Help to Install Mandriva 2007 without cd

[gotoluc]

My laptop does not have a cd-rom Is there a way to install the cd image directly to the hard drive by using an external usb enclosure connected to an other laptop in win xp and put the image and boot stuff need for it to boot and run linux (just like it was booting from a cd) once the hard drive is re-installed in the laptop?

If you can help me with this that would be great. I am new to linux so I would need an easy and detailed way to do this in win xp if it can be done.

Thank you

[maclinwin]

Installing an image can be tricky and also depend on your hardware.

Does your notebook bios support booting to other devices besides a HD or floppy? Newer ones (may) boot to USB or Firewire. You may most certainly need to load a USB driver.

Check your bios.

[gotoluc]

No it does not support usb boot, if it did I would not have this problem. The laptop also does not have a floppy.

Thanks

[maclinwin]

A tedious solution, but it works. Done it too many times to admit with pride.

Move the disk to another machine and reinstall Windows. Return to original machine.

[gotoluc]

I can do that but I thought it would install the drivers of the computer it was loaded on and would not boot up when swaped in to another computer. Anyways I want to instal linux and not windows, maybe I'll give it a try with Linux to see if it works that way.

Thanks