Need a How-To: Boot off a CD onto a laptop that has not CD-Rom or Floppy

[PC Freak]

I have a laptop with no Floppy or CD drive.
I do have an external usb CD-Rom

I have a norton ghost image sitting on a E: drive (cdrom is D in windows)

I need to boot of the Norton Ghost product cd to run ghost and restore my OS onto the C drive.

I need ideas. May be impossible.

 

[Barny]

Not all systems support booting off of USB. You'll have to boot your laptop to the setup menus to find out. Look for something like hitting DEL key or F1 at the prompt while booting to enter setup.

When you get into the setup menu, find the boot options. If you don't see your USB device then you are correct - it isn't possible.

You might check the manufacturer website to see if a new BIOS is available that supports booting off of USB.

If USB is not an option how about network boot? You could attach the USB to another system and link them together via crossover cable or network Hub/switch/router. If you can boot of of network.

If you have no floppy or CD, how did this machine get loaded in the first place?

There are lots of options, depending on what resources you have available. Another system the hard drive will fit into maybe?

I assume the E: drive ghost image is not bootable. If it is simply use the setup utility to point to the E: drive ahead of the C: drive.