Booting off USB thumb drive

[derpdederp80]

I have a X31 Type 2672 Thinkpad whose OS is corrupted and virus-infected. I want to re-install windows on it but there is no cd-rom drive. I have a usb key loaded with the windows XP installer, but there seems to be no way to boot off a usb device. IS there anything I can try apart from removing the hard drive and installing from another computer?

 

[jarotech]

Hi, I don't think you can boot from a USB drive, in the BIOS you have no option for USB, the only removable device is for a floppy disk.

 

[derpdederp80]

Hi, I don't think you can boot from a USB drive, in the BIOS you have no option for USB, the only removable device is for a floppy disk.

Thank you, if I boot a freedos floppy, can I read off USB devices then?

 

[jarotech]

Hi, did you try the recovery with the Access IBM button?

 

[derpdederp80]

Hi, did you try the recovery with the Access IBM button?

It doesn't boot because the viruses destroyed all the non-critical files ie screensavers, default wallpapers, etc. AND the access ibm boots off a linux partition (formatted with FAT32), which was also corrupted by the virus