Downgrade from XP to Any os with huge hardwares restrictions.

Hello everyone,

I would like to know if any of you know a "magic trick" for removing XP from my Toshiba Portege 3480CT. Okay it sound quite easy, but here are the restrictions I have:

- I Have no floppy drive
- I have no CDROM (I usually install software using my network / main PC)

However, the laptop have a "boot with lan" option, I just have no clue how to use that. I miss having "Format c: /s" , that was so simple

Thank you in advance!

 

If I could get a tips on either use the Boot on lan option, or a equivalent of "format c: /s" by having my windows cabs on the other partition, this is how I plan to install the other OS, if possible of course.

 

Do you guys/girls have any idea?

 

What OS do you plan on replacing XP with?

What OS runs on the machine on your network?

I know if you are using 2000 Server, you can do RIS installations over a network, but I think that will only allow Windows 2k or Windows XP installations.

 

My Desktop pc: Windows XP Pro

My Laptop (The one I want to downgrade): XP Pro to Windows 2000

I can still install Windows 2k temporarly on my desktop to do the work.

 

1. Get Partition Magic, or anything that will resize your partitions.
2. Make a new partition on the tail end of your hdd that will hold all your files from the cd.
3. Copy the cd to the new partition.
4. Make partition Bootable and active.
5. Reboot pc to the new partition and reformat the old one and install the OS you want.
6. Get rid of the extra partition and resize the main one.
7. Have a beer.

edit - Of course back up your stuff =)

 

So um, does PM have network capabilities?

Otherwise how will he get it on his machine?

 

Over the network of course. After the new partition is made he uses as normal and copies the files over his network from a machine that has the cd-rom in it.

 

Oops.

I've been going through this entire post assuming he couldn't even boot to XP...

/slaps self

 

Hehe thanks for the Idea, I had PM installed on that pc already and I never thought about this one, 2 brains are better than 1!

And yes, the XP is booting perfectly, the problem is I bought it from 2nd end, and the guy installed XP on a p3 600, this is not the best overall perfromances you can have..

 

Finally, I was tired to play aroud with this, since the PQ trick didnt seem to work (System wont boot anymore ) , I went to a store, and buy a USB Floppy drive, since my system can boot with them. Everything is fine now of course

Thanks for your help