- Ok so my DVD drive broke a few days ago and my computer has been super slow lately. My computer has specs from the early 2000s (2.80 Ghz Pentium 4 processor, 512mb of ram, and 80GB hard drive) and I can't upgrade now due to financial reasons. Anyways I was wondering if there was a way to reinstall Windows XP Home edition without the CD. I do have My product key that came with my PC when I first bought it in 05. I've looked into the "i386" folder and there is no "winnt32.exe" to startup the setup. So does anyone know another way of installing it or am I out of luck?04-27-12 12:54 AMLike 0
- What about an external DVD drive? They are not expensive.
Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express04-27-12 01:04 AMLike 0 - Yeah I ordered 4GB last month but the sticks don't fit in the slot so I sent them back. How can I know the right ones to get? My computer is a dell dimension 3000 if that helps.
Last edited by luqman24; 04-27-12 at 08:57 AM.
04-27-12 08:50 AMLike 0 - But unfortunately tigerdirect doesn't do that which is where I buy most of my electronic related parts from. Any suggestion as to which site/sites does that?04-27-12 09:27 AMLike 0
- kbz1960Doesn't MatterDon't have to buy it from here but you can at least find out what you need.
RAM Memory Upgrade: Dell, Mac, Apple, HP, Compaq. USB drives, SSD at Crucial.comluqman24 likes this.04-27-12 09:33 AMLike 1 - Don't have to buy it from here but you can at least find out what you need.
RAM Memory Upgrade: Dell, Mac, Apple, HP, Compaq. USB drives, SSD at Crucial.comLast edited by luqman24; 04-27-12 at 09:57 AM.
04-27-12 09:42 AMLike 0 - From my knowledge, tigerdirect.com (.ca for us canadians) has a memory finder that is one of the best for finding compatible memory for your computer regardless if it's a tablet pc, umpc (which takes laptop/netbook ram) laptop, netbook or desktop.
Formatting a usb stick with NTFS and copying the CD or DVD's contents to it, then letting it boot up should do the trick.
Or if that doesn't work, just copy the ms-dos system files to the stick (in the command prompt, there is an option to do so, I believe, if it's formatted for FAT32 or FAT16), all you need is io.sys, mscdex.exe, himem.sys, msdos.sys, command.com and it has to be marked bootable too.
Putting these lines into a config.sys file, to get the extended memory driver and CD driver loaded helps:
Code:DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS DEVICEHIGH=MSCDEX.EXE
I did that in linux so many times. Thank goodness to GParted.
Boot from the dos usb stick,
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com using Tapatalk04-27-12 04:56 PMLike 0 - From my knowledge, tigerdirect.com (.ca for us canadians) has a memory finder that is one of the best for finding compatible memory for your computer regardless if it's a tablet pc, umpc (which takes laptop/netbook ram) laptop, netbook or desktop.
Formatting a usb stick with NTFS and copying the CD or DVD's contents to it, then letting it boot up should do the trick.
Or if that doesn't work, just copy the ms-dos system files to the stick (in the command prompt, there is an option to do so, I believe, if it's formatted for FAT32 or FAT16), all you need is io.sys, mscdex.exe, himem.sys, msdos.sys, command.com and it has to be marked bootable too.
Putting these lines into a config.sys file, to get the extended memory driver and CD driver loaded helps:
Code:DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS DEVICEHIGH=MSCDEX.EXE
I did that in linux so many times. Thank goodness to GParted.
Boot from the dos usb stick,
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com using TapatalkLast edited by luqman24; 04-27-12 at 08:28 PM.
04-27-12 08:24 PMLike 0 - I would have to be at a computer running DOS to copy the contents of the config.sys and autoexec.bat files into this post. DOS from a live CD that is.04-27-12 08:27 PMLike 0
- The thing is that Dell did not copy a recovery file when I first bought it so I can't find any thing related to a software reinstall on my "C:\" drive. So it basically impossible as of now unless there is a way I could download the SofTware install online04-27-12 08:59 PMLike 0
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That's how I do USB installs, since most newer computers after 2001 can boot from USB devices (BIOS has to support it).
Thrift stores usually have spare CD/DVD drives and complete computer cases.04-27-12 09:05 PMLike 0 - Dell likely charges a fee for the recovery media, which blows. I suggest, if you have a spare CD/DVD drive laying around, and if you can grab a functioning power supply out of a pentium 1 computer, the one with a power button that pushes in and out, not the motherboard-controlled types, then you could use that to externally power the drive and hook up one of those "USB TO IDE/Sata" cables found on ebay.
That's how I do USB installs, since most newer computers after 2001 can boot from USB devices (BIOS has to support it).
Thrift stores usually have spare CD/DVD drives and complete computer cases.04-27-12 09:12 PMLike 0 - i revived my early 2000's Dell 4600 (80 GB HD as well, 3 ghz processor) with 4GB or RAM from newegg.com and then downloaded an ISO of Windows 7 Ultimate. then i loaded the OS onto a USB and booted from that and installed it. i was coming from XP Home. and using ways i cant mention here, activated it. also did the same thing on my acer netbook with Windows 7 Starter. i upgraded it the same way to 7 Ultimate.
Windows bootable USB tool ----> Microsoft Store Online
my suggestion is install Win 7. its quicker than XP ran on this old beast. for links to what i did, PM me. i now run activated Win 7 Ultimate on all my machines.Rootbrian likes this.04-28-12 03:05 AMLike 1 - i revived my early 2000's Dell 4600 (80 GB HD as well, 3 ghz processor) with 4GB or RAM from newegg.com and then downloaded an ISO of Windows 7 Ultimate. then i loaded the OS onto a USB and booted from that and installed it. i was coming from XP Home. and using ways i cant mention here, activated it. also did the same thing on my acer netbook with Windows 7 Starter. i upgraded it the same way to 7 Ultimate.
Windows bootable USB tool ----> Microsoft Store Online
my suggestion is install Win 7. its quicker than XP ran on this old beast. for links to what i did, PM me. i now run activated Win 7 Ultimate on all my machines.
Eh, as long as it performs like new, we don't need to buy a new one.04-28-12 03:15 AMLike 0 - 32 bit WIN 7 can only support up to 4GB RAM, so thats all i can install. people laugh at my setup, but with my 500GB external drive, its fine for my needs. its actually fairly quick for what it is and only crashed once in the 8 years ive owned it. not to mention it runs 24/7 and i barely reboot it. downloading a Win 7 ISO, making a bootable USB from it and installing/activating was the best thing to ever happen to this poor thing. its faster than ever now, which i found strange lol. if youre using XP, youre missing out.04-28-12 03:20 AMLike 0
- 32 bit WIN 7 can only support up to 4GB RAM, so thats all i can install. people laugh at my setup, but with my 500GB external drive, its fine for my needs. its actually fairly quick for what it is and only crashed once in the 8 years ive owned it. not to mention it runs 24/7 and i barely reboot it. downloading a Win 7 ISO, making a bootable USB from it and installing/activating was the best thing to ever happen to this poor thing. its faster than ever now, which i found strange lol. if youre using XP, youre missing out.
Last edited by Rootbrian; 04-28-12 at 03:31 AM. Reason: Additional info adds.
04-28-12 03:28 AMLike 0 - thats weird. ive done ALL my work on my BB's over the years ONLY on my Win 7 netbook. all backing up, OS loads, hybrids and other cod file manipulation. never had an issue. i was dual booting backtrack linux and win 7 on my netbook for awhile. recently decided to delete backtrack and installed OS X Snow Leopard (duel booting Win 7 still) on it just for giggles lol. i was also running Ubuntu on my desktop for awhile, but deleted the partition and repaired my MBR back to normal.04-28-12 03:34 AMLike 0
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- I find copying everything to an external drive right after a clean install of windows, is a very good backup and restore method, to a clean install state. Not using a backup program, but by copying everything using Linux from one drive to another, hidden, system and protected files included. I did this to avoid the MBR getting overwritten during a reinstall. That's cause I have windows 7, xp and ubuntu on the same disks. It's as fast as copying files and you don't need to wait over a few hours for windows to setup itself over again.04-28-12 03:41 AMLike 0
- I find copying everything to an external drive right after a clean install of windows, is a very good backup and restore method, to a clean install state. Not using a backup program, but by copying everything using Linux from one drive to another, hidden, system and protected files included. I did this to avoid the MBR getting overwritten during a reinstall. That's cause I have windows 7, xp and ubuntu on the same disks. It's as fast as copying files and you don't need to wait over a few hours for windows to setup itself over again.04-28-12 03:48 AMLike 0
- I could never see myself deleting linux.
It's so handy and reads far more filesystems than windows even does.
Shame, my 250GB external drive won't even properly power up on my desktop anymore, or it's failing. Whenever it reads the NTFS partition of it, it powers off and "eeep eeep eeep eeep eeep", then powers back on, and keeps repeating forever, but it doesn't do that with the linux ext4 partition. Maybe that part of the disk is going bad, or the entire disk. I'll have to get a new one to keep everything on before the likely event of a failure does arise. It's a SATA Seagate Momentum drive.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com using Tapatalk04-28-12 04:52 AMLike 0
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Installing windows xp without CD
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