Installing XP from hard disk - how?

[sidewinder]

Simple question, but I cant remember how to do it

Got someones laptop. Said laptop has buggered CD drive.

So Ive formatted the hard disk and copied the i386 folder to it along with winnt32.exe and all the other setup .exes.

Now how do I boot into a command prompt in order for me to run setup?

I boot with my 'netbootdisk' - allows command prompt. But C:\ doesnt exist

Tried Windows 98 boot disk. Again, cannot get to C:\

What am I missing? What do you use to boot, that will let you get to the local hard disk?

[john]

Is it formatted in NTFS and have you got a boot disk that will recognised the NTFS partition?

Also have you not got a USB CD drive that you could use to do it?

[ajbritton]

I don't know if you will be able to install directly from the hard disk. You can install from a network share though.

[ajbritton]

Here's a possibility...

1 - Wipe the HDD
2 - Create a small (600mb) partition
3 - Make the partition bootable and copy on the XP installation files
4 - Boot the system from the new partition
5 - Run \i386\winnt.exe
6 - Create a new partition to install XP onto

This would leave you with a 600mb partition which has no particular use except as a copy of the XP CD however.

[ajbritton]

I also found this which mentions Windows 2000/XP

[beeswax]

you need to partition your hdd into C: and D: drives, then either format the drives as fat32 (or get a boot disk that works with ntfs). copy your i386 folder to your D: drive. you can convert to ntfs later.

[Ben_Stanton]

I guess alternatively you could install the 2.5" drive into a desktop and start off the install that way...

But if you go through the complete setup on the desktop then swap the drive back, the variation in chipset would BSOD - unless you merged generic drivers into the registry before hand?!? (google mergeide.reg)

Personally, if it's generic, swap out the faulty CD drive with a new one?!? It needs replacing anyway!

[Quackers]

Do you not have a RIS box on your network you could use to bring Windows XP down to the laptop via a network cable?