when i installed mandriva, the setup had me make a copy of the cd onto my hard drive...
is there a way i can start the copied cd?
(i need to do it this way cuz my cd drive it is dead)

If you can access the hard drive, you can get the kernel and ramdisk image off the cd image. The two files you really need are mandriva/2007/i586/isolinux/alt0/[vmlinuz|all.rdz]. You don't really need any of the bootloader parameters for this installation, but they are in mandriva/2007/i586/isolinux/isolinux.cfg

The key is being able to boot. If you have a USB drive that can boot, you could install syslinux on it along with the kernel (vmlinuz) & ramdisk image (all.rdz). You could also create a grub boot floppy and use grub to load these directly from the hard drive.

Once loaded, the first stage installer will prompt you for the cd image location to get the rest. The benefit is that once it gets started, it is immensely faster than any optical drive.

The first issue of PCLinuxOS magazine has an article entitled "Running MiniMe live fron the hard drive" that describes a procedure for booting an iso image on the hard drive. You might be able to adapt the instructions for your particular iso.

You do need to create a small (1 gig) partition to hold the iso. Example commands are given for mounting the iso, setting up the partition to boot the iso (copy the isolinux directory into the partition along side the iso), and the necessary menu entry to make in your grub menu.lst.

Then reboot and select the iso to boot into. I haven't tried it yet, but I have several livecd to try. One of these days.

i installed the mandriva on a laptop and then put that hard drive into another laptop... then it wouldn't boot so i wanted to do this. but i found a tutorial and edited the xorg.conf file and now it boots.... the only problem i have now is my ethernet port, i need help setting up my network.

To reconfigure your network, you can use the Mandriva Control Center (Mandriva menu->System->Configuration->Configure Your Computer). Select the Network & Internet tab, and delete any configured network interfaces. Then, click on "Setup a new network interface". It will detect all possible network interfaces (ethernet, wireless, modem, firewire, etc) and help configure the one you select. Do this for each interface you plan on using.

I don't copy the dvd to the hard drive during install I alway have to delete it to save room. If the dvd has been copied to the hd intact you can boot directly off the files. even if you don't have an image. You didn't say what version of Mandrake/Mandriva your using. Here is the instruction for Loading Spring 2007,
Before starting this process move your file to some where that they wont be erased. (Like you home partition)
using configure you computer, select boot & then how you system boots.
select next. then Add.
Change the Label to something like Install
where it say image type in "path to dvd files/i586/isolinux/alt0/vmlinuz"
The root should be the partition that the files are on.
select advance and where it say initrd type "path to dvd files/586/isolinux/alt0/all.rdz"
Leave the default unchecked.
Select ok.
Now when you reboot you should have a option of install or what ever you named it.
Select this option & now install the system as you would normally

I would actually like to do this but I can't figure out where the installer copied all the files to the drive. How do I remove the installation files that were copied by the installer program?

if you open the file /etc/urpmi/urpmi.cfg before changing your sources it will tell you were it is.