Sorry for my ignorant, I had scour through the Google Groups posts for
solutions for Windows XP without bootable CDROM/Floppy. The results
were far from being comprehensive.

My old Thinkpad 240 Travelstar 12GB harddisk crashed, and I just
brought a new notebook harddisk. Saw this bundle sale for Windows XP
Home with Office XP at bargain price in my local IT mart.

I am keen in taking this offer to install the WinXP on this notebook,
but I had never really tried install WinXP without CDROM.

Can anyone direct me to a website or article with detailed walkthru on
the installation.

So far, I only read up on WinXP installation on Sony VAIO, and below is
what I know.

1) FORMAT as FAT32 in notebook harddisk on a WIN98SE platform with
system files.
2) Copy WIN98SE to C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS
3) Copy WINXP to C:\WINDOWS\I386
4) Install this notebook harddisk to the notebook, and root to C:\
prompt
5) Setup WIN98SE, no need to install drivers, just bare minimum.
6) Upon completion of WIN98SE installation, Click
C:\WINDOWS\I386\WINNT32.EXE
7) Select Full Upgrade.

The above procedures required 2 WINDOWS installations.

Now my question,

Is there a simplier approach?

Thanks

Regards,

Kevin

"Ultra Kiasu" <ultrakiasu@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1135757707.923588.278900@f14g2000cwb.googlegr oups.com...
> Sorry for my ignorant, I had scour through the Google Groups posts for
> solutions for Windows XP without bootable CDROM/Floppy. The results
> were far from being comprehensive.
>
> My old Thinkpad 240 Travelstar 12GB harddisk crashed, and I just
> brought a new notebook harddisk. Saw this bundle sale for Windows XP
> Home with Office XP at bargain price in my local IT mart.
>
> I am keen in taking this offer to install the WinXP on this notebook,
> but I had never really tried install WinXP without CDROM.
>
> Can anyone direct me to a website or article with detailed walkthru on
> the installation.
>
> So far, I only read up on WinXP installation on Sony VAIO, and below is
> what I know.
>
> 1) FORMAT as FAT32 in notebook harddisk on a WIN98SE platform with
> system files.
> 2) Copy WIN98SE to C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS
> 3) Copy WINXP to C:\WINDOWS\I386
> 4) Install this notebook harddisk to the notebook, and root to C:\
> prompt
> 5) Setup WIN98SE, no need to install drivers, just bare minimum.
> 6) Upon completion of WIN98SE installation, Click
> C:\WINDOWS\I386\WINNT32.EXE
> 7) Select Full Upgrade.
>
> The above procedures required 2 WINDOWS installations.
>
> Now my question,
>
> Is there a simplier approach?
>
> Thanks
>
> Regards,
>
> Kevin


You can get away with one single Windows installation:
1. Format the notebook disk on a desktop as FAT32
and set that partition to "active".
2. Boot the desktop with a Win98 boot disk (www.bootdisk.com).
3. Run these commands:
sys E: (if E: is the laptop disk drive letter)
copy a:smartdrv.exe e:\
4. Copy the WinXP CD to the laptop disk.
5. Install the laptop disk in the laptop, then reboot it.
6. Run these commands:
c:\smartdrv
c:\i386\winnt
7. When finished, convert drive C: to NTFS if you wish:
convert c: /fs:ntfs

Pegasus (MVP) wrote:
> "Ultra Kiasu" <ultrakiasu@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1135757707.923588.278900@f14g2000cwb.googlegr oups.com...
> > Is there a simplier approach?
>
> You can get away with one single Windows installation:
> 1. Format the notebook disk on a desktop as FAT32
> and set that partition to "active".
> 2. Boot the desktop with a Win98 boot disk (www.bootdisk.com).
> 3. Run these commands:
> sys E: (if E: is the laptop disk drive letter)
> copy a:smartdrv.exe e:\
> 4. Copy the WinXP CD to the laptop disk.
> 5. Install the laptop disk in the laptop, then reboot it.
> 6. Run these commands:
> c:\smartdrv
> c:\i386\winnt
> 7. When finished, convert drive C: to NTFS if you wish:
> convert c: /fs:ntfs

C:\SMARTDRV will not execute without HIMEM.SYS loaded.

"Ultra Kiasu" <ultrakiasu@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1135776609.986997.306690@g43g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
>
> Pegasus (MVP) wrote:
> > "Ultra Kiasu" <ultrakiasu@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> > news:1135757707.923588.278900@f14g2000cwb.googlegr oups.com...
> > > Is there a simplier approach?
> >
> > You can get away with one single Windows installation:
> > 1. Format the notebook disk on a desktop as FAT32
> > and set that partition to "active".
> > 2. Boot the desktop with a Win98 boot disk (www.bootdisk.com).
> > 3. Run these commands:
> > sys E: (if E: is the laptop disk drive letter)
> > copy a:smartdrv.exe e:\
> > 4. Copy the WinXP CD to the laptop disk.
> > 5. Install the laptop disk in the laptop, then reboot it.
> > 6. Run these commands:
> > c:\smartdrv
> > c:\i386\winnt
> > 7. When finished, convert drive C: to NTFS if you wish:
> > convert c: /fs:ntfs
>
> C:\SMARTDRV will not execute without HIMEM.SYS loaded.
>

Indeed it won't - load himem.sys too! (You can do without smartdrv
but it will take much longer to install WinXP).