Vista - Vista Clean Install WITHOUT DVD drive??????

I picked up the Vista Ultimate DVD at the "Heroes" seminar.
I'm trying to intstall it on my test machine.
The machine has no DVD drive.
I tried copying the DVD contents to a secondary partition,
but I can't find any .exe files that will run from a dos boot.
Is there any way to get Vista install started without a
bootable DVD drive?
I do have a CD drive on the machine...can I split the DVD into CD's?

Anticipating the most likely input...let me say these...
Yes, I have googled my ass off.
Yes, I have IDE DVD drives, I have external usb DVD drives.
What I DO NOT HAVE is a way to get THIS machine to BOOT from
any of them. Buying a new DVD drive won't help me.
I can boot from a CD or floppy or hard drive.
I want to do a CLEAN build without leftovers from previous OS.
Yes, you can order Vista on CD if you want to wait...and they
won't even tell you what it costs until you enter personal
information...sorry, but that really chaps my...
--
Return address is VALID!

Hey Mike,

Will your BIOS allow you to boot from a USB? If it does, you can install Vista without a DVD. I did it today. Hopefully this will get you going in thr right direction. I followed this method from Kurt Shintaku:


ORIGINAL POST
I've been thinking about writing a post about "How to install Windows Vista from a USB Flash Drive" for a while but just never got around to doing it. What got me thinking about it was a post on Josh's board (windowsconnected.com) about running WinPE from a bootable USB Flash drive and it seems to me like there's be a lot of folks that would want to install Windows Vista entirely from a USB Flash drive as well.
WHY INSTALL FROM USB FLASH DRIVE?
Why would someone want to install a client OS from a thumb drive instead of a DVDROM or over the network? One reason: Performance. Installing Windows Vista from a high speed USB flash drive is in my experience the easiest & fastest way to complete a Windows Vista install. This is much faster than using a DVD, gigabit ethernet, or possibly even some external USB 2.0 hard drives, due to differences in access speed & transfer rate. To put this into perspective, y'know how installing Windows on a Virtual PC virtual machine from an .ISO CD image is really, really, really fast? Imagine something roughly just as fast, except for doing installations of the OS on to actual workstations.
STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS
Here's some step-by-step instructions on how we do this, some of which was adapted from Josh's instructions, again, kudos to Josh.

1. Acquire an ultra-fast USB 2.0 flash drive
   The drive I and my coworkers recommend is the Apacer 4GB Handy Steno USB Flash Drive HT203, 200X Hi-Speed USB 2.0. It's the fastest USB 2.0 Flash Drive that we've found - it has a read speed of 25MBytes/sec. & a write speed-14MBytes/sec and also works great as a ReadyBoost cache. You can get them from $56.99 each:
   http://www.directron.com/ht2034g.html
   
   Incidentally, once you've got Windows Vista up and running, you may want to consider getting an ultra-fast SDFlash card, installing it into your laptop or desktop, and leaving it there as a ReadyBoost cache. Why? It can't hurt and they're so cheap that it's worth getting. I personally got a SDFlash card for every one of my machines - the A-DATA 2GB Secure Digital Memory Card, 150X Turbo SD Card has a read speed of more than 22.5MB/s and a write speed of more than 15MB/s. You can get them for $19.99 each:
   http://supermediastore.com/adata-2gb-sd-secure-digital-card-150x.html
2. Format the Apacer Flash Drive
   Run CMD.EXE and type the following. Note: This set of commands assumes that the USB flash drive is addressed as "disk 1". you should double check that by doing a list of the disks (type "list disk") before cleaning it. If you have multiple hard drives, like an SDFlash drive or a Multibay drive, you could end up wiping your second drive using this command.
   (This was a warning that Josh added to his post along with the following commands that I copied from him, so kudos to Josh)
   1. diskpart
   2. select disk 1
   3. clean
   4. create partition primary
   5. select partition 1
   6. active
   7. format fs=fat32
   8. assign
   9. exit
      
3. Copy Windows Vista's DVD ROM content to the Flash Drive
   Simply issue the following command to start copying all the content from the Windows Vista DVD to your newly formatted high speed flash drive.
   • xcopy d:\*.* /s/e/f e:\

And that's it. Boot up the machine, have it boot off the USB drive, and watch how fast the installation completes. If you thought Windows Vista installed quickly before then let's see how you like it now. The slowest part of the install will probably be the computer waiting for you to type in information in the setup fields, and even that can be automated using the Windows Automated Installation Kit.

In your motherboard BIOS, set one of the DVD drives to be the bootable
optical drive and then use that drive to install Vista.

You may be able to specify the boot drive at boot time, usually by using F11
to override the BIOS setting.



"mike" <spamme9@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:CwyUj.22099$aA1.9774@xxxxxx

On Thu, 08 May 2008 08:06:58 GMT, mike <spamme9@xxxxxx> wrote:
HOW did you open the DVD to copy the contents? You are making no
sense.
Unfortunately, one of the minimum requirements for Vista installation
is -- guess what -- a DVD drive.

Also, Vista will NOT install from DOS (of any kind), since it requires
more memory than DOS can provide just to start the installer.
Additionally, Vista is NOT DOS, and the setup.exe will not run under
DOS.
The only way you can do this without a DVD drive (and you would
ultimately need one anyway, just to get the installation code on the
Network Server) would be to do a Network installation.

If it "chaps your hide...", as you say, it's because you're wearing no
trousers between you and the chaps.

Anyway, DVD readers/writers are very cheap. Open up your pocket-book
a little (no one has to look inside), and make your job much easier.

By the way, wouldn't it be MUCH cheaper to just buy a DVD drive than a
CD edition of Vista? You wouldn't have to wait, and you would save a
bundle of money. Also a lot of time and energy on your part.


Donald L McDaniel
Please reply to the correct thread and article.
================================================

On Thu, 8 May 2008 10:44:50 +0100, "Dominic Payer"
<dominic@xxxxxx> wrote:
He clearly stated that the computer that he needs to install SP1 on
doesn't HAVE a DVD drive.

On Thu, 08 May 2008 02:54:07 -0700, Donald L McDaniel
<orthocross@xxxxxx> wrote:
He's trying to use a SECOND computer to make a workable copy for the
one without a DVD.

On Thu, 8 May 2008 10:44:50 +0100, "Dominic Payer"
<dominic@xxxxxx> wrote:
Dominic, the OP clearly claims to have no bootable DVD drive(s). So
which one would he set to be bootable in the BIOS?

Also, such hotkeys are different with different OEMs. As an example,
the BIOS on my Dell motherboard requires that I press F12, rather than
F11, to override the Boot order, and all it does is present me with a
Boot Menu, from which I can choose the Boot device. Of course, if the
device I choose is not bootable, I can try booting from it all day,
and never succeed in anything but increasing my stress-level.
That machine must be very old indeed, if the motherboard does not
allow you to boot from a DVD drive, or if your drive itself is not
bootable.
Then google no further. Your answer is staring you right in the face,
but apparently, you don't want to accept it.
So, use one of them.
Do you have a motherboard which allows you to boot from such external
drives? Additionally, Windows cannot be booted from external block
devices, anyway. There is one exception to this rule, however:
Windows can be installed on and booted from an e-SATA drive, since for
all intents and purposes, such a drive would appear as an internal
hard drive to Windows.
You have no BIOS settings which enable you to set the Boot order? You
are definitely out of luck.
It definitely will if all the DVD drives you possess are not bootable
by design, as in older CD or DVD drives. But they would have to be
very old indeed, and SHOULD be replaced as soon as possible, anyway.
Unfortunately, you cannot use a CD drive to boot the DVD install
media. Nor is there a way to start the installation from a floppy
(i.e., "from a DOS prompt"). In fact, many Vista-class machines have
no floppy drive at all. Face it, Vista is NOT DOS, nor is it even
Windows 9x or ME. It is Microsoft Windows Vista, an entirely
different OS.

Nor is there a way to get the code copied from the DVD onto ANY Hard
Drive, ANYWHERE, without a DVD drive.
Then either do it the right way, or your own. However, your way will
not be very successful, I fear.

And, unless you can do a Network Installation, you will be very
frustrated in the end.
Then wear trousers or some kind of padding between your hide and the
chaps, and don't forget to put a saddle-blanket on the horse before
saddling him up. Or grow a tougher hide.


Donald L McDaniel
Please reply to the correct thread and article.
================================================

Come on guys - read his "entire" post.

Quote "..The machine has no DVD drive...." - then further on "...get Vista
install started without a bootable DVD drive?...". By "no DVD drive" he
evidently means he cannot boot from the drive.

Further along is his post "...Yes, I have IDE DVD drives, I have external
usb DVD drives...." and "...I DO NOT HAVE is a way to get THIS machine to
BOOT from any of them..." - note no reference to a second computer.

Simply put - no boot from the DVD - reply by Dominic only sensitble
suggestion.



"mike" <spamme9@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:CwyUj.22099$aA1.9774@xxxxxx

On Thu, 08 May 2008 05:21:29 -0500, Nonny <nonnymoose@xxxxxx>
wrote:
Think about that, nonny:

If he HAS NO BOOTABLE DVD drive, as he appears to say, he will NOT be
able to do what he wants to, since it MUST be installed using the DVD
media itself, which is Bootable, and which REQUIRES a working and
bootable DVD drive. Additionally, it will be IMPOSSIBLE for him to
COPY it to a HD WITHOUT a DVD drive.

Which comes first, the horse, or the cart?
Can a horse-cart pull itself? Of course not. It needs a horse (or
other draft animal).

In the OP's case, the DRIVE is the horse, and the DVD media is the
cart. "No DVD drive, no copy" (to paraphrase the late and great Bob
Marley. Sorry, Bob. I wrote a terrible paraphrase, but you wrote a
great song.


Donald L McDaniel
Please reply to the correct thread and article.
================================================

If your system features a CD drive but no DVD drive, you can order Windows Vista on CD-ROM:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvist...a/default.mspx

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience -
Windows Vista Enthusiast

---------------------------------------------------------------

"mike" wrote:

I picked up the Vista Ultimate DVD at the "Heroes" seminar.
I'm trying to intstall it on my test machine.
The machine has no DVD drive.
I tried copying the DVD contents to a secondary partition,
but I can't find any .exe files that will run from a dos boot.
Is there any way to get Vista install started without a
bootable DVD drive?
I do have a CD drive on the machine...can I split the DVD into CD's?

Anticipating the most likely input...let me say these...
Yes, I have googled my ass off.
Yes, I have IDE DVD drives, I have external usb DVD drives.
What I DO NOT HAVE is a way to get THIS machine to BOOT from
any of them. Buying a new DVD drive won't help me.
I can boot from a CD or floppy or hard drive.
I want to do a CLEAN build without leftovers from previous OS.
Yes, you can order Vista on CD if you want to wait...and they
won't even tell you what it costs until you enter personal
information...sorry, but that really chaps my...
--
Return address is VALID!