Any laptop pc experts around tonight?

[enigmatic]

I let my star run out so I can't post this in the group; I just picked up a laptop w/o a cd-rom and I want to install 98 or XP (whatever is easier) on it. The HDD on the laptop is wiped and formatted, but w/o an OS.

I've got a USB external CD-ROM that works, but the laptop BIOS doesn't pick it up.

Any ideas on how I can do this?

[Crazy Guggenheim]

1. Did you want a star? On the Laptop, let me get back to you.

:popcorn:

[enigmatic]

2. I'm cool, bro

I'm just waiting for my paypal account to activate to donate again; thanks:)

And thanks for any help you can give; I'm a desktop pc guy, and I'm clueless when it comes to laptops..

[Crazy Guggenheim]

3. Go into BIOS and find the selection for Startup. Make the first boot

order an External Device. Try that.

[enigmatic]

4. Got it

I'm going to do that; thanks for this..

[Crazy Guggenheim]

5. Thank you! Thank you!

:popcorn:

[jpeg]

6. I can't think of anything to do with that hardware

I would put the laptop drive in a desktop and copy the cd to a temp partition (easiest, if you have a 2.5" adapter).

Or put the cd in a desktop and hunt around for a bootdisk with a driver for the laptop's eth card. Or boot off a knoppix disk, partition the local disk, and copy the cd from the remote box to a temp partition.

[enigmatic]

7. how feasable is this?

"I would put the laptop drive in a desktop and copy the cd to a temp partition (easiest, if you have a 2.5" adapter)"

How much would an adaptor be? I think this would work; I've also got a USB laptop HDD case w/ another HDD; could I copy the files into the HDD in the USB case, then swap it w/ the HDD in the laptop?