ibm laptop with a external usb cdrw

Tchen811

Senior member
Aug 20, 2000
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I just bought a ibm thinkpad, but it doesn't come with a cd rom. So I was thinking of getting an external cdrw. But I have this question, can I boot xp cd off of the external drive? Will the computer recognize the drive? Thanks
 

corkyg

Elite Member | Peripherals
Super Moderator
Mar 4, 2000
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Probably not because that vintage of Thinkpad might not have DOS implement USB. It normally does not. Therefore the drive does not exist until Windows is loaded. A Thinkpad w/o CD ROM must be pretty long in the tooth. IS there a modular drive that can be replaced by a CD ROM or DVD?
 

Mattster

Senior member
Nov 5, 1999
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You shouldn't have any problems booting from an External CDrom with that system. It boots from a USB floppy just fine, so as long as the boot order is set with the CDROM first, I would think it should work just fine....

HTH! :D
Matt