Unattended CD without a CD?

[planetphillip]

Hi,

I did a search but couldn't find what I am looking, I apologise if this question has been asked many times before.

I have a laptop that's about 5 years old, it has a DVD and CD/RW built in (Same unit). The DVD no longer works and CD's are definitely beginning to struggle. I don't want to replace the drive because parts are very expensive and I don't use it that much. Is there a way to use a partition on the hard drive so that when I need to reformat windows I can just set the BIOS to boot from that partition. This partition would only contain the files normally used for the Unattended CD installation.

If that's not possible can anybody suggest a way of formating and re-installing Windows without a working CD? Connect it to my Desktop somehow?

TIA

Phillip

[EliasXP]

make an image of your disk

[planetphillip]

Forgive me for not understanding, but how, why, where? (I'm googling atm)

Currently the laptop dual boots from Win 98 and XP home. I want to reformat in a few weeks and only use XP. I'm worried that once I start the installation if the CD doesn't work I'm Fu**ed.

The current installation is not very clean because it has too many uninstall apps etc. If I make an image of my disk won't that just be copying it's current state?

BTW Thanks for the super fast reply!

TIA

Phillip

[jaclaz]

I do not see WHY you should need it UNATTENDED!

As I see it your problem is how to get data to your hard disk without using the CD.

Theoretically it is possible to take the HD out of the laptop and connect it through an adapter or cable like these (last two items at bottom of page):

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/default.asp?c=12

Then you can copy the \i386 folder from XP CD your hard disk, all needed drivers, keep it dual booting with a WIN9x/DOS

(you can delete everything but:

BOOT.INI

NTLOADR

NTDETECT.COM

IO.SYS

MSDOS.SYS

COMMAND.COM)

(or you could do this through network)

Then install XP through 16bit WINNT.EXE.

However it is STRONGLY recommended to have an alternate bootable device, i.e. a CD, FLoppy or USB stick.

jaclaz