Installing Windows 2000 without a CD-ROM drive attached?

Is it possible to pull a hard drive out of a laptop and put the "Windows 2000 installation files" on it (if such a thing exists)? I'm assuming you'd format the partition first with NTFS using partition magic, etc., but then what would you do? Is it even possible? Trying to install Win 2K on a laptop without a CD-ROM drive installed. Appreciate any info in the matter.

Thanks in advance!

Evan

 

Ok guys and gals! Here is a brief description and work-through of my problem (which escalated since my original post).

Situation:
Needed to load Windows 2000 Pro on a laptop with NO CD-ROM drive and a bad floppy drive.

Fix:
1. Pulled laptop hard drive.
2. Connected laptop hard drive to 2.5" > 3.5" desktop drive adapter.
3. Partitioned hard drive and then formatted laptop hard drive with FAT32 partition.
4. Used a custom Windows 98SE bootdisk (courtesy of bootdisk.com) to boot of a floppy in a working desktop system and used the "sys a: c:" command to make the laptop hard drive bootable in the laptop.
5. Copied the "I386" folder from the CD-ROM drive in a working desktop system to the C: of the laptop hard drive. (so the folder is now c:\i386)
6. Re-installed laptop hard drive into the laptop.
7. Booted off of the laptop hard drive into 98SE "dos" mode.
8. Typed c:\i386\winnt.exe at the command line (c:\) and viola!

Also, if Windows Setup yells about no smart drive being installed, but just press the ENTER key and it will continue Windows 2000 Pro setup.

Additionally, the setup program will ask the location of the installation files...just type in c:\i386

Hope this helps further someones knowledge about doing this (if you didn't know how to already, or always wondered if it was possible). I also believe the same method will work for Windows XP, and future versions.

Cheers!

Evan Shurtz