Installing 2000 with USB DVD Writer

[YesYes]

Hello, lemme get straight to the point.
Basically I have a laptop which has got nothing on the hard drive. There is no CD Rom or Floppy Drive. So I want to install windows with a USB DVD Writer that I have got. I put the CD in the writer and tried to click "Boot Menu" and run it off "Removable Device" but it doesn't load up. It brings a blank screen with flashing dash or something and same with Network Boot and ATAPI CD-Rom.
I went to Bios Settings and navigated to Boot. It says Removable Disk, Internal Hard DRive, ATAPI CD-Rom Drive, Network Boot. But they are unselectable. On the site it says "All items on this menu cannot be modified in user mode. If any items require changes, please consult your system Supervisor."
I don't know what to do. Please help me. I have even tried it with a Windows XP Disk just incase the 2000 Disk was messed up.

 

[JohnWill]

The make/model of the laptop would have been real useful to discuss your problem.

 

[YesYes]

Dell Latitude L400 is the model number and the make of the laptop. I have tried to get the command thing on but I haven't been successful. Would help if someone would tell me how to get that up so I can load of the drive
Thanks!

 

[griffinspc]

John, long nite last nite so I'm running on empty but he'd need USB drivers installed to run the external USB DVD, right? So that won't work for installation of a completely clean drive.

 

[johnpost]

Hello, lemme get straight to the point.
Basically I have a laptop which has got nothing on the hard drive. There is no CD Rom or Floppy Drive. So I want to install windows with a USB DVD Writer that I have got. I put the CD in the writer and tried to click "Boot Menu" and run it off "Removable Device" but it doesn't load up. It brings a blank screen with flashing dash or something and same with Network Boot and ATAPI CD-Rom.
I went to Bios Settings and navigated to Boot. It says Removable Disk, Internal Hard DRive, ATAPI CD-Rom Drive, Network Boot. But they are unselectable. On the site it says "All items on this menu cannot be modified in user mode. If any items require changes, please consult your system Supervisor."
I don't know what to do. Please help me. I have even tried it with a Windows XP Disk just incase the 2000 Disk was messed up.

can you borrow a cdrom drive or floppy for the machine?

you could put usb support on the machine that way and go from there.

 

[YesYes]

can you borrow a cdrom drive or floppy for the machine?

you could put usb support on the machine that way and go from there.

I doubt I could do that!!!

 

[JohnWill]

You can remove the hard disk from the machine. Format it FAT32 (we can change it later) and install MS-DOS on it. Copy the entire I386 folder from the installation CD to the hard drive.

Re-install it in the machine, boot up MS-DOS, and CD \I386. Run the setup, I believe the name is WINNT.EXE in the I386 directory.