install xp without installing?

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Hello,

i just discovered this board, its huge and it looks like there are solutions to any kind of problem, so i will go with mine if you dont mind

i will try to be clear and to not transmit my headache

1- like everybody, i own a computer, running on windows xp sp2 pro

2- there is a laptop, booting only on its hard drive, no internal drive, wont boot on anything usb

3- this laptop HD is 1,8 inch sized, and the only thin i got to interact with it is an usb case

so i used my computer to format and do partitions, no matter NTFS or FAT32, it can be changed anytime, you know better then me

then i tought, ok its rolling, now i reboot and install XP on the hard drive, then i put it back in the laptop and i ll be happy, but NO, when the computer boot, it can see the usb hard drive, but windows install program say: the device you selected is not accessible.

you gonna say : put the driver on a floppy, press F6 at install start, yes, but no, as i dont have the txtsetup.oem file for this driver, been looking for documents saying how to do one, sorry, i cant do this, too dumb

then i was thinking : but those computers we buy now, they come with a partition and windows preinstalled inside, so how to do this? OPK, not for the public...

then i found "live cd´s", its not booting

then i made a ghost of my desktop HD (6 hours), its booting, but blue screen comes after the windows XP logo...

so please, does anyone has an idea about what to do to make that machine to finaly boot on any MS Os? even something incomplete, so i can reinstall a new windows once it has started...

sincerely, i cant think about another beginning of an idea now, any help would be highly appreciated

thanks in advance to you guys

best regards from Amsterdam

Patrick

[firefoxthebomb]

If I understand correctly, you can put this drive in your computer and format it to your hearst content right. Then format the drive using fat32 for now and make the drive bootable. Once it is formated copy the I386 folder from the windows xp cd to the hard drive in a folder called i386. Install the hard drive back on the laptop and then when you turn it on it should boot up to a black screen with a command prompt on it like C:>

Then type cd\i386

then try to run the winnt.exe

that may start the setup to install xp from the drive you are currently on.

Can you not change your bios to boot from CD first, that would be easier, as you could boot from a bootable xp cd too and then run setup that way.

[source]

Hello and thanks for answering.

actually, i cannot put the hard drive in my pc, i can put it in an usb case, and connect it to the computer using an usb cable

doing a FAT32 partition, no problem, will do it now

making it bootable and get the command prompt, thats what would save my life, could you please tell me how to do this?

thanks in advance

[source]

ok, made it FAT32, copied I386 folder to the disc

whats next now please?

[Siginet]

Use bartPE. Boot into BartPE and click on the file winnt32.exe in the i386 folder you put on your hard drive. Or... try a dos NTFS boot disk.

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ok, here is what i finaly did : turn the disc in FAT32, i found some bootable DOS files in a software called Rapid Deploy, i put the I386 folder+the DOS files on the HD, thjen back to the laptop, it works, botting on DOS, command prompt ready. so now i can make my laptop to boot!

but then, XP installation starts, copying files...... and then i dont see more file names being copied on the bottom right corner of the screen, and nothing moves anymore, no activity at all...

when comparing the I386 folder on my CD and the one on the HD, 6 files missing, might be the reason or should i copy something else then I386 to the HD?

thanks for the first answer, it made me going far away from what i did since 4 days now with this laptop...

BR

[Jito463]

Here's what I would suggest. On your desktop PC, put the CD in and run

x:\i386\winnt32.exe /noreboot

Where x:\ = the drive your XP disc is in. Follow the prompts and input the key you have for your laptop when prompted. Afterwards, you should have two new folders on your C: drive, $WIN_NT$.~BT and $WIN_NT$.~LS as well as a new file called $LDR$ (no file extension). Copy all of these files to your laptop hard drive along with ntdetect.com and ndldr. Now open your boot.ini on your C: drive and copy that to your laptop then remove the line that points to your Windows install (e.g. multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=alwaysoff /fastdetect) Afterwards, your boot.ini should look like this:

[boot loader]timeout=30

default=C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT

[operating systems]

C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT="blah, blah"

Where "blah, blah" is whatever the text normally is. I can't remember right now. Theoretically, this should boot up and start the Windows setup as if you had initiated it from within Windows but doing a clean install. Good luck.

Edited July 20, 2005 by Jito463

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looks pretty good, but when i run the XP cd from my desktop, its saying : Setup cannot continue because the version on your PC is newer then the one on the CD...

but now, since i can make it boot in DOS, what if i copy a XP "live cd" to the hard drive and start it manualy? will it work? if yes what is the file to call from command prompt?

thank you!

[Jito463]

Well, i386\winnt32.exe is the setup program as I stated above.

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winnt32.exe wont boot from DOS, i think its the same file as winnt.exe but with graphical interface (to run under windows)

i m afraid i badly wrote my question

there are CD´s that you insert in the computer, then it boots from the CD and immediately run windows, like digiwiz minipe

so my question was, lets say i copy digiwiz minipe to my hard drive, then i boot the laptop on DOS, how to run windows from there?

thanks for your patience

[pmshah]

I suggest doing something different. Include cdrom drivers in your dos bootable 1.8" hdd drive so your xp cd is visible from dos prompt. Then simply run winnt32.exe on the xp cd rom from dos prompt. You should now be able to install xp on your laptop hdd.

Other method would be to go to the bios settings on your desktop. Temporarily change the settings for your desktop hdd to none. Now the installation cd will not find the original installation on the desktop hdd & should install normally to your laptop drive. Make sure that you do not do a full install but only the basic boot options & copying the files to the hdd, otherwise xp will install all the relevant device drivers for the desktop & you will have a hard time configuring them back to those suitable for your desktop.

Hope this helps.