Installing windows to a laptop with bad CD-ROM drive and can't boot from USB

S

sram

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
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Hi guys. The hard disk of one of our laptops went south and we had to replace it. Now that's easy, but when you try to install windows things aren't just exactly how you want. The optical drive happened to be bad as well. It rarely read CD/DVD's successfully and I can't boot to bootable optical disks with it. It has to be replaced as well, but I'm not in a location where I can easily find the drive specific to the laptop. I can boot to a USB flash drive, but there is no option in BIOS for that.

What I was trying to do is to install windows into the new hard disk using another PC, and then hook it to the laptop. I actually tried that after hooking the disk to my computer using USB cable but I find out that windows doesn't support installing to disk attached by USB.

I also tried loading an image I created earlier for any OS drive to this new disk. It failed the first time I don't know why. I know these two options will get me into drivers problems but If I boot successfully into windows, I'll be able to fix that.

Now, what I want is a bootable image I can load into the new disk. Can I find that downloadable from the internet maybe?? Just a basic windows 7 installation.

I need to get this laptop to work soon because its user needs it. The data were backed up somewhere else luckily.

If I can't get an image to load into the disk, I think I'll just have to hook this new disk to another laptop and install windows on it.

All comments/suggestions are welcomed. Thanks.
 
PXE? You can enable it in the BIOS and do a network install. It requires a bit more setup work, but it's possible. You could try copying the setup files to the disk (on a separate PC or laptop), then start the install from the local drive.
 
what about a USB CD or DVD drive? The boot menu (probably F10) should bring it up just fine. It may even work for booting from a USB stick depending on how old the laptop is.
 
sram said:
I can boot to a USB flash drive, but there is no option in BIOS for that.
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Have you tried plugging in a USB stick before turning on the laptop? I have a Toshiba laptop with a BIOS that shows no indication that it supports USB booting unless there's a USB stick/CDROM/zip/floppy attached already.

Also, make sure the USB stick is formatted with FAT/FAT32. Some laptop BIOSes (e.g. ASUS) are really picky about what file system you use for a bootable flash drive.
 
Easy way. Hook drive into another PC/lap and install OS.

Sysprep. return drive to lap and finish install. If you use windows 7 you might don't even need to sysprep
 
Sometimes, hardware just dies. No shame in writing the unit off & tossing it into the spare parts bin.
 
Yeah I don't think installing windows on another computer will work because the hal won't mach up (unless it's an identical laptop). I would pxe boot as mentioned earlier, or try using an external dvd drive.
 
GushpinBob said:
Have you tried plugging in a USB stick before turning on the laptop? I have a Toshiba laptop with a BIOS that shows no indication that it supports USB booting unless there's a USB stick/CDROM/zip/floppy attached already.

Also, make sure the USB stick is formatted with FAT/FAT32. Some laptop BIOSes (e.g. ASUS) are really picky about what file system you use for a bootable flash drive.
Click to expand...

Although it sounded weird when I first read it, it was just my case! When I plugged my bootable flash drive with windows 7 in it, the option for booting from USB appeared in BIOS ! I don't want to believe it because I think it is stupid, but that's exactly what happened. The laptop is toshiba also!

Problem solved! I just continued with normal installation procedures.

Thanks Gushping, and thanks to everybody else who helped me here!
 
johnnyblackout said:
Yeah I don't think installing windows on another computer will work because the hal won't mach up (unless it's an identical laptop). I would pxe boot as mentioned earlier, or try using an external dvd drive.
Click to expand...

The original issue was fixed, but I just wanted to mention Windows Vista and 7 use file-based, nondestructive imaging that uses the Windows® Imaging Format (WIM), Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) independence, and language neutrality. It is still good to generalize an image with sysprep (built in, no more deploy.cab) and then you can run through the oobe ( Out of Box Experience) to install drivers and personalize the system.
 
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