Thanks for the response. Unfortunately this method did not work :(
I ended up flashing the BIOS, although it was an older version :/ the good thing was that it reset all the settings and its now giving me an option to network boot (it didn't before for some reason, it was disabled and wouldn't let me change it.) Are there any good links for guides to install over the network? I need an "idiot's guide" to network boot to install windows. Thanks in advance.

This tutorial seems to be reasonably complete and simple to follow:
MC MCSE: Additional Installation Methods of Windows XP Professional
Hope it helps

Ok, will give that a try when I have some time. School is starting back up again so I don't have time to screw around. :mad:

Thanks for all of your help so far.

William --

Thanks for the GREAT tutorial. I have successfully reinstalled WinXP on a Panasonic Toughbook, which has only an external CD-ROM and no floppy drive.

I have several suggestions for other readers that might help.

1) When installing the new 2.5" HDD into the desktop computer for formatting, remember to jumper it as a slave . It won't recognize it otherwise, of course, which I realized after multiple frustrating attempts. On my drive, the slave configuration is to vertically jumper the first two pins (of the four jumper pins, the ones farthest from the cable).

2) Know where pin 1 is on your new HDD and line it up correctly with the adapter and the red stripe of the cable. On my HDD, pin 1 is the one closest to the four jumper pins.

3) If you are installing a new HDD larger than 32 GB, you need to create a main partition of 32 GB or smaller. You cannot use FAT32 format if the drive exceeds 32 GB. I formatted an 80 GB drive into three partitions and that worked fine.

4) When installing DOS 7.1 onto the new drive, I tried to install the new HDD as the master, as the instructions indicate. Unfortunately, I never did get the desktop computer to recognize it, even though it was properly formatted and configured as master. I worked around this by installing the /I386 files and smartdrv.exe while the 2.5" drive was installed as the slave. I then rebooted using the DOS 7.1 CD with the new HDD still as slave. When the DOS installation screen came up, it claimed it could not find any FAT drives on my system. It then issued me a stern warning not to continue because it could not install DOS onto a NTFS formatted drive. I clicked "Skip" and continued. At that point I was able to tell it to install onto my second HDD, the new 2.5" FAT32 formatted drive, and that worked well. I allowed it to configure my MBR on that drive. Make sure you indicate the correct drive letter of your 2.5" new drive and not the main drive on your desktop.

5). Make the FAT32 partition "ACTIVE" on the new HDD so the operating system can be found when reinstalled in the laptop. That took several more frustrating re-installation attempts before I discovered that. (I kept getting "No Operating System Found" messages on the laptop). I was able to activate the partition by reinstalling it as the slave in my desktop, then using Control Panel-Administrative Tools-Computer Management-Disk Management. Right click on the new HDD partition with Dos and Select "Mark Partition as Active".

Activating that partition was the final piece of the puzzle for me. Once I did that, I reinstalled the HDD into the laptop and was delighted to see DOS 7.1 come up, followed by a C:\. I then proceeded to follow William's instructions and ran c:smartdrv.exe and c:\i386\winnt.exe. I watched with amazement as Windows installed flawlessly back onto my dead laptop.

Thanks again, William. You performed a great service!

Hi im having problems with this when I get to the Type C:\I386\winnt.exe I get a error message saying bad command or file name any ideas whats going wrong the laptop is a old dell C400 without a cd or floppy drive
have also tried C:\1386\winnt.exe with the same error HELP!!! cheers... Hi I got it after messing about thanks a lot great info the only thing I did different was at the Type C:\i386\winnt.exe
I typed C:\winnt.exe and got prompted for the location of the windows install files then typed C:\i386 and that started the install up for me and It installed perfectly

Thanks
 

Worked flawlessly on a Soyo pw-930S Thanks again
Sean

What is the converter ? Can I get it my local market ? My country is Nepal.

I tried your method but ran into a problem at the point where you said to:
5) Using a working desktop: Unplug any and all HDD from a system. plug only the Laptop HDD. insert the 98SE bootdisk into the floopy drive on the system.
Choose boot with CD-ROM support.
At the A: prompt type C: and verify all the bootfiles you copied earlier are there.
type A: to get back to A prompt.
type sys C:
Once system is copied. shutdown the box and remove the laptop hdd.

Everything you said ran fine until I typed sys C: and I got the message "Bad command or file name" and that was the only thing that I could get regardless of what I tried. I tried to put the HD back into the laptop and it would not boot from usb floppy (thanx heaps Fujitsu!) using two different drives. My laptop is a Fujitsu B2562 and I have tried all known methods found here and elsewheree on the net to install XP on it. These Fujitsu UMPC units seem to be junk to me if this is what grief they give just installing an operating system. I have two N400c Compaq units that run fine and had a docking base available to get the XP cd into. The Fujitsu may end up being used as a clay pigeon and after that their engineers deserve to be fired for such a poor design. Build quality means nothing without serviceability.

Problem with laptop PRESARIO 80XL550
 

Hello I have a problem with a presario laptop model 80XL550, no floppy or cd rom,,, use your guide, then when I put the laptop hard drive back a message shows " Not valid partition table" any idea how to get around, I did the step twice same error message...when I was instaling DOS on the laptop drive, asked if I want to do something with the MBR I said yes, but the desktop hung up for a while so I decided to skip that part...maybe thats the problem...thanks in advance for your reply...

Thnx William for ur this valuable thread here i hv wat the problem n hope somthing from u, thnx in advance plz :-

I hv Toshiba laptop bought during 2003, but the cd drive is totally out of order. I hv supplied with external Floppy drive. I hv two recovery CDs for window xp SP1 also supplied by TOSHIBA. The window is crashed now there is nothing on the laptop. I can re-install/recover through the cds supplied by Toshiba only. Plz tell me wat is the best way to get back the system on again. My cd drive was not working, so i purchased sony cd drive (external) also, but Toshiba dont allow to boot from external cd drive. I even hv PC also. Hoping a fruitful reply. Thnx