ugh...reinstalling windows...
 

yeah, i'm a bit n00b at this.
so, apparently my family's dell is chockfull of stuff that needs to get just...WIPED. So i went to go reinstall windows and found a sad problem.
The internal CD drive is broken. The laser is out. Blame it on wear.
And the external CD drive is broken as well. Blame it on wear too D: My family tends to break several times.

So, i was wondering if there was anyway I could just load windows onto my external HD and install it that way? I'm not sure how to go about it...
either that or just wipe the whole drive. The problem is its a family computer, and its not like i can just chuck it and get a new one (money issues, etc). Especially with the whole new school year, my mother and brother will need some form of computer for assignments and such!

Yeah, um...a detailed how-to-do thing would be nice. I'm sort of retarded on this whole matter...

And as for how i'll set it up, i'm sure that i'll leave one admin (with a pass that i only know) and make sure everyone else can't install shit. I'm hoping this is the last reinstall i'll have to do before we get a new one, just this computer needs to last another year or so.

thanks :)

(ugh just realized i posted this in the wrong subforum, if it could be chucked into appropriate forum that'd be real fine and dandy =\)

You will need some kind of device to boot from. Floppy? USB?

Copy \i386\ from the install CD to your external drive.
When you boot to the DOS prompt run \i386\winnt.exe to start setup.

Do you have a floppy drive?

yeah, floppy drive. i was planning on using port hd though, since i'm sure windows is a lot more than 1.2 megs or so that a floppy could hold =x

loooooool.
Ok, make a boot disk on another PC. Do you have a windows 98 cd laying around? or a PC with windows 98 or ME?

Boot the PC with the floppy. Run smartdrv (to speed up the install) then run winnt.exe from the external hard disk.

Additional Spam:
If you don't have a 98/ME CD or system sitting around, you can use a boot disk maker from this site. Make sure its windows 98 or higher.
Also, you may have to create a FAT32 partition on the external drive if its NTFS. DOS can't read NTFS drives.

Copy everything from it, format as FAT32, then copy the windows install files to it if its NTFS.

all i have is windows xp, but i'll resort to 98/ME (considering the damn thing could barely run xp decently!)
thanks :)

Well I was giving directions for installing XP :P

98 would probably be better for an older system though.

ah xD i see!!! ok i'll get this to work *__*!!! thank you :)

Additional Spam:
ah ok. so i have everything set up. the boot disc, the hd with that folder you told me to copy... (ah, i am so stupid with this stuff!)...
so i went to mess about with it, and as expected, i'm like "WTF HOW DO I BOOT DISC D:?"
being so young, i guess i'm sort of unexperienced with this stuff ^^;;

i grabbed the windows me boot disc version =x

You could always buy a new optical drive. A brand new DVD-RW drive doesn't need to cost more than $40 bucks which is not exactly a large sum.

it'd have to be external, since its a smaller dell that really wouldn't fit an internal into it :\ isn't that more expensive?
oh well, i'll wait a few weeks and then get to it.

Substantially more expensive, yeah. Don't bother with that option. Instead... how about you open up the case and just connect the DVD drive from another computer to the IDE connection and power connector inside your Dell. It will probably have to sit outside the case for the duration of the installation, but it won't come to any harm as long as you are careful.

I don't know about these smaller Dell cases, but I bet they have standard IDE cables and standard molex power connectors. Unless it's a laptop of some kind.

thats actually a really good idea, never thought of it xD thanks :)

I've done that my self a few times, I assumed going the software route would be easier. :P

Don't those dells use laptop drives?

Or I could come over with my USB DVD drive and you can boot from that, or I can take my USB cable and use my internal DVD-ROM drive and turn that into an external, and install windows off of that.


I'm free this weekend. You should've told me!

>< i always get help from you, and feel bad about it! lol, cuz i'm sure you have better things to do.
;~; but i'm not free this weekend (new job thing)
what about next week =\?