Win 2K alternative install?

[68vetteracer]

I have a laptop that I am currently trying to install Windows 2000 on But my problem is that the CD drive wont recognize the disk. The Problem is that the CD drive is going bad. So i was wondering if there was any way to Install Win2K without using the cd. Such as a usb drive or something. Right now i have Unbuntu installed so maybe i could use that to make a parralell install and then delete the Unbuntu off of it.
Thanks for all the help
Ben

[glc]

What good is a laptop without a functional CD drive going to be? I'd replace the drive. You can usually find used ones that work on Ebay.

[Statica]

You could copy the contents of the Win2k CD's /i386 directory and subfolders, then boot using a Windows 98 bootdisk and run /i386/winnt.exe

[glc]

Yes, you can do that - but you need smartdrv on the bootdisk and have to load it. You will want the CD contents on its own FAT or FAT32 partition, and the main partition needs to be preformatted FAT32 or the bootdisk will get very confused. You are just about looking at having to remove the hard drive and connecting it to another computer to do this prep. I did do this on a laptop with a busted CD drive and started with a slick drive - and had to dig out a USB floppy drive to boot it with when I put the drive back in.