Installing Windows on a Laptop - DVD Drive dead

[Behemoth]

I've been given by a friend a laptop to look at that he wants to use. It cost him nowt, and I don't want him spending (or me for that matter) any money on it.

It's quite an old Sony Vaio thing, the model number of which escapes me right about now. However it's DVD drive does not work. It fails to see USB devices plugged into it for booting purposes so an external DVD drive is out.

It's recovery partition has long since been deleted too, so thats out also.

Right about now I'm doing the worst job ever and manually uninstalling all the software loaded on it in an effort to gain some HDD space.

40 gig hard drives don't take long to defrag these days do they ?

However any suggestions greatly appreciated.

[spoon_]

Can the NIC take PXE?

What about running installer from within the current OS and upgrading that way?

[Behemoth]

Don't think the NIC can take PXE although will investigate that.

[Behemoth]

I get the DVD Drive going and the F8 key doesn't work

[spoon_]

Sure its F8? F12 is quite common as well.

Rather trivial but did you change the boot order? Should pick your CD/DVD automatically and and auto boot.

[KowShak]

I've been given by a friend a laptop to look at that he wants to use. It cost him nowt, and I don't want him spending (or me for that matter) any money on it.

It's quite an old Sony Vaio thing, the model number of which escapes me right about now. However it's DVD drive does not work. It fails to see USB devices plugged into it for booting purposes so an external DVD drive is out.

It's recovery partition has long since been deleted too, so thats out also.

Right about now I'm doing the worst job ever and manually uninstalling all the software loaded on it in an effort to gain some HDD space.

40 gig hard drives don't take long to defrag these days do they ?

However any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Have you thought about taking the hard disk out of the laptop, put it into another computer and installing a base windows install from there? Windows will not be particularly happy when you put the hard disk back into the laptop because the hardware will be a bit different, but it will boot and you'll be able to install the drivers.

[Behemoth]

It came about that the boot order wasn't the issue, more so my genuine XP Home CD that was. So I borrowed one from work, well the IT guys gave me a copy and said keep it as all our gear is licenced for pro.

Anyway thats sorted, and I used a USB leyboard as it seem half the F keys don't work. Means taking the thing apart tomorrow and seeing if it just needs a going over with some switch cleaner.