this is an option, that is slightly different, but it is not guarenteed that the boot disk will be recognized as a bootable device with every motherboard.
Removing the extra boot drive is not that big of a deal, but it can be annoying i suppose, i find it to be more useful if a re-install is needed, as it can be completed without anything, but restarting in dos.
*always good to have other options, good post :)

when issues arise
 

Great guide will helped me alot.

i ran into an issue though, that i think others might possibly run into as well.

see in my case i was trying to install a copy of XP tablet pc edition. when i installed in the manner you provided i, durring the course of the install, ran into a message box asking for a file that i could not find. the first time i hit cancel and my install of windows ended up with no tablet functionality at all. so during reinstall i ran into the same message box. in anticipation i had browsed the cd and determined that certain cab files that were necessary for it to work were in the components directory on the xp cd. i copyed the files over and then tried entering the cab files in the destination. now realizing that the files needed to be extracted the files on the a desktop computer and then copyed them to a folder on a usb flash drive.

then back on the install computer i plugged in the drive.
then hit shift-f10 to open comand prompt to see if it recognized the drive. this was annoying as i needed to check every letter to see if the drive recognized.

suprisingly it did. turned out to be E:\

(i tried using the browse button in the msg box but it was worthless)

then i typed in the thumbdrive dir into the msg box and it worked fine. i did have to reenter a different dir as there were 2 different cab files on the tablet xp disk within the component dir.

but everything worked.
just thought that this would be worth mentioning.

thanks again for the guide.

Hi I recently got a Dell Latitude CSx from a friend and it has no floppy or cd drive. You're guide is great and should most definately work, but I have run into a "Missing Operating System" error when I put the hard drive back into the laptop. When I did a test run on the desktop that I used, it boots up fine and MS-DOS loads and I can access the c drive without problems. When I stick it back in the laptop, I always get the "Missing Operating System" error. Any ideas how to get around this little problem? Thanks in advance.

no operating sys message
 

Hi I recently got a Dell Latitude XPi A-Series and it has no floppy or cd drive. LIke the last poster I agree that "You're guide is great and should most definately work", but I to have run into a "Missing Operating System" error when I put the hard drive back into the laptop.

Everytime i put it back in the laptop, I always get the "Missing Operating System" error. Any ideas how to get around this little problem? Thanks in advance.

Madtown(girl)

kureme, if your drive is working in your desktop, but not in your laptop, it is a boot sector error i would think, and for some reason your desktop is getting around it. Try using the tips on this site Fix Boot Sector in your desktop to try and fix the problem. You may have to format and reinstall.

madtown If you are having the same issues then try the above as well, but if the drive is not working in your desktop as well, it is possible the drive has failed do to improper grounding during the installation.

*hope this helps, if not post again with the results :)

Thanks for the quick reply and a nice link that should come in handy for future problems to come. Unfortunately, their solutions to the "Missing Operating System" issue did not resolve my problem. I have rewritten the system files as well as the master boot record as suggested in 1 and 2. I even tried reformatting and reinstalling the MS-DOS but this didn't work either. I did notice that as I was reinstalling DOS, during the part where the setup checks the partitions on the hard drives, I get--

(E) Cannot read sector 0 of fixed disk 2 -- Invalid function or parameter
(E) Cannot access fixed disk 2 -- Invalid function or parameter
(W) Drive letter assignments may be incorrect

^--that repeated 5 times and then it proceeds with the rest of the setup continuing with a prompt asking to rewrite the MBR.

After the reformat and reinstallation of DOS, the drive works as usual on the desktop, but still gives me the "Missing Operating System" error when I stick it in the laptop. Do you have any other ideas of what I should do? Thanks again.

Also, I have taken apart the laptop to clean up some water residue and noticed some jumpers on the motherboard but I can't seem to find any information on what they do or even any info on the motherboard itself. I did however find a nice pic of the motherboard on ebay with a nice shot of the jumpers so here it is. The best best would be to contact Dell, but me not being the original owner of the laptop and it being such an old model, I don't think they will be of much help. Google only turns up a bunch of sites selling computer parts but nothing about the jumpers or the motherboard. Sorry for such a long post.

I would not be messing with the jumpers, these are not the type in which to play with.
How are you formatting the drive, are you sure you are creating a primary partition?
Also, run a scandisk on the first partition to fix any errors before installing DOS, you may have a few bad sectors.

I was just curious about the jumpers if maybe those were the ones to clear the cmos or something but oh well, not like I really need to do that or anything.

The first time I formatted it was with partition magic with FAT32 making it primary and active. After it didn't want to work with the laptop, I reformatted it using the DOS boot disk's format. I have also ran scandisk with the surface scan only to turn up with nothing. The hdd works fine on the desktop I don't know why it won't work with the laptop. Perhaps theres a problem with the laptop or the laptop is just too old? Well anything that can support xp can't be that obsolete can it?

when you formatted with partition magic, did you install DOS? You need an OS such as DOS to get your laptop started and thus to install XP.

Yes, after I formatted the drive, I installed DOS and copied the I386 folder as well as SMARTDRV.EXE into it. DOS boots fine from the desktop without any problems and if I wanted I could just get started installing Windows but that would be on the wrong system. Unfortunately, I'm stuck with a "Missing Operating System" error every time I stick it in the laptop. I'm starting to think there is something wrong with the way the laptop bios checks the hard drive. That laptop bios is the version A12 and the newest version is A13. The only difference is in some battery charging algorithm.