PC boot disk?

Question

I need to try to use a boot disk on a friends HP desktop but it is one of the Slimline ones & they say that it does not have a 3.5" drive.
How can I do the boot disk in this case as it will not boot up on it's own for some reason?

Can I use a CD or flash drive in place of the 3.5" drive?

Answer 1

u can download all sorts of boot images from bootdisk.com ... even cd ones ..

Answer 2

Your going to need to use a cd. The system probably came with a restore cd. You can boot off of that. If not go to download.com and do a search for boot disk. You should be able to find something there. You make need to go into the bios and change the boot order as well. Make sure it is set to boot from CD before the hard disk.

Answer 3

whats the error message? one thing you can try is to remove the hard drive and add it to a working computer as a slave, this way you should be able to access the hard drive and try to fix (or save any important documents)

another option is to borrow a 3.5 floppy drive and install it on the system, you DO NOT have to mount it just hook it up but you will probably need to modify the bios to boot off the floppy

you can boot off a CD but you would need to make it bootable (see below for a link on how to do that)

dougc

Answer 4

Sounds like you bud has a dead or mis-connected hard drive.

Since the pc is an HP it most likely is running windows. Boot from the windows cd and try to repair the windows installation.
In several cases of BSOD problems the repair process will run scandisk and ta da the problem is fixed. Your results may very, but give it a shot.

Good Luck

Answer 5

do a web search.. for

create a bootable cd
create a bootable jump drive

try the links below

Answer 6

Get yourself a usb floppy drive off Ebay for under $10.00.