Installing OS without optical drive?

Hello, I was wondering if it's possible to install Windows XP if I don't have an optical drive? I am interested in the Asus M6BNE but would rahter have an extra battery than a cd/dvd burner.

Thanks!

 

No, you can't even map the drive in this case becuase the install works outside of windows. You have to have a local drive to work from.

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Hmmm, that really sucks. Would their be anyway to connect a desktop drive to a laptop to do the install? Maybe through the USB port? Also, I have another question that is related but is about hardware. If I opt for the spare battery instead of an optical drive would it use it? Or is just a storage for the battery and I'd have to switch the batteries when the first one runs out?

Thanks again!

 

I've used a ThinkPad that has an extra battery in the ultrabay and the power management software does indeed switch to the secondary battery when the first is drained...it just depends if your laptop has the right software and drivers to "know" to do such a thing -- in general if your laptop even offers this option then it will just switch for you.

Assuming that you don't have any OS on your laptop, you need to boot it from a local drive or if that's not possible then a network

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Your USB ports are useless unless an OS and drivers are installed for whatever you connect to them.

 

You can actually get an external USB HDD or memory key (if bootable) to boot in DOS without drivers. All you have to do is goto your BIOS and enable USB Legacy support and change the boot sequence to allow for our USB drive to boot. I was capable of booting from a USB key and my USB 2.5 HDD. You can easily have this drive formatted using FAT32 with Windows 98 system files. Copy the entire Windows XP CD onto the USB drive/memory key (gonna need a 1GB+ key for it to fit). Boot the system via the USB drive/key and run setup from the HDD ( WINNT.EXE which is located in the i386 folder). The only problem I see going this route is the speed. This will take a LONG time to install. It's only running at USB 1.1 speeds (12MBits/sec) not at USB 2.0 (480MBits/sec). After the install is complete, make sure you go back to the BIOS and disable Legacy USB support, this will giev you USB 2.0 support again in Windows.

-Vb-

 

I would still suggest getting at least a standard CD-ROM drive for the selectbay/multibay or whatever ASUS calls it. There are so many apps that still run from CD, and some that you just cannot download efficiently. You will also have more difficulty making backups for your system without some sort of storage device, and a CD-RW is the most cost-efficient way of doing so.

You can always swap it out when you need the extra battery life. That is why the option is offered.

 

Getting the CDRW drive is good option, but probably the most expensive route. Asus charges quite a bit for the drive ($150-$200, possibly more). The CDRW media is cheap, but that's on top of the drive cost. By getting a notebook drive (60GB) and a 2.5" USB 2.0 drive cage for the new drive, it'll probably cost about the same, but you will have a full 60GB of available storage at your fingertips rather than fumbling around with multiple 700MB CDRW's. This is just my personal opinion. [ ]

-Vb-

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Venombite