Install XP onto blank X41 HD without CD Drive or Ultrabase

[umern]

My wife's X31 suddenly died and she wants a similar replacement but on a budget - but I dont fancy another X31.

I have seen an X41 on Ebay which is within budget but comes without any OS installed but does have COA sticker on it.

I have XP CDs at home and I also have a Z60t with an IDE Ultrabay HD Adaptor (I also have a USB IDE HD external enclosure).

Is there any way I can get XP installed onto the X41 HD without having to purchase a Ultrabase X4 or an external CD reader etc? ie. make the X41 HD bootable and then somehow run the XP install?

One more thing - I have a networked HD - does the X41 have a network boot option and if so can that be used to somehow install of my network drive?

Thanks in advance!

[tehchu]

friend i'm having a similar problem right now

i've had an x30, which came with no optical drive and nor did i have external usb cd drives. it was not until i finally borrowed a friend's external usb drive was i able to install xp.

i think the best thing to do is find another same(similar) machine, use acronis true image to get a hard drive image off of it, make a usb flash disk bootable, and use the flash disk to restore an image onto your machine which doesn't have an OS.

i'm now met with the same problem once again.. i have an r32 here with a malfunctioning ultrabay so no cd drive.

i believe if you can find such a guy to send you an entire image, you could restore (install) xp onto your machine.

and of course, if anyone sees this and want to donate an image of a fresh install of xp on an R32 (or similar??) please do pm or email me at tehchu@gmail.com

i've read of ways to install xp without a cd drive, but it's amazingly difficult. external hard drive caddy usually won't work with external cd drives, unless it was designed to do so

[umern]

I just got a good deal on a T43 on Ebay so went for that last night - so dont need to worry about this now.

However, I guess tehchu still needs some tips on this.

[tehchu]

hey man

i actually did some research and came up with this
http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/pr/lt ... h_17_2007/

which stated acronis trueimage corporate with "universal restore" will be able to clone a copy of xp onto another computer without problems. my r32 is now up and running! thanks though!

[solitude]

Install it with a USB flash disk.

Instructions are on my website: http://hltang.net/windowsfromflashdrive.html

[tehchu]

oh wow bookmarked


oh had i seen this earlier!