Question how to boot on an old system (usb)

[jasien138]

hi,
I have a very old pc here and it starts and runs good but the problem is that the harddrive is blank no OS and the pc cd drive is broken. so I cannot install windows on it not even via the cd drive.
but my question here is, can I use rufus to put and windows xp iso on an usb flash drive but the file system or anything else should act like a cd drive because the pc doesn't support usb booting so is it possible to have an usb flash drive act like an cd drive

thanks in advance.
(pls don't mind my English)

 

[13thmonkey]

If it won't boot from USB then there's nothing that can be done with a USB stick, as the stick can't even be seen. You need a new internal drive.

 

[ImWolf]

First check your BIOS settings to confirm your machine can be set to boot from other devices which include a USB port. If true, then you can produce a bootable flash drive to boot from and install an OS.

You can also buy an external hard drive or CD player that attaches via a USB port, but then again I believe BIOS would have to allow for USB as a boot option.

Good luck.

 

[TerryLaze]

Plop boot manager gives you USB boot support on very old hardware,the problem is (that it is extremely slow) how to run it on your system,you can run it from a floppy if you still have any or a cd which you don't have or you can install it on your HDD.
If you are going to install it on your HDD by using a different system then you can just install windowsXP on this HDD on the different system,you just make a virtual machine with complete control to the real disk and install windowsXP as you normally would but when it reboots after copying all the files to the disk you stop the virtual machine take out the HDD put it back on the xp system and it will finish the installation with all the right drivers.