Install WinXP without a CD-Drive...

Sonic

Hey guys, I've got a little situation I could use some help on. I'm headed out of town early tomorrow and I'll be gone for a month. My dad has lent me his little Dell latitude d410 to take with me. It would be fine for what I need to do except it has Windows 2000 on it, which I cannot stand. I have my original XP CD, but the computer has no CD-Drive and I don't have an external one to plug into it. What I do have is a 96gb external USB HDD (which is actually my old laptop's internal drive pulled out and placed in an external case after the laptop was busted up in a scooter crash in thailand... long story.) and a fully functional desktop PC running XP pro SP2. My PC knowledge is pretty good, but I don't think it is quite good enough to have a solution researched, trial & errored, and implemented in time for my trip tomorrow. Not with all the other things I also have to take care of between now and then, anyway. So my question is: Does anyone have a relatively simple solution to get XP onto this machine with nothing but USB?

Oh and as an added twist I don't have the password to log into the 2000 installation and won't until I can get a hold of my dad later tonight. I suppose I could wait until then, but I'd rather not be up late into the night when I have to be up at 5am, ya know.

Erandus

If you have an XP disc and another PC available, you can try something like WinToFlash. Someone has a video tutorial of doing it here. Google returns a ton of hits on "install xp from usb", which mostly come up with similar products.

Sonic

I'm following this guide right now: http://www.eeeguides.com/2007/11/installing-windows-xp-from-usb-thumb.html

Its just going to take 3-4 hours to copy the xp files because of my dodgy thai mp3 player turned bootable thumbdrive. :? I'll post when I know if it works or not.

uean

Took me a few minutes using Barts PE builder.

Very easy

Note that this won't create an install disc - this will create a bootable flash drive where you run the OS off of your flash.

Sonic

uean wrote: »

this will create a bootable flash drive where you run the OS off of your flash.

This would be a great option, but could I run apps like Photoshop through that?