need os installed but have no cdrom drive

A friend gave me a laptop and am trying to figure out a clever way to install an os. it has an A drive, USB port, serial and parallel. Its an HP Omnibook 3000ctx.

since it starts off in dos and stops there, I tried to see if it would recognize the usb memory stick (256mb cruzer mini) so I could install it from there, but typing in abcdefghij with a : after it, the only drive it sees is the C: drive. Anyone have an idea how to possibly hook it up to my desktop to recognize an external drive with the serial or parallel port, or have another idea. Yes, I could go probably go buy something external or see if I could maybe find a cdrom for this laptop, but Im going to school and need a clever way not an expensive way.

Thanks,

Tom

 

Does this system already have an OS on it? If so, you can try a few things that may help.

1. Copying over all the files to your HDD via your home network from another system. The Cruzer memory drives aren't bootable (I have one as well).

2. If this is XP, try installing using the floppy drive. Here's a link to show you how to do it.
http://www.tech-recipes.com/windows_installation_tips284.html

3. Get an external USB drive cage and connect your notebook HDD to this and plug into your desktop to copy all the files over, boot from a 98 boot disk and run setup on the HDD

Option #2 may be your best/cheapest route. Hope it works.

-Vb-

 

Venom, option 2 won't work at all because that only applies in the case that there is physically a CD-ROM drive present but the computer can't recognize it pre-installation of an OS.

It miiiiight be possible to do the trick with option 3, but I've never heard of it being done. It's not possible to boot to a USB-connected drive, is it? Otherwise I can't really think of how you could install XP onto the externally connected drive. Could it be possible, if you copied the entire contents of the WinXP Cd to the drive, you could boot from the drive, pretending it was a bootable CD, and install to itself? I can't think of any other way.

 

If you can get access to a copy of Windows 2000 (or 2003), you can use the Terminal Server to install a windows based OS...provided the laptop you're trying to install supports PXE (network boot).

If you feel comfortable taking the HD out, you can throw it into another machine and install the OS that way and then reinstall the drive back in its original machine.

Depending on if your system supports it, a network install may be the better way to go.