PonderEthereal

This works under the following conditions :

• You have a working computer that you want to reload but it doesn’t have a (working) CD-ROM drive
• You have a working computer with a working CD-ROM
• These computers are on a network together and can share files

In my case, I have a REALLY old (9 years?) laptop that I let visitors use that needed to be reloaded. It’s dying piece by piece and the CD-ROM was one of the first to go.

You will need : Your Windows XP CD and key (this is not a hack for WinXP), MagicISO, Daemon Tools Lite

1. Put your WinXP cd into the working computer’s CD-ROM.
2. Download MagicISO onto the computer with the working CD-ROM. Using MagicISO, create an ISO file from the CD. An ISO file is an image of the CD… or a duplicate copy. In MagicISO, click ‘tools’ and ‘make ISO from CD’.
3. Copy the new ISO file from the PC with the working CD-ROM to the pc you are reloading via network
4. Download Daemon Tools Lite onto the computer you are reloading - or download it to the working computer and copy it over. Load Daemon Tools Lite on the non-working computer.
5. Using Daemon Tools Lite, mount the image. Do this my left clicking the Daemon Tools icon in the system tray. Clicking Device 0. A browse dialog will pop up. Browse to the ISO file that you copied to this computer and select it. Daemon Tools Lite will mount the image and give it a drive name. Your winxp setup should start automatically. If it doesn’t, you can go to ‘My Computer’ and double click the new (virtual) CD-ROM drive.
6. Choose to set up windows from scratch (not repair etc). After you enter your key, setup will ask you to verify how you would like to install. Select the option to copy all setup files to your computer and allow it to check for updates on the internet.
7. Continue setup as normal. Because it copied all of the setup files to your computer, the cd will no longer be required for setup. You can clean up the setup files later, if you don’t want them on the computer.