On Mar 12, 12:21*pm, John Rumm wrote:

Get yourself a IDE/SATA to usb interface adaptor, and then plug an
external CD drive etc into the laptop without one, or even use it to
temporarily mount one machines hard drive on the other.

Got myself a Samsung NC10 netbook cheap as a refurb. Wanted to put XP
on as a fresh install as I didn't know what they had cobbled together.
Tried all sorts of messing around with a USB to external SATA/IDE
adapter (already owned, intended to house a 3.5" HDD) and an internal
IDE DVD-ROM drive. Sometimes it would detect it, sometimes it
wouldn't. XP setup kept blue-screening at the same point (apparently a
common problem on netbooks). Gave up on the CD idea and downloaded a
utility to make a USB stick bootable and put the contents of the XP CD
on there. The initial bit where it dicks around with various SCSI
drivers and "FDD for Toshiba Libretto" (blast from the past!) lasted
about 10 seconds instead of 10 minutes with the CD. IIRC utting XP Pro
on my desktop wasn't that painful.

Everything now either gets downloaded (wireless) or I put things on
USB sticks using my desktop to install them on the netbook.