PC / XP help needed

[shrunkenmaster]

I'm looking at this PC for a cab I'm working on:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220582396724&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Doesn't look like it has a CD/DVD and it says the hard drive will need to be formatted. How would I go about getting XP or Tiny XP installed?

Also, I have a PC laptop that has been set up for this cab, but I fried it trying to extend the power button. Is there any way to use the hard drive from this for this project?

I'm a Mac user and have little experience with PC's. Any help would be great!

Ebay description:

NICE SMALL DESKTOP PC .IDEAL TO RUN AS JUKEBOX MAME OR JSUT AS A SMALL PC.
RADEAON 7000 32 MB GRAPHICS CARD WITH TV OUT AND DVI
512 DDR 333 MEMORY
FSP-180-50 PLA POWER SUPPLY
INTEL CELERON 2GHZ PROCESSOR
1 PCI SLOT WITH RISER CARD
ONLY HAS 1 MEMORY SLOT
4 FRONT USB
VGA PORT
SERIAL PORT
PRINTER PORT
PS2 PORTS
Hard drive now included but you will have to format it.

[DJ_Izumi]

If it can boot off of USB, you can actually make bootable USB sticks that will install Windows XP.  However installation off of USB Mass Storage is very VERY slow due to the protocol.  Transfers more or less have to stop and start between each file and the Windows XP install is a bajillion tiny tiny files mostly.  To build a Windows XP install SD card, it took 90mins to write all 350mb.

You could also just put an optical drive in a USB enclosure and use that for a bit.  Or maybe it has IDE ports and you just need to install the optical drive on your own.  Even temporarily.

[lilshawn]

toss the HD in your desktop and dump the contents of the xp cd on the harddrive.

all you have to do is use a tool (google has links to 100's) to make the harddrive boot to DOS (IE make the disk bootable again) and once booted to dos run the setup program in the folder you dumped the XP cd in. xp setup will take care of the rest.

only problem is that i'ts a one shot...if your setup fails, you have to start over again since xp will trash the boot sector of the drive during installation to get it ready. But (hopefully
) by then, the OS will be installed.

[shrunkenmaster]

Thanks guys,
All food for thought. I'll grab the PC first and see exactly what I have to work with.