Laptops :: Booting from USB on a Dell Latitude

Here's what I'm installing on: a Dell Latitude C810, that, due to an unfortunate incident involving a spilled beverage, no longer has a functional CD drive or harddrive. All the other components appear to be in working order; but, since I have no way to boot, I can't be certain.

So my question is, is it even possible for me to boot from a DSL USB drive at this point? Or am I better off just replacing the damaged components to determine whether the system is still usable?

If your laptop has the ability to boot from USB, then you could always install DSL to your USB pendrive using another machine and then boot your laptop with the pendrive. Otherwise you need to find an old 2.5" hard drive and install DSL to it (again using a different machine).

One other thing, if you can boot to the BIOS then your machine should be functional (minus the drives). So it might be worth picking up an old 2 gig HDD for a few bucks. 2.5" HDDs are common and will probably be cheaper than the proprietary cdroms and floppies that laptops come with.

Good Luck,

original here.