So I got a dell mini 9 (i think, bottom is all faded) and it came with XP home and shit but one day I was like "fuck windows im gonna go rouge with UNR!". Well it was fun for a couple months but I want windows back on this fella, I have the system restore CDs and shit but here's the kicker, the netbook doesn't have a cd-drive so currently I'm stuck trying to stick a cd into a usb drive. not working as one would expect. Could I create a boot-able USB stick with the system restore on it or will I have to buy an external CD drive? Ho shit wait, or could I connect it to another computer and use it's CD drive? I got both windows 7 and snow leopard to work with here. Help me out buddies
Simplest option is to get an external CD/DVD/BR drive, that plugs into one of your USB ports. Borrow one if you can, you only need it for an hour or so. Then go into the BIOS, and select boot from USB device, restart and install windows as normal. A bit more complicated is to use some other computer with a CD/DVD/BR drive, and copy the XP install CDs to a USB memory-stick. This will require some specialist software which you can read more about, and the procedure to get working here. Good luck
I'm assuming you want XP, but here's a howto on installing XP using a flash drive: Installing Windows XP Using A USB Flash Drive I wouldn't bother with the system restore. A clean Windows install is usually better because computer makers tend to load up the computer with a bunch of preinstalled crap. Missing drivers should be findable on the Dell website.