Most modern computers are equipped with optical disc drives, and installing Windows operating systems from a CD is straightforward, even for an untrained person. However, there are times when you need to install Windows from your hard drive on a computer that does not have an optical drive, such as a laptop.
Instructions
Step 1
You can install an operating system without using an optical drive from an internal or external (USB-connected) hard drive.
When installing from an internal drive, this is most easily done if you have two or more hard drives. If there is only one hard drive, then it must be divided into several sections. If several main partitions are missing, remove the hard drive from the computer and connect it to a computer with a working operating system. After that, make the necessary markup - select one main partition, format it (the preferred file system is FAT32, formatting in NTFS is also acceptable, but this complicates the installation process), copy the distribution files of the operating system.
Step 2
If there are several hard drives, then just copy the operating system distribution kit to the root folder of any of the hard drives (in addition, on which the installation will be performed later).
Step 3
You will then need DOS bootable media to start the installation process, which you can create in Windows operating systems when formatting floppy disks or flash media. To simplify the installation process, you can also copy any of the DOS navigators (Norton Commander, DOS Navigator, Volkov Commander) to the media.
Step 4
Boot from bootable media. After starting the DOS command prompt, go to the I386 folder of the Windows distribution and enter the command winnt.exe or winnt32.exe, depending on the type of operating system.
Step 5
This will start the installation process of the operating system. After passing the first stage of the installation, switch the boot to your hard drive with the installed system.
Step 6
Starting from external media is no different from installing from an internal drive, but at the same time you can install Windows from a hard drive without resorting to additional boot devices, but by making the hard drive itself bootable and booting from it.
Step 7
To do this, connect an external hard drive to your computer and use one of the many dedicated programs to prepare the hard drive - PE-to-USB, WinSetupFromUSB or the like. After that, installing from an external hard drive will be no different from installing from a standard CD.
