New Laptop Hard Drive

[JimMorrissey]

I put a new 20 Gig drive in my old laptop and I forgot what I have to do to boot it so that I can load Windows XP. I don't have a floppy drive. I'd like to create some kind of "boot disk" so I can boot from CD-ROM then install XP, or do I have to find an A:\ drive and boot from sloppy disks? Any ideas?

I can see the drive in the bios setup. Everything looks good so far.

 

[rozett]

While the laptop is powering up, hit the F2 key. This should take into the BIOS setup. Check the boot order, to insure that the CD drive is in the boot order. If it is, you should be able to power on with the cd in the drive and it will boot from there.

 

[rockyridgefarm]

Good advice - the actual key may vary from one manufacturer to another

 

[JimMorrissey]

Yes, I've done that. What I'm wondering is what CD is have in the drive to boot from.....What files do I need to burn to a CD to make it bootable? Maybe somebody knows of a basic CD "boot disk" for new hard drives.

 

[HomeBrew2]

Jim, using Easy CD Creator 5 or similar burning software that specifically allows for burning of a bootable CD, point to your bootable floppy (on a different machine than your laptop, obviously) as the source for creating an image file. The burn s/w will create the bootable CD from that image file.

 

[Glenn9643]

Is your Windows XP CD not a bootable disk? I assumed they all were.

 

[MikePA]

WindowsXP CDs are bootable.

On my desktop PC, I am prompted 'Press any key to boot from CD....'

 

[rozett]

Jim, your new hard drive has no operating system software installed. So you will need the MS Windows XP CD in the drive when you boot. It will format the drive and install the Windows operating system. You can't run Windows without a read/write storage device, like a hard drive. So having a bootable CD is of little value.

 

[RoyJackson]

"You can't run Windows without a read/write storage device, like a hard drive. So having a bootable CD is of little value. "

I think you're in error here.
I've booted off a CD_ROM on several occasions using a standard CD-ROM or DVD drive.
You cannot write to the Windows XP (or any other Windows OS).

Anyway, I believe the post concerns loading an OS on a new HD.

 

[JimMorrissey]

Hummm, Interesting. I get nothing. Must be something with the drive that's not quite right. I've got the bois set to auto boot to CD first.