How to install Windows XP professional?

Guys,

Sorry for the silly question, but I have only installed XP pro on my desktop, never tried it on a laptop before, so I need to make sure.

I bought a used laptop that came with xp pro installed. The laptop has no CD drive. The HD crashed so I need to replace it. I have the xp pro CD, so do I just connect an external CD drive to the laptop via usb, install the new HD and install xp pro from the CD drive?

 

hmmm, that might be a problem.
let me get this straight, it has no CD drive?
Does it have any optical drives? ie DVD drive, ect?
if it has no optical drive, does it have the option to put one? and by one I mean one that is not connected via USB

The problem with USB is that at least 9 times out of 10, the USB connection us not made until the OS is booted.

If the USB CD drive doesn't work, my suggestion is to connect the HD to another laptop that has a CD drive, and install the OS from there. Then take the HD and put it into the laptop you just bought and remember to intall the proper BIOS.

the problem with that solution is that you need another laptop to do it.

another option would be to turn it into an ext HD and use your Desktop to intall the OS and then take the HD and put it into your laptop, and install the BIOS.

Aside from that I can;t think of anything off hand.

I hope this helps you in some way or another. Feel free to keep posting questions, and good luck.

Fry

 

If the laptop is pretty new (manufactured in the past 1 to 2 years, maybe even older than that) it might support booting from USB. You just need to change the boot order. You might want to check that out.

Also, you can take out the HDD as suggested, but make sure you change a few things like the video setting/driver into a generic one or else you won't see anything on the screen when you boot it up on the laptop. I think.

 

when I try to instal a new xppro on a usb hd i get so far ,THEN: your computer,s start up program cannot access to disk containing partition or free space set up cannot install windows on hard disk.
disk attached to a scsi adapter that wasn,t installed by your computer man. or to a secondary hard disk controller are not visible to start up program unless special software is used. Wow! any help???

 

First of all, how old is the laptop? If there was no CD drive then it must have a floppy drive? If it's one of those laptops that were meant for business where you didn't need a CD drive then an external CD drive must've been an option. What's the specs?

 

What notebook do you have here???

 

If you don’t have a USB CD ROM then you’d at least need an external HDD enclosure or another notebook with a CD rom. You can take out the hard disk from the first notebook, then connect it to another PC with a USB enclosure OR to another notebook. Afterwards format the disk in FAT32, install DOS and copy the i386 folder of XP CD. Connect it back to the original notebook, boot up and run i386\Winnt.exe.

 

If your laptop is relatively new, a USB optical drive is your best option