How do I copy WinXP CD to Hard Drive????

[Montano]

Trying to install XP on a new HD, but my cd-rom is having trouble reading the CD. Can I copy the XP CD to the HD from a dos prompt?

 

[BlueWeasel]

You need a boot floppy disc with CDrom support (a Win98 CD or boot floppy works great for this). Once you have gotten to a DOS prompt, copy the entire \i386 directory from the XP CD to your hard drive. Go into the new \i386 directory and type WINNT.

Hope this help....

 

[Montano]

what command do I use to copy the i386 directory?

 

[Joemonkey]

xcopy d:\i386\*.* c:\i386

that should work (assuming d: is your CDROM)

 

[Montano]

I'll try that, thanks.

 

[johnlog]

>>xcopy d:\i386\*.* c:\i386 <<<

That DOS command will also copy all the sub, sub folders with short and long filenames?

 

[PrincessGuard]

XCOPY won't do long filenames, but there aren't any of those in the /i386 directory, IIRC.

 

[lowtech1]

There is also the /s and /e atribute that can be use to make sure all sub dir is copy.

The original xcopy for DOS don't do LFN, but since Win95 MS has created xcopy32 that do LFN. MS then remaped xcopy32 it to just xcopy.

If you worry about LFN, then there is such thing as xxcopy that you can use in conjunction with MS-DOS.

 

[dougtran]

And don't forge /y for no confirmation.

deltree /s/e/y *.* just kidding, use xcopy /s/e/y *.*

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
You need a boot floppy disc with CDrom support (a Win98 CD or boot floppy works great for this). Once you have gotten to a DOS prompt, copy the entire \i386 directory from the XP CD to your hard drive. Go into the new \i386 directory and type WINNT.

Hope this help....

Can this same thing be done for Win9x/ME as well. I know that there is no i386 directory for the Win9x kernel, So if this could be done, what would the copy command be for doing this?

TIA

 

[dougtran]

Yup,

xcopy /s/e/y D:\WIN98\*.* C:\options\win98 for windows 98. I never installed WinME before so I don't know the dir for it. Just look for the directory with tons of *.cabs.

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Originally posted by: dougtran
Yup,

xcopy /s/e/y D:\WIN98\*.* C:\options\win98 for windows 98. I never installed WinME before so I don't know the dir for it. Just look for the directory with tons of *.cabs.

So when Win98CD is copied over to HDD, Just browse(change dir.) to c:\options\win98 and type "setup" and it should go from there?

Thanx

 

[dougtran]

Bingo!

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

thanx Doug, this should help those that have archaic laptops laying around that won't boot from CD or have the interchangeable CD/Floppy drives. I'm personally missing my floppy drive, So I can not boot to floppy if I wanted too. This way, I can copy the Win98 CD to the HDD on my main PC (with a 2.5 IDE adapter) and then transfer the HDD back to the laptop and setup from there.

Thanx again.

 

[dougtran]

No problem. I prefer this method since:

1) I feel it's faster.

2) The "sourcepath" directory will be set to your installation directory so you won't get that annoying message "Please insert CD in drive x" message.

BTW: I still own a Compaq LTE 5300 which has the modular drive bay for either a CDR or FD. It was a real pain when installing new OS's. I've used the 2.5" HD adapter in the past but dislike having to remove my HD from the the case. I ended getting expansion bay awhile back which allowed me to have both devices available.

 

[lowtech1]

Originally posted by: GonzoDaGr8
thanx Doug, this should help those that have archaic laptops laying around that won't boot from CD or have the interchangeable CD/Floppy drives. I'm personally missing my floppy drive, So I can not boot to floppy if I wanted too. This way, I can copy the Win98 CD to the HDD on my main PC (with a 2.5 IDE adapter) and then transfer the HDD back to the laptop and setup from there.

Thanx again.

You don't have to be that drastic, beccause you can create a Win9.x boot floppy that have a MS universal cdrom driver on it. Or, go to Bootdisk.com and download your favorite bootdisk that have the universal banana cdrom driver on it. You then can use xcopy as usual on the laptop with out moving it onto the a desktop system.

 

[dougtran]

Boot floppy won't do him any good if he doesn't have a FD

Hence the xcopy to the HD.

 

[lowtech1]

Originally posted by: dougtran
Boot floppy won't do him any good if he doesn't have a FD

Hence the xcopy to the HD.

Some how I missed the no FD part