| If XP is not detecting your USB ports then either they are turned off in the bios (not likely with laptop bios - you can do this on some desktops though) or your usb ports are goosed. When installing or booting XP is always does a check for new hardware and should automatically load the drivers or prompt you for a drivers disk. In the case of XP it could feasibly ask you to pop the XP installation disk in for them if it didn't load them as part of the o/s in the first place. | 
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