How can I get Windows XPP to install when my computer will not run CD as a primary drive?

Question

I am trying to install Xp on a newer computer. The problem is that it will not run from CD even setting my bios to boot from CD.

The CD is bootable. I have 4 IDE drives and an IDE enclosure. The drive in the computer itself is SATI. I have tried booting from a working hard drive with windows install via the external unsuccessfully.

Any ideas?

As a side note I do not have a 3.5 floppy drive.

Answer 1

You may have already tried this, but in case you haven't, I'd first check whether the system will boot from some other CD (i.e. SystemRescueCD).  I'd also check to be sure the XP CD is CD-R and not CD-RW or some such.  Then I'd research the BIOS a little to see if an update is available to address the CD boot problem.  Next, I'd see whether I can somehow use the CD to make a recovery partition on disk then boot and install from there.  

Answer 2

Newer PCs have the option to boot from a USB key.

The other option is to setup a PC to act as a network boot PXE installer and install via PXE.

http://www.debian-administration.org/art...

Answer 3

well it depends on what computer you have. For example, if it is a dell, you can press F12 so you can select what item to boot from.

Please try giving the specs of your computer.

Joseph