Hi all-

I'm looking for some advice, please.

I'm trying to update my housemate's old pc and thought I could get it running a decent OS- dumping Win98 for Win2k.
The machine in question is a Sony Vaio PCV-L640

My plan was to swap in a blank HD ($0), drop in the max RAM (256MB, $0), and feed it Win2k Pro (developer, $0).
As it happens, though, the CD drive is dead and I can't boot from it.
"Swap in another CD drive!" I hear you cry. But, alas, the drive is a slim-line style and not easy or cheap to find.
The dang machine is so compact and dense that it's hard even to see the motherboard. If I could- I could judge whether I could (somehow) hook in a standard CD drive in order to perform the OS install with the cover off and drives hanging all over the floor.
It might be possible, for example, to install a typical IDE cable (with plugs for two devices) and run a standard 3.5 CD and the blank HD that way. I haven't dissected the machine far enough to know what I can do with the HD cable.
Maybe slim-line CD drives are more easily swapped than I think? At this point I can only imagine them to be less universal than the full-size versions.

I know, I know... I should bin the whole thing and start from scratch with another donor machine that's easier to work with.
All he needs is something to do the basics- chat, surf, email, funny videos.

But I have to ask- does anyone have any ideas for performing an OS install on this machine? It's too old to boot from USB, but the BIOS will allow booting from LAN... never done anything like that before, though.

I thought I might try doing the install while the HD were mounted in my own (ancient) HP and then transferring the drive to the Sony and trying to fix it with drivers passed via ethernet or floppy... but I'm afraid this is fantasy.

Any options that I've missed?
Thanks for reading and any comment or commiseration that you have to offer.

-Stew