Reinstalling Windows XP via winnt32.exe + external hard drive

[TFlan]

My friends laptop got a virus early in December, however was unable to do anything without his OS installation disks. He gave it to me, after I told him I could help.

I originally tried to create a new partition via diskpart.exe, but I couldn't shrink his original partition to free up space for a new one. So, I grabbed my external hard drive, hooked it up, and ran winnt32.exe. When I went to set the path for where the installation files would be copied to, I was unable to have them copied to my external hard drive, the reason, I have no idea. I tried to copy them to a folder outside \WINDOWS, which worked, however after the copying process was complete, it automatically restarted the computer.

Upon boot up, I was given the option of running Windows XP Setup, or the already installed OS. I wanted to copy the setup files to the external hard drive so I could completely wipe his hard drive, which is impossible otherwise, since the setup files are on that drive. However, the setup files were gone when I loaded the original OS.

My questions:
1) Is there another way that I could create a partition on his hard drive with the free space available that I don't know of? This would need to have his original partition shrunk (which is unavailable in XP, both diskpart.exe and compmgmt.msc?)

2) Is there a way I can copy the setup files to my external hard drive, so I can completely wipe his current drive?

3) Another other suggestions?

EDIT::
I was able to copy the setup files to my external hard drive, I believe, but I still get an error after trying to delete the partition on his hard drive saying:

Setup is unable to perform the requested operation on the selected partition. This partition contains temporary Setup files that are required to complete the installation.

EDIT 2::
I'm going to install the operating system on the external hard drive, and use the setup files from that new installation to install a new operating system on the old drive. As I do this, wondering if anyone has a reason this won't work that I can't think of.

 

[Varine]

I've never done it like that.

If he has a SATA drive, XP won't load because it has no drivers for SATA (not really understanding what you're doing).

I would probably put a different hard drive in, like take one out of your computer that works, and load it with a virtual partition. I use a program called Nlite for it, just google it it's free I think, and slipstream it. Here's a tutorial on how.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Install-Windows-XP-On-SATA-Without-a-Floppy-F6-47807.shtml

Just seems like it would be a lot easier than what you're trying to do.

 

[Nenad]

You can use this program http://wintoflash.com/home/en/, to try and set up a boot from a USB device. I have already installed XP on a laptop like this, and it works fine.

2 things you have to know:
1.
The USB MUST BE inside of the drive at all times until the windows is done installing
2.
The USB Will be considered D: drive, so any CD/DVD drives will become E:

And check out their forums if you can't seem to get it to boot.

Use this as your last option, it works, but sometimes it can be nerve wracking to make it work ^^