No floppy,no cd rom.how can i install windows?

[klevito]

hi
i guess i have been screwing aound with my laptop and i am facing such a problem.
it has been a while since my laptop's cd rom is not working.it also didnt come with a floppy disk drive.as a cheaper solution i bought an external cd rom to connect it through usb.before buying the external one my windows xp couldnt start.so i figured out myself that i buy an external cd rom.take out the hard disk and connect it to another pc to save the information and format it so i can clean install windows xp.and it seems like was not a good idea coz i am stuck at the point of how to install windows xp and i only have an xternal cd rom an empty hard disk and another borrowed pc.when i tried it to boot from hard disk or cd rom is tells me NTLDR missing please restart.

NOTE:i formated the hard disk by connecting it to another pc thru USB.Its NTFS.i dont have a floppy drive nor an internal cd rom
is it possible to use the hard drive as a bootable device to start installing win xp?
i would appreciate really any help on this
thanks in advance

 

[RealBlackStuff]

Use another PC.
Go to www.bootdisk.com and get the file to make a boot-floppy for W98-SE. Create the floppy by running this program.
You can buy 2.5"-3.5" adapters. Take the laptop-hd out, connect it temporarily to this other PC as Master and disconnect any other HDs. Make 2 partitions on the Laptop HD, the first one of max. 30GB (and set it active). Format this in FAT32 using format C: /s /u, the second partition uses the rest of the HD, format also in FAT32. For both, use the W98 floppy.
Remove the floppy and try to boot that PC. It should boot into C:.
Now connect the original PC-HD back on, and make that laptop-HD the slave. Boot up.
Then copy the full contents of the XP-CD to the SECOND partition of the laptop-HD.

Take the laptop-HD out, set jumpers back to master and put it back in the laptop.
It should boot the laptop into C:. Then go to the laptop's second partition and start XP installation from there (setup.exe most likely). Let XP re-format the C-partition as NTFS. Keep the second partition with XP-files for when you need to (re-)install, and store your updates and other stuff there.

 

[klevito]

thanks for the reply.i really appreciate it and it looks to me that should be it.just wanted to ask 1 more question.
the other PC i am going to use is a laptop too.if i connect it through usb will it still be able to recognise the hard disk i removed from the troubled laptop?I am not very familiar with the jumpers and particularly with the laptop.its not something that can be done through bios or is it?
thanks again

 

[RealBlackStuff]

My story won't work with another laptop, because laptops have only one harddisk connection.
Using the to-be-fixed HD externally via USB can not make it a bootable disk, which is vital. You MUST use another PC, or swap HDs with the other laptop, provided that also has a working floppy and/or CD/CDRW.

 

[k0uc]

Thanks!

This post was VERY helpful to me. Had the same scenario...laptop, no boot device except hard drive (that was new and blank). Thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it.

Brady
Mpls MN