old machine alternative install

[meg23]

I have an old Pentium II that will not allow any media to boot up including usb, floppy, or cd. I was wondering if it was possible to take out the hardrive and install ubuntu to the hardrive from another computer and then put it back into the new machine to boot up or install? Could it be possible to install it pendrive style using 8.10 usb install onto the hardrive and then install ubuntu onto another partition on the hardrive?

[inobe]

when you set the bios to boot from the cd rom and it doesn't, you should get a second prompt for selecting the boot device after the bios splash screen ?

[cosine352]

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromLinux

[lisati]

I have an older machine that should be able to boot from CD but doesn't usually want to do so. I've found Smart Boot manager (http://sourceforge.net/projects/btmgr/) helpful. It boots from floppy, and gives you some options for which device to boot from.

[inobe]

i would seriously consider Xubuntu, i think it would be more forgiving on that system.

but just my opinion.

[meg23]

The machine unfortunately doesn't have an OS on it so I can't use unetbootin, which I am familiar with already.

[cosine352]

The machine unfortunately doesn't have an OS on it so I can't use unetbootin, which I am familiar with already.

then take the hard drive out and use another system to do it.

[meg23]

Thats what I want to do, however, I can only do such a thing through a usb cable because my only other computer is a laptop.