Is it possible to install WinXP from an external cd-rom drive?

[mitchafi]

My dad's laptop has a busted CD-Rom drive and rather than replace the drive he bought a cheap exeternal CD-Rom. The problem is, he needs to reformat the machine. Is it possible to do this from the external drive? I looked in the boot settings and I didn't find anything. The laptop is a Toshiba P3 if that is of any relevance. Thanks!

 

[xcript]

Did it come with a boot floppy of some sort containing DOS drivers for the drive?

If so, you could boot off it -> fdisk/format the HDD -> copy the contents of the XP cd to the HDD -> enter the i386 dir in the copied dir on the HDD -> run 'winnt' to start the setup.

Just don't format the partition again during setup. You can convert the partition to NTFS after installation.

 

[Zolty]

if its a mac it's fairly easy to boot from an external drive, or an external laptop. Windows there might be a bios setting to boot from external device, f2,f10, or the Del key should get you into bios.

 

[xcript]

Originally posted by: Zolty
if its a mac it's fairly easy to boot from an external drive, or an external laptop. Windows there might be a bios setting to boot from external device, f2,f10, or the Del key should get you into bios.

Yeah, that might be the better option if it connects via USB.

I use crappy old 2x external drives at work that connect via the parallel port.

 

[mitchafi]

I can't find any drivers on the memorex/toshiba site that would allow the USB drive to be recognized in DOS. Doesn't help that my dad left all his software/manuals in his office in Michigan. I've checked and there is no BIOS setting to boot from an external device. Any other ideas? I don't completely follow xcript's suggestion.