NEED TO INSTALL AN OPERATING SYSTEM ON A NEW HARD DRIVE IN MY SUB NOTEBOOK WITH NO BOOTABLE DRIVES

Have you checked whether there are other BIOS settings, like boot sequence?  You want the USB CDRW to be first.

Give us a fuller description of what happens when you boot from the USB CDRW.

Got this off HP

To change the boot device
The computer normally boots from its internal hard disk. You can also boot the computer
from a floppy disk drive connected to a USB port, an external drive in an expansion base
module bay, or an internal network interface card (NIC).
1. Click Start, Shut Down, Restart.
2. When the HP logo appears, press ESC to display the Boot menu.
3. Use the arrow keys to select the boot device, and press ENTER.
If you want to boot from a specific device whenever it is present, change the boot order
using the BIOS Setup utility—see “Using the BIOS Setup Utility” on page 88.

here's page 88 if needed

Using the BIOS Setup Utility
The BIOS (Basic Input and Output System) Setup utility enables you to make changes to
the computer’s system configuration, and to tailor the operation of your computer to your
individual work needs.
The settings made in BIOS Setup generally control the computer’s hardware, and so
greatly affect how the computer operates.
To run the BIOS Setup utility
1. Click Start, Shut Down, Restart.
2. When the HP logo appears, press F2 to enter BIOS Setup.
3. The pointing devices are not active in BIOS Setup, so you will need to use the
keyboard to navigate:
· Press the LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to move among menus.
· Press the UP and DOWN arrow keys to move among parameters in a menu.
· Press F5 or F6 to move through values for the current parameter, or press ENTER
to change a setting.
4. After you select the options you want, press F10 or use the Exit menu to exit BIOS
Setup.
5. If the settings cause a conflict between devices during reboot, the system prompts you
to run BIOS Setup, and marks the conflicting settings.
The following tables describe the settings for BIOS version 1.00. If your BIOS version is
different, some settings may differ from those shown. Also, the computer and expansion
base may have different BIOS versions.

Source : http://www.climate.unibe.ch/~beyerle/linux/omnibook500/Omnibook500.pdf

I know the link say linux in it but nothing to do with linux.

Make sure "Removable Device Boot" in the "Security" menu and "Legacy USB Support" in the"System Devices Menu " are both set to "Enabled".


Here is the Bios Menu breakdown:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?locale=en_US&taskId=115&prodSeriesId=31763&prodTypeId=321957&objectID=bpi04356

Good Luck.

B

I often wonder if it is me, or if anyone actually reads the problrm before responding?  I NEED TO INSTALL AN OPERATING SYSTEM ON A NEW HARD DRIVE IN MY SUB NOTEBOOK WITH NO BOOTABLE DRIVES ~  I came here with my hp omnibook 500 without the docking station ~ I do have an external cdrw which is usb, but even though there are two external devices in the boot sequence, and even though it appears, I for some reason am unable to set it up to boot to the usb external cdrw drive, I am not sure if it is because I do not know the right settings in BIOS to use, or what, the cdrw shows up, but it has some strange little icons or drawings in the BIOS when it does show up, they almost look like Chinese or Japanese letter, but aren't, and it also says USB and CDRW ~ but I must be doing something wrong because it will not BOOT directly to it, there are other settings in the boot sequence correalting to the external drives but I do not know what they mean or how to set them, I think they are PXE for one, and IDE for another, and then something else I can't recall, but if anyone can Help me this problem is lingering for a few weeks and I am getting really desperate to get this laptop up and running Thanks....

I CAN AND HAVE ACCESSED THE BOOT SEQUENCE AND MY USB DEVICE APPEARS IN ONE OF THE 2 REMOVABLE DEVICES BUT STILL WILL NOT BOOT TO IT???  SO WHY ARE YOU TELLING ME HOW TO ACCESS THE BOOT SEQUENCE?

These are a complete PITA! to do!

There are 2 methods that I managed to get to work on one of these. (NOT INCLUDING THE DOCKING STATION):

The first was with a floppy drive that connected to a PCMCIA connector, which booted, and the second was with a USB floppy drive. Once you get the floppy to boot, you then gradually add other devices using the corect drivers. I had to create to partitions, image the boot CD onto the second partition, install onto the first, delete the second, and then expand the first partition to get a windows install! - A complete PITA as I've said.

These beasts are designed to be the absolute minimum, and until you either get the docking station, or one of the aforementioned 'funny' omnibook floppies you are going nowhere!

Sorry to be so negative:(

Another thought - Remove the hard drive and connect it into a more 'sensible laptop'. Install a bootable image with some communications software (perhaps something that'll communicate vie the serial port, and then reinstall it:)

Using the comms software, you an then download anything you want:)

Well I have tried everything suggested and all to no avail, I have a 20GB Hard Drive which I have loaded a copy XP Pro CD and a Win 08 Boot Disk onto, which has done absolutely nothing, so now I am starting to look into booting from my NIC or Ethernet, but the instruction are not clear, Someone suggested I download a couple of items, which I have done, however I am not sure about the settings on the  TFTP BootP software someone suggested I download, does this get put into use on my other laptop that is connected to the network?  I also have a wireless router, which all the computers get plugged into for this process I assume, how do I know where to plug each computer into?  My network is working well and there are four ethernet jack openings then a space between the first four, then there is yet another ethernet jack, I have the laptop I am using, then the laptop I wish to boot to so I can install the Win XP Pro CD that is on it, then I have the modem from comcast, then there is an empty one and a space and another empty one, sound like I have it set up correct?  I also downloaded another zip file which when opened says dd.exe, when double clicked it goes to a small black screen, does something really fast and closes, should this be on the active laptop or should it be on the hard drive I wish to boot to?  Finally, how to we determine the settings in for the Network Boot, I have options like PXE, TCP/IP, Netware, RPL TCP/IP and Netware have options to select BOOTP or DHCP and in Netware they are 802.2, 802.3, EthII how do I know which of these to set it to?  

Finally got it done.  See:  https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21109331/How-do-you-set-up-the-Boot-Method-for-booting-from-a-network-on-my-hp-omnibook-500.html#11915707