He clearly stated that the computer that he needs to install SP1 on
doesn't HAVE a DVD drive.

Dominic, the OP clearly claims to have no bootable DVD drive(s).  So
which one would he set to be bootable in the BIOS?

Also, such hotkeys are different with different OEMs.   As an example,
the BIOS on my Dell motherboard requires that I press F12, rather than
F11, to override the Boot order, and all it does is present me with a
Boot Menu, from which I can choose the Boot device.  Of course, if the
device I choose is not bootable, I can try booting from it all day,
and never succeed in anything but increasing my stress-level.

That machine must be very old indeed, if the motherboard does not
allow you to boot from a DVD drive, or if your drive itself is not
bootable.

Then google no further.  Your answer is staring you right in the face,
but apparently, you don't want to accept it.

So, use one of them.

Do you have a motherboard which allows you to boot from such external
drives?  Additionally, Windows cannot be booted from external block
devices, anyway.  There is one exception to this rule, however:
Windows can be installed on and booted from an e-SATA drive, since for
all intents and purposes, such a drive would appear as an internal
hard drive to Windows.

You have no BIOS settings which enable you to set the Boot order?  You
are definitely out of luck.

It definitely will if all the DVD drives you possess are not bootable
by design, as in older CD or DVD drives.  But they would have to be
very old indeed, and SHOULD be replaced as soon as possible, anyway.

Unfortunately, you cannot use a CD drive to boot the DVD install
media.  Nor is there a way to start the installation from a floppy
(i.e., "from a DOS prompt").  In fact, many Vista-class machines have
no floppy drive at all.  Face it, Vista is NOT DOS, nor is it even
Windows 9x or ME.  It is Microsoft Windows Vista, an entirely
different OS.

Nor is there a way to get the code copied from the DVD onto ANY Hard
Drive, ANYWHERE, without a DVD drive.

Then either do it the right way, or your own.  However, your way will
not be very successful, I fear.

And, unless you can do a Network Installation, you will be very
frustrated in the end.

Then wear trousers or some kind of padding between your hide and the
chaps, and don't forget to put a saddle-blanket on the horse before
saddling him up.  Or grow a tougher hide.

Donald L McDaniel
Please reply to the correct thread and article.
================================================

He's trying to use a SECOND computer to make a workable copy for the
one without a DVD.

Thank you very much for reading the original post.
It's amazing how far a thread can get off track and
how emotional people get about it.

I come to uesnet for imatinative approaches to solve
problems.  Mostly what I get is "impossible, can't be done."
"Your an idiot!", is a popular helpful suggestion.

Took me a weekend of trial/error to figger it out,
but here's how I accomplished
it using free tools.  Maybe others can benefit from the experience.
YMMV
It worked for me.

Install the trial vista on a machine with a DVD.
Boot the Acronis 7 CD and image the drive to a
usb hard drive.
On the target machine, boot the Acronis 7 CD.
Restore the image from the USB hard drive.
The target system won't boot, but there exists a bootable
CD that runs the Vista recovery environment; boot it.
It automagically figgers out how to make the system bootable.
Boot vista and let it reconfigure all the hardware/drivers.

I have zero Vista experience, so I can't tell if everything is
working, but it seems OK so far.

Acronis 7 plus the Recovery CD may well be the solution to the
backup/restore problem too.

I have no idea if there are any activation issues.
So far, I've learned that Vista breaks much of my software.
It breaks much of my hardware.
It takes up 3X the drive space (of 2K).
It appears to offer NO improvement in anything I need.
Whether or not it activates may be a non-issue...

mike