When you’re installing windows XP on a laptop with no bootable CD drive, the easiest way to not waste 6+ hours doing stupid crap that won’t work is as follows:
1)get a dos boot disk with USB CD-ROM drive support
2)use fdisk to make a partition for your OS and a 2 GB one for Windows install files
3)format the 2GB partiton in fat or fat32
4)copy the windows install files from the CD to the smaller partiton (D: in my case)
5)run winnt.exe from within the i386 folder on D:
6)install windows onto the unformatted partition you made earlier (should be C:)
Next week I’ll have some useful tips on how to keep your new centerpiece fresher for longer. No dinner party is complete without one.