Can you boot off USB at all? To boot from USB is a function of the BIOS. If not, consider getting a cheap laptop to IDE adapter.

http://www.cablestogo.com/product.as...=906&sku=17705

Connect the drive as a slave in a desktop computer and format in FAT32 and copy the files from your Windows CD to the HD, in a directory of your choice, say, <XPInstall>.

Download or create a Win98SE bootdisk. Make sure you have smartdrv.exe on the bootdisk, such as...

http://freepctech.com/pc/002/files010.shtml

Download the Boot Disk Essentials boot disk. Run the file you download and you'll create the bootdisk for you.

Put your laptop drive back into the laptop and boot off the bootdisk. Since the bootdisk is a Win98SE bootdisk, it can only see Fat16/32 formatted HD.

Once you boot into the Command Prompt <A:\>, run <smartdrv.exe>.

This will use your memory as a cache for moving files. Trust me, it'll be very slow otherwise.

You should be able to access your laptop HD via <C:>

Go to <\XPInstall\i368>

Run WINNT.EXE to begin the install process.