Can you install XP from the hard drive?

[ChemBot]

The optical drive on my laptop is broken on my laptop, so I
tried copying all of the files from the hard drive, booting
with the boot disks and installing it from there. It seemed
like it was working, but halfway through the install
process when it is installing devices, the speakers make a
clicking sound, the screen flashes on and off twice, and it
dies. Is this because Windows doesn't like the fact that
it's on the hard drive, or is there some other problem?
This happens with both Home and Pro versions of XP.

[Bob]

I have done it before on a laptop without a bootable CD drive. You should
have created a separate FAT partition for the installation files before
starting the installation using something like Partition Magic. This will
prevent windows from overwriting itself during the disk format at the
beginning of the installation. If this is the case and you have partially
overwritten your installation files, you may have to remove the harddrive
and use an adapter to connect it to another computer in order to restore
them. If you chose the option not to format the drive during installation,
you problem is more likely corrupt installation files or hardware failure.
Bob

"ChemBot" > wrote in message
...
> The optical drive on my laptop is broken on my laptop, so I
> tried copying all of the files from the hard drive, booting
> with the boot disks and installing it from there. It seemed
> like it was working, but halfway through the install
> process when it is installing devices, the speakers make a
> clicking sound, the screen flashes on and off twice, and it
> dies. Is this because Windows doesn't like the fact that
> it's on the hard drive, or is there some other problem?
> This happens with both Home and Pro versions of XP.

[Ray Taylor]

I am just wondering for future reference, if i only had one partition that
was Fat32 and i put the i386 directory onto the c: drive in the folder
c:\install, would i still be able to install windows to c:\windows ???



Ray Taylor

"Bob" > wrote in message
. com...
> I have done it before on a laptop without a bootable CD drive. You should
> have created a separate FAT partition for the installation files before
> starting the installation using something like Partition Magic. This will
> prevent windows from overwriting itself during the disk format at the
> beginning of the installation. If this is the case and you have partially
> overwritten your installation files, you may have to remove the harddrive
> and use an adapter to connect it to another computer in order to restore
> them. If you chose the option not to format the drive during installation,
> you problem is more likely corrupt installation files or hardware failure.
> Bob
>
> "ChemBot" > wrote in message
> ...
> > The optical drive on my laptop is broken on my laptop, so I
> > tried copying all of the files from the hard drive, booting
> > with the boot disks and installing it from there. It seemed
> > like it was working, but halfway through the install
> > process when it is installing devices, the speakers make a
> > clicking sound, the screen flashes on and off twice, and it
> > dies. Is this because Windows doesn't like the fact that
> > it's on the hard drive, or is there some other problem?
> > This happens with both Home and Pro versions of XP.
>
>

[Sharon F]

Yes, you could place a copy of the i386 folder on your hard drive. In fact,
many of the manufacturers place a copy of this folder on the hard drive so
that it can be used for quick repairs. You could also run a repair install
using that folder as a source.

In some scenarios, yes - you could conceivably run the installation by
starting from an MS-DOS boot disk that loads Smart Drive and using the
folder on the hard drive (instead of running setup, you would run the
winnt.exe file in the i386 folder).

You will run into trouble if you are relying on this folder as your only
installation source though. Obviously, any situation where the hard drive
needed to be cleared off entirely before installing XP "clean" would be
impossible.


--
Sharon F
Microsoft MVP, Windows - Shell/User


Ray Taylor wrote:
> I am just wondering for future reference, if i only had one partition that
> was Fat32 and i put the i386 directory onto the c: drive in the folder
> c:\install, would i still be able to install windows to c:\windows ???
>
>
>
> Ray Taylor
>
> "Bob" > wrote in message
> . com...
>> I have done it before on a laptop without a bootable CD drive. You
should
>> have created a separate FAT partition for the installation files before
>> starting the installation using something like Partition Magic. This
will
>> prevent windows from overwriting itself during the disk format at the
>> beginning of the installation. If this is the case and you have
partially
>> overwritten your installation files, you may have to remove the harddrive
>> and use an adapter to connect it to another computer in order to restore
>> them. If you chose the option not to format the drive during
installation,
>> you problem is more likely corrupt installation files or hardware
failure.
>> Bob
>>
>> "ChemBot" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>> The optical drive on my laptop is broken on my laptop, so I
>>> tried copying all of the files from the hard drive, booting
>>> with the boot disks and installing it from there. It seemed
>>> like it was working, but halfway through the install
>>> process when it is installing devices, the speakers make a
>>> clicking sound, the screen flashes on and off twice, and it
>>> dies. Is this because Windows doesn't like the fact that
>>> it's on the hard drive, or is there some other problem?
>>> This happens with both Home and Pro versions of XP.