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jtsajeba

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Installing Windows Xp from USB external drive

Hi

I have a Pentium III 700Mhz with on board USB ports and I am trying to install Win XP from an external USB DVD drive. but i cannot find the drive when pressing f2 to change the bootdisk. please can anybody help.

thanks

Jonathan
 
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rid
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I seriously doubt a P III class machine supports USB DVD boot, but I'm prepared to stand corrected if your documentation says otherwise. Is there no internal CD unit in this machine? What make and model are we dealing with here?
/RID
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You'd have to be able to set your BIOS to boot to USB, but that has only been implemented with newer mainboards. As Rid already mentioned, it is highly unlikely your PC has that functionality. If you can get a CD Drive with PCMCIA Adapter you might be able to create a boot floppy which can load the drivers needed to start from that drive. It may also be possible to do the same thing for your USB Drive.
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bobo_tech

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bobo_tech has a good idea. Perhaps it may be even better if you could format the laptop's HD before moving it to a desktop system. That way you'd be sure the drive's geometry is 100% OK for the laptop to use. Then proceed as suggested (copy the i386 folder etc).
/RID
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coolcomputing

I found a site with a downloadable file that allowed me to access a USB CDRW drive from a P3 laptop that has a faulty CD drive and needed Windows reinstalling. The site is here: http://www.stefan2000.com/darkehorse/PC/DOS/Drivers/USB/
On a working PC, go to the site and click on the USB DOS CDROM Boot Disk link, and download the file. Put a blank floppy in the drive, run the file, then boot the laptop with the floppy and you can access the USB CDROM drive. Worked a treat for me, anyway.

Cheers

Peter