I have a severe problem. My cd-rw is broken and cannot read CD's and
my installation of windows xp on my hard drive has gone corrupt. I
need to reinstall windows xp on my computer with another method.

I have resolved to using a USB flash drive. I have configured my BIOS
to read boot from the USB drive and I have loaded and extracted an ISO
of windows xp installation. i plugged it in and restarted my computer.
The bios goes into the USB drive and reports the letter "j". It is
nothing but 'j' and maybe a cursor, but it does not write anything. I
checked.

How do I install windows xp from a USB?

borrow a cd reader from a friend's machine to install or buy a new one
"Anas Hashmi" <anas.hashmi@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1142403574.362581.135990@j33g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...

i have two systems. one is a dell and has a cd-rw. The other computer
is some custom based computer with an Intel motherboard, but has a
broken cd-rw. Is it possible for me to simply unplug the cd-rw from my
dell and plug it in the other computer?

Will i run into bios setup issues? I do not have the setup disk of the
dell cd-rw.

Anas Hashmi wrote:

It might work. But CD-R and CD-RW drives are so inexpensive
these days that buying a replacement should not have taken
any thought.

if you have a working cd or cdrw just take it out and replace broken one.
There are jumpers on the back that have to be set properly so check them.
Put the data cable on properly and connect the power cable.

"Anas Hashmi" <anas.hashmi@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1142403574.362581.135990@j33g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...