hi guys, i want to install kubuntu Gutsy (10.7) on my laptop. The catch however, is that the dvdrw drive in my laptop has well and truly reached the end of its lifecycle and now refuses to pick up the cd. I don't have an external drive, and the closest thing to a flash drive i have is my ipod (being a uni student sucks).

I do however, have my ipod (BIOS supports usb booting), the home network has an xp and vista pc on it (BIOS has net booting 2).

This machine is partitioned into a few parts, XP (57G), mandriva2007.1 (18G - This is the one i was hopin to replace with Gutsy) and the swap, which from memory is around 1G. i guess the easiest way would be if i could start the gutsy install from within mandriva and just have it reboot and isntall or something..

Essentially my mandriva install has crapped out, and i want it replaced with gutsy, but havin no cd makes my life hard...

Any ideas would really be appreciated..!

Cheers, Matt

I would just buy a new cd drive, but you could try wubi to install ubuntu. It basically installs Gutsy to a file in windows

i tried wubi yesterday. it doesnt throw enough files down and im guessing it needs the cd to launch properly. it makes it to a busybox ramfs prompt, and will do nothing else...

Wubi downloads the iso and then installs to a file, I believe, no cd necessary

i got wubi workin with a minor bit of tweakin in windows... runnin the install app from the kubuntu live installs it... now i have another problem with grub tho. ill post a new thread.