu

A friend gave me an old Fujitsu tablet that has Ubuntu/Linux installed.
I want to wipe the system clean and install Windows XP.
I have a Windows XP CD but the tablet PC doesn't have a CDROM drive.
I transfered the files from the Windows XP CD to a USB key. The problem is you can't run the Windows XP setup in the Ubuntu environment and the Bios of the Tablet PC will does not support booting from a USB device.
Is there a way to run the Windows XP setup on my USB key from the Ubuntu recovery mode or is there some other alternative to install Windows XP on this machine. Thanks

 

How did you get Ubuntu to take up the whole hard drive if you didn't boot from USB to install it? Just wondering if the machine can boot from USB and it's just your USB stick that's not bootable. It's tricky to get XP to boot from USB.

Is it possible to run the XP install from Ubuntu with WINE?

 

that's what i was wondering..but his friend could have used an external cdrom drive which would make sense.... or like u said aznguyphan there's something wrong with his usb drive....
there are ways to make your usb drive recognized as bootable..but you have to have windows installation disc to do it as said here http://www.ehow.com/how_6009008_boot-non_bootable-usb.html
...mmmm..there is this program called PloP bootmanager that may be of help..here's the link: PloP bootmanager

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm not sure how he got Ubuntu onto the machine, I'm still waiting for his response.
I don't see how a laptop (7-years old) will boot from ANYTHING attached to a USB port. It wouldn't boot from an external CDrom drive that had my windows install CD in it.
Installing Wine seems like a good idea. This should allow Windows XP setup to run, but not if Windows XP setup reboots the machine.

 

Your best bet would be to contact Fujitsu directly. They may have a recovery CD that can be used to image the drive with an XP install, once you transfer the HDD to another machine. If you look at this support page it may lead somewhere useful.

Your other alternative would be to try and do a Windows bootstrap install to the laptop's hard drive, while it's connected to another computer. That process is documented in general here, and here, but here are the steps;

There's also a long thread over at the SysChat forums on the subject. Lastly, you can also ask this question over in the NBR Windows OS forums as they may have better suggestions.

Good Luck..

 

...or just learn to love ubuntu!