I have an old laptop without any CD drive. (It used to have an external one, but it got broken.) It doesn’t have any option to boot from USB, but it does have USB ports and a (external) floppy drive.
Is there any way I can install Haiku on it?
I had this problem a bit back ago, and the only way i found to do it is to just drop the cash to get a new drive. Sucked having to buy one but it worked.
Well, 3 options I can see.
- There is a boot manager that allows booting from USB but you would have to install it to your hard drive (or floppy?). 2) there are cable connector adapters to use laptop drive in desktop system. Pull out the laptop drive, install to desktop and use that adapter, then install Haiku to laptop drive in desktop system, etc. 3) use cd-rom or dvd drive to install. You’ll have to buy one.
EDIT:
For #1 above, boot manager is called PLoP but there may be others. Here are some instructions for XP & Vista:
http://blog.brothersoft.com/2008/12/09/boot-computer-from-usb-or-cdrom-even-if-bios-not-supported-using-plop/#more-13333
Homepage with help, tips and install steps:
http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html
4th option, remove laptop drive, put it in USB external enclosure, connect to a computer with cd/dvd drive and figure out way to install to it. (I’m not sure if Haiku installer works with USB devices). You can test installing to USB key first to be sure.