windows xp fresh install on dell latitude c400?

Question

My dell laptop does not have a cd or dvd .
I want to reinstall windows xp and format the hardrive.
I intend to use a flash usb drive to instal windows xp.
when i go into bios below are the options i am given
which one acts as a usb flash drive so that it's first in the booting order
Thanks

Diskette drive
cd/dvd
module bay cable hdd
cardbus nic
c/port II or c/dock II nic
c/dock or c/dock II top pci slot one
c/dock II bottom pci slot nic
onboard nic

Answer 1

you cant. All USB drives need drivers. XP has drivers for them in the operating system, so until it is installed again the drivers cant be installed for the USB drive so the USB drive cant be used

Answer 2

This is how I did it, you may or may not have the ability. A basic knowledge of Dos is necessary

1) I used another laptop but you could use an adapter to use the hard drive in a regular computer.

2)boot with a windows 98 boot disk, fdisk it to a fat32 partition, make the hard drive a system boot disk (format /s c:)

3) copy the i386 folder and all its contents from a full or full oem (not branded) disk to the laptop drive, also copy smartdrv and highmem.sys from the floppy (speeds thing up dramitically) and create a config.sys file with device=highmem.sys

4)physically install the hard drive back into the C400, boot to dos run smartdrv.exe, then go to the i386 folder and type winnt.exe (enter) wooo should work.

Answer 3

If those are your choices, it would seem like you may not be able to boot from USB.

Answer 4

Have a look below and good luck.



http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp



And below if you need expert advice which I think you will.



http://www.cybertechhelp.com/forums/index.php