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Boot w/USB external CD drive?

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Name: Doxy
Date: September 26, 2005 at 13:47:56 Pacific
OS: Win 98se/WinXP
CPU/Ram: P4 2.6Ghz 1024mb DDR PC2
Comment:

I was given a working laptop that I would like to start over with. The cdrom is broken, so can I boot with a USB external cdrom drive, to do a format and clean installation, or is that impossible with USB?



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Response Number 1
Name: Tony Seiler
Date: September 26, 2005 at 14:15:16 Pacific
Reply:

Hi,

I don't see why you couldn't, you just need to enable booting from USB in the BIOS. Set it as the first boot device.

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Response Number 2
Name: Doxy
Date: September 26, 2005 at 14:21:33 Pacific
Reply:

Hi
That sounds okay in theory, but I have never seen or heard of "enable booting from USB" in the BIOS before. I will look.


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Response Number 3
Name: Kurt S
Date: September 26, 2005 at 15:25:57 Pacific
Reply:

Newer computers will have that option but most computers older than a year or so don't have that option.

If yours doesn't you will have to make a floppy boot disk that has USB drivers. Then boot from the flopy and load the OS from the USB CD drive.


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Response Number 4
Name: Doxy
Date: September 26, 2005 at 16:16:54 Pacific
Reply:

This laptop is from 1998 era, so I expect to need a boot disk with those USB drivers. Where can I download a boot disk with them?

Thanks


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Response Number 5
Name: blackbill
Date: September 26, 2005 at 18:00:55 Pacific
Reply:

You can boot from any drive (including USB) with a program called BOOTITNG.

It has a 30 day full working trial and is about $35 (US)... It's well worth it!!


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Response Number 6
Name: plainandsimple
Date: September 26, 2005 at 22:17:42 Pacific
Reply:

I found a Self-extracting WinImage of a USB DOS Boot Disk here:

http://83.67.55.228/usbcdrom.exe


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Response Number 7
Name: Doxy
Date: September 27, 2005 at 08:20:36 Pacific
Reply:

Thanks Guys!


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