Installing windows without a CDROM

Hey everyone, I have an Asus Eee PC and I'm interested in reinstalling windows xp on the system. I don't have a CDROM drive. I'm thinking the best way would be from a USB stick? Any ideas? Thanks.

 

XP was released in 2001, prior to mainstream access to USB keys with enough capacity to hold it. The installer was kind of dated even back then, remember it still wants third party drivers off a floppy disk.

As such, the installer is not versatile enough to run natively from a USB key. There have been some shoehorning attempts to get it to work, you can google for some ideas.

Alternatively, find a USB-based CDROM drive you can borrow.

 

Thanks. I wouldn't need to do this if I could perform a system restore to a few months ago but it seems they've been erased. Are there any ways of restoring older deleted checkpoints?

 

No, not unless you saved an image of your drive from that time period. You could reinstall the image and thus get to older checkpoints. Of course if you had an old image you probably wouldn't need old checkpoints.

If I had a need or want for a netbook I would invest in an external CD/DVD optical drive. It just makes sense for installing programs, OS, or whatever since the cost is not that high for ease of use.

 

There's a program that would allow you to make a bootable Windows XP (works for Vista and 7) on a usb stick.
It's called Novcirop Winflash.

WinToFlash - Install Windows from usb - Home page

You can download and give it a try.