Windows XP Pro setup issue...

[CaptainHaplo]

Ok - got a bit of an issue here.

A friend of mine bought a new machine and it has 32 bit Vista on it. He despises it, so he brought it over to me and asked me to put XP on it. Sure I think, no problem. His old PC had XP, so he has the media and a valid key to install. I'm thinking this is cake, boot from the cd, repartition and format the drive like he wants it, install and done right? Not quite. Problem number one - he was one of the first adopters of XP - so his media isnt bootable. Well shoot says I - off to MS and download the bootable floppies. Create them and get ready - only to hook up his machine - and find that he doesnt have a floppy drive. URGH!!!

So what I need to do create a XP Pro bootable SETUP cd. Remember that his media is pre service packs - so I have to use the original set of files and not the sp2 style. I have the files (remember I have the floppies) but I have burnt a number of coasters trying to get the full setup to let me run. I've googled and the answer so far seems to be buy a third party app (not happening as this is already being done gratis) or calling MS to get a bootable cd instead of his old media. I will do that - but its going to take em a while to get it here - and I'd like to get him up this weekend.

Right now - unless someone can save my professional pride here and instruct me on how to get just the setup bootable from cd - or steer me to a iso of one if there is one out there - I am going to cheat. I will crack his box and temporarily hook up my floppy drive provided he has a floppy controller onboard, and if he doesnt - then I am going to put his drive in my machine, run the initial setup and let it format and copy the initial files, then when it restarts to boot from the drive and do the rest of the setup - I will move the drive back. I really just hate to tear my stuff apart to do this.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance!