use cd-rom through network.

Hello...

Yes. Absolutely. The steps are:

1. First PC: Create a drive share for your CD-ROM drive on one PC.

2. Second PC: Create a drive letter on the other PC that points to the shared drive on the first PC.

3. Second PC: Use Windows Explorer to navigate to the drive letter that is the shared CD-ROM drive. Drill down to the place where the setup program is and run it. The setup process will be the same as for a local drive.

Did this work for you? Do you have any further problem?

-----Steve Jackson

CEO/CSA
Software Corporation (Softcorp)
http://www.softcorp.us/probono
Advanced pro bono tools and utilities free for personal use

I'm not sure if the above answear will apply for a fresh instal of the OS :(

If you do want a clean install of XP i would recomand to do like so:

1. If you have more than 1 partition on the laptop then copy thru network the /i386 folder found on the XP CD-Rom.

If you don't have a second partition on the hdd, after you format the drive use a floppy based application to copy thru network the /i386 folder from the XP CD-Rom to the hard drive.

2. Boot with a System Floppy (you can download one from www.bootdisk.com).

3.Navigate your way 'till you get inside the /i386 folder and type install and hit enter. (or is it setup :) )

Hope this helps.