Everything depends on how old your current computer is and which parts are still usable. If your computer case can hold an ATX or microATX motherboard then you will be able to use the same case, just replace the parts inside. I am currently using an old eMachines case to hold my Pentium4 processor and motherboard. I’m also using the DVD burner from my old computer. The only things I needed to buy was the processor, motherboard, RAM and power supply. At the time I bought everything it only cost me about $230.

Pricing everything currently online you should be able to get a real nice computer (processor, RAM , motherboard, power supply and DVD burner) for under $400. That’s, of course, assuming you don’t go wild on an expensive motherboard or quad-core processor. For most people who aren’t gamers you should be able to keep it well under $400.

The only thing left is the operating system; XP or Vista? If you already have a copy of XP then go ahead and stay with that, it’s much better than Vista, in my opinion. If you have to buy an operating system then go ahead and get Vista because XP support is going to end sometime next year.

Although buying your own copy of Windows Vista will cost more now, it will save you in the future when you decide to upgrade again. Any brand name computer that you buy from the store including Dell, HP, eMachines, Sony, etc… will have Vista loaded on it but YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO TRANSFER THE OPERATING SYSTEM TO A NEW COMPUTER. So, when THAT computer goes bad you’re stuck without an operating system again.

My suggestion is to do some research and price out everything that you need/want and compare that to brand name computers. Remember that when building your own you get to choose what brand of components go into your computer (i.e. Seagate hard drive, Kingston RAM, Gigabyte motherboard, and so on) If the pricing is comparable between the two then I would suggest building your own. You have more control over everything, including replacing parts easier.

Actually, I bought two Thinkpad a21m laptops off of eBay locked with the supervisor password, and the guy didn’t remember it. I did get them cheap but I had to read the 24rf08 eeprom in order to retrieve the password, which I did successfully. Luckily I only had to read one because the other was exactly the same.

On to the business at hand. No matter which version you try you will NEED a laptop hard drive adapter (2.5″ to 3.5″ IDE adapter). You can find these cheap on eBay, just look around for while in order to find the cheapest.

This is a picture of the one I have.

You will also need a working desktop computer with a working CD ROM and a working Windows XP installation disk.

The first way I suggest to try is also the easiest (lucky you!).

Hook up your laptop hard drive as a slave drive to your desktop using the adapter (pictured above).

Boot into Windows on your desktop and make sure it can see your laptop hard drive. It’s probably best to format your laptop hard drive before you do anything. It shouldn’t matter which file system to use; FAT32 or NTFS.

Next, insert your XP installation CD and close any windows that pop up. Go to your Start menu and select Run to open the Run prompt.

Now enter:

D:\I386\winnt32 /syspart:E: /tempdrive:E: /makelocalsource /noreboot

Make note that D: = my CD drive and E: = my laptop hard drive. You may need to change these if your system is setup differently.

Let’s break it down. D:\I386\winnt32 starts the XP installer from the CD drive. The /syspart:E: switch tells the installation to make E: drive the system drive.  The /tempdrive:E: switch directs the temporary files to the drive specified by the switch.  The /makelocalsource switch tells XP to copy all the source files to the drive so you don’t need the CD anymore. And finally the /noreboot switch tells the system to not reboot after the files have been copied.

Once that is completed then you can take the laptop hard drive and put it back into your laptop. When you boot it up Windows XP should begin installing automatically!! See? Quick and painless!! Unless it doesn’t work, then you need to move on to the next section.

Try #2, next easiest way to install XP with no CD drive.

This is assuming you have a floppy drive on the laptop, if you do not then proceed to Try #3.

Take your laptop hard drive and make it a slave drive on your desktop, again.

Format it, again. This time you need to format it in FAT32.

Now simply copy the i386 folder from your XP installation disk to your laptop hard drive.

Put the hard drive back into the laptop. Boot the laptop up using a floppy boot disk (Windows 98 preferably). Bootdisk.comhas them downloadable for free. If the boot disk doesn’t contain smartdrv.exe then you need to download it here and put it on your floppy (you’ll thank me later).

Once booted with the floppy enter “smartdrv.exe” (without the quotes) at the A: prompt to load smart drive (makes files copy way, way faster). Now enter “sys C:” to make the partition bootable. Now change into the i386 folder and type “winnt” to begin XP installation. That’s it!

For those DOS illiterate type “C:” at the A: prompt to get to the hard drive, then type “cd i386″ to get into the i386 folder. If done correctly the prompt should read “C:\i386>” then just type “winnt” to start XP.

If all goes well then Windows should completely install itself. If not, then there’s one more thing to try.

Try #3: The hardest way to install XP with no CD drive.

Maybe not the hardest but sure is the most time consuming. You will need a Windows 98 or Windows 98SE installation disk. Windows Me might work too, I’m not sure. If you simply can’t find one anywhere then check with your local computer shop as they almost certainly have a copy and may give you one for a dollar or two.

Put your laptop hard drive back into the desktop computer as a primary drive and disconnect all other hard drives!

Boot up to the Windows 98 disk and load it, completely. You don’t need to install drivers or anything just hit cancel when asked to do so. Just make sure you can get to the desktop.

Once 98 is loaded then put the hard drive back to a slave drive and boot up to XP on your desktop. Again copy the i386 folder to your laptop hard drive then put it back into the laptop.

Now boot into Windows 98 on your laptop and navigate to the i386 folder. Find winnt32.exe (not winnt.exe) and run it. XP should begin to install.

When asked to install to the Windows folder just say yes! Windows 98 is not needed anymore at this point so you can allow XP to copy over anything it wants.

Conclusion

I have tried all three steps myself at one point or another with complete success …… eventually. Some laptops are cooperative, some are not.

CD ROMs and DVD drives are overrated in my opinion. Once XP is set up you can install anything you need from a CD through your desktop via the network. Simply share the CD drive from your desktop and it should be accessible to the laptop via your local network. I have installed everything from MS Office to printer drivers through the networked CD. Everything else you can get off the Internet. I have absolutely no need for any kind of optical drive and I won’t be bullied into buying one. There, I said it.

P.S. For the record I do not like installing XP over the network because something always seems to go wrong. If you want to try to install over a network then there are plenty of other sites trying to explain to you how to do that. I just don’t like it.

Windows 95: Sucks.

Windows 98: Not bad.

Windows ME: Sucks more than any other!

Windows XP: Decent.

Windows Vista: Sucks like Windows 95.

So, there you have it, Microsoft operating systems in a nut shell.