So, how am I gonna install an OS without USBboot or CD drive?

I've got an Acer Travelmate 4402WLMi that I picked up quite some time ago, rocking about 5 years ago to which I remember my first laptop in college.

Well, today's the day I wanted give it another format and OS reload.
Problem is, due to the age as you know, the CD drive doesn't work anymore. Did some searches online, OEM laptop sites don't seem to hold my CD drive cuz the Travelmate 4402 series (or even the 4400's in general) don't appear on their selection.

So, was wondering, how am I going to do this?

here's the facts again:
-Has current setup of XP safe and good, I just want to reformat to get rid of traces from some old work junk that got on a few years ago.
-NO USB boot (bios 1.20 is highest, and I have that)
-NO USB CD boot - I would presume it fits the same case as above
-NO CDROM - drive is dead and doesn't read.

Was thinking of grabbing a 2.5 to 3.5 converter, but is that my only choice?

 

I would just get a replacement optical.
Most laptops have standard optical drives that will work. I am pretty sure Acer is not one of the companies that ever used proprietary optical drives. If you'd like to be sure, just pop out the optical drive and look up the model number on the optical drive itself. A slimline optical drive should be around $40, even with DVD burning capabilities.

 

Perhaps this will work. Most manufacturers use the same CD drive in most of their notebook models (at least in those that came out in the same time). Check the user manual for compatible part numbers.

The only other option is to copy all the installation files (contents of the i386 folder of Windows XP CD) on to the hard drive and start the installation by running winnt.exe. For this you have to take out the hard disk and connect it to another computer over usb. And you need to keep the hard disk bootable.

 

A few options:

You could try to download XP Setup onto your hard drive and just run the setup within your existing XP, but it might say your XP setup is older than your existing XP and refuse to reinstall, if this is the case try uninstalling your Updates and Service Packs as far back as possible or find an SP3 XP Setup to do it with.

Another way to remove the HDD and stick it into another PC, you may need an adaptor for a desktop PC, Copy XP Setup while its in the other PC/Laptop. load a DOS boot system into it so when you do put it back into your Laptop it can boot for you to run XP Setup from hard drive.

Have you tried just deleting the files you don't want, if its just old work files...

You could just create a new User profile and delete the old one to remove files you don't need in your Documents etc. Remember to backup files you do need.

Replacing you CD-Rom is probably best and easiest method tho! You just need to make sure the new one fits the case and connector.

Its probably not worth it unless you know what your doing tho, don't fix it if its not broken remember! If its running fine why change it! If you feel some system files may have been corrupted try re-installing a service pack. Sounds like it reaching the end of its life anyway.

You could try a cleaning software to remove junk.

 

If you have another computer and are installing XP, check out my guide:

How To Install XP Without Optical nor External Drives

 

Phew Im a pro at no CD installs.

Can an SD card be booted?

 

No USB boot so the chances of that are very slim.

 

I know my Toshiba Tablet PC had no USB boot so I simply copied a DOS environment into my 1 gig SD Card, formatted my HD into a DOS partition, copied the windows files onto it, and started installation from there

 

Well, kind of awkward to state but I think I kinda lucked out. While trying to remove the optical from the tray, I decided to give it a final last ditch attempt of my own version of a "cleaning." Unscrewed whatever stuff I saw on it, dusted the heck off of everything, lens and all.

Slapped it back on, Drive.. actually worked. Junk's 5 years old now, and it decided to fake out a common symptom. Got around to installing the OS and now I'm back up and running.

My dilemma is solved, but I'm still interested in the original question of this thread. Seems there has been some pretty good answers and in light of this, I am always open to more opportunities to learn.

Although I have to say, Stew's link is pretty interesting. I'll be giving that a shot next time just for the sake of trying. Is there possibilities for an OS like say, Ubuntu being performed this way?

 

Yes! 10 char

 

Unfortunately, I don't have any experience with Ubuntu.

If you're asking if that method to install XP will work in Ubuntu, as long as you can run winnt32.exe, which is a 32-bit application, within Ubuntu, then the method I posted should work exactly the same as in Windows.