Boot Windows from a USB Drive without BIOS support?

[AudioVayne]

I have an Asus L3500H Laptop (2.5Ghz, 512MB RAM). There is no HDD adaptor (if anyone has one spare that they wish to donate and ship to NZ I'd be stoked) but until then I want to use this laptop as a media centre. Movies, Music n Stuff Via the TV. It's not really portable because there's no battery.

The BIOS doesn't support booting from USB.

Plan A - Hunt for a DVD that will run windows with basic USB support and contains an MP3 player and VLC media player

Plan B - If I can install Windows onto a USB HDD (I've already made a disc that will install to USB HDDs and flashdrives). I'm hoping I can use a floppy (or CD if need be) for the BIOS to boot to (maybe DOS?), and from there boot the USB HDD.


Any ideas or pointers?

And yes I've got my eyes peeled for an HDD adaptor for the laptop but I want to see if I can pull this one off without waiting for the easy fix to crop up.

 

[daayglow]

Sounds like you need a "live" operating systems... To be clear:
1. you don't have a hard drive on the laptop
2. you do have a dvd rom or dvdrw on the laptop
3. you have another computer also
If that is the case- try "Slax" a free Linux type Operating system. Its about 200 megs. It will load from a CD into your computer without a hard drive. Use your usb drive as storage. Slax comes with vlc and mp3 and a bunch of other stuff you can add on AND I believe some versions will load into an external usb device. (don't quote me on the last part)

I have seen live windows os'es but I believe they are not legal because MS didnot make it.
Also there is a pen drive that does hold applications in it but the name of it escapes me right now.

 

[AudioVayne]

Will take a look at Slax. To bypass the BIOS issue I have aqcuired a bootloader called PLoP. Runs from floppy or CD and from there it can boot from USB.

Cheers for the heads up daayglow