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XP Install - NO CD-ROM, NO FLOPPY, possible?

Juddog

Juddog

Diamond Member
I have been struggling with this. I am a long time lurker in the forums, but cannot figure this out.

So here's the situation: I have an old crappy laptop that I want to place a fresh install of XP on. This laptop is so crappy that it literally will not boot to a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM for some reason. I have a license for XP Pro that I would like to put on it, but since it has no floppy, no option to boot to USB, and cannot get it to boot to either a CD-R or a DVD-R, I copied the install CD to the hard drive using an external USB drive.

Currently I have windows 2k on the laptop. If I pop in the CD that I have with XP Pro on it, it prompts to install, then tries to install it as an upgrade, which I do not have a license for. I only have the license for the full OEM install of XP.

Is there some way I can get the install to run from the full CD I copied to the hard drive? Any way to edit the boot.ini to point to that directory, etc.?

Please help!
 
I'm not totally up on MS licensing but I thought an upgrade should still work with a full license key as long as the disc wasn't an upgrade disc, I don't even think OEM vs Retail matters although it's most likely not legal for you to put that OEM license on that device since you didn't purchase them together.
 
Originally posted by: Nothinman
I'm not totally up on MS licensing but I thought an upgrade should still work with a full license key as long as the disc wasn't an upgrade disc, I don't even think OEM vs Retail matters although it's most likely not legal for you to put that OEM license on that device since you didn't purchase them together.
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I did try installing as an upgrade, however it would not accept the license key. I have verified with MS that the license key is valid for OEM only installs.
 
The easiest way is probably to take out the hard drive and put it into another computer and install XP that way. Not sure if it'll work though unless the hard drive controller is the same.
 
If it has a floppy drive, you could make boot floppies (Microsoft info page) and try that. Or set up a Windows Server 2003 domain, set up Remote Installation Services, and try an RIS installation (if the NIC is supported).
 
The easiest way is probably to take out the hard drive and put it into another computer and install XP that way. Not sure if it'll work though unless the hard drive controller is the same.
Click to expand...

After doing that you could run sysprep, that should make Windows go back and reinstall all of the hardware and one would assume it would also force BIOS calls for the initial bootup so that it can actually succeed.
 
You'll need to get a Retail copy of XP, either Upgrade or Full. The OEM setup will insist on formatting your Windows partition, and you will lose access to the OEM setup files that you'd copied to your hard drive.

Or fix the laptop's CD/DVD drive.
 
Notwithstanding the logistical problems, I keep thinking that if it's really that old and crappy, that it's going to run real slow and crappy with XP.
 
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