Problems with reformatted laptop

firebug

Ok, I have reformatted the 2gb hard drive on an old laptop i want to install windows xp on but when i rebot it asks for a system boot disk, however there is no attachment for a 3.5 floppy drive, is there any way to get the computer to boot from the windows xp disk, i have tried making a system cd but there doesnt seem to be any way to get the computer to read from the cd drive in the initial settings, could anyone give me ideas or any suggestions
Thanks

Kevin

Nukem

Hang on hang on. 2Gb HDD,did you mean 20Gb? Xp will eat 2Gb. Honest you wont run much with that. Best bet. By one of these 2.5" Case and stick the HDD in and have a portable 2Gb USB drive or a new HDD .

How old we talkin here?

firebug

Yup I know that it will eat up the hard drive space, but xp should work on it, it doesnt have any usb ports for an external drive but im working on getting a bigger hard drive for it, at the moment im just having trouble getting the os onto the drive

Kevin

aidan_walsh

I'd hold off until you get the bigger drive. I mean, after a full installation of Windows XP on that little thing, you'll have absolutely nothing, and I mean nothing worth mentioning for use as a swap file... I'm guessing you also have paltry memory specs, so a swap file is going to be a must...

firebug

I still would like to go ahead and install xp regardless, I just need help getting it done, I understand that i wont have much space left but ill take the risk.

Regards
Kevin

aidan_walsh

As you wish, but personally I'd be more inclined to try to find a copy of Windows 95... Win98 at the very, very most...

Ok, so first things first, can you get into your BIOS, and see if your medivial motherboard supports booting from CD?

firebug

Thanks for the help so far, so any ideas how to overcome my current problem and get c prompt on the screen??

Nukem

Honestly.Speaking from trial and error. 2 Gb anit nearly enough. I'd stick 95/98 maybe 200 on it.Run easier. What are th specs. PII 128 Ram ?

firebug

nope wont let you boot from a cd only a disk or the hard drive

Nukem

firebug wrote:

Thanks for the help so far, so any ideas how to overcome my current problem and get c prompt on the screen??

Format bootdisk on another comp

liamo

Ok, let's recap.

1) You have a laptop that came with a 2GB disk.
2) It has no floppy drive.
3) It has no USB ports.
4) You can't change the BIOS to boot from CD.
5) You want to install WHAT on it?

Do you have dead horse handy that you could flog while you're at it?

Seriously though. The absolute minimum spec for XP is a 233MHz processor, 64MB RAM and at least 1.5GB free disk space. What is the spec of the laptop?

Liam

Nukem

firebug wrote:

nope wont let you boot from a cd only a disk or the hard drive

Excuse the French B*llox. Change the boot Sequnce A: C:

Sorry just read no Floppy - Good luck. Try burn a boot Prompt comand to a Cd and try that.

firebug

it has the specs you speak of the only thing it doesnt have is a floppy drive, it looks for a systems disc on boot up so.......

Nukem

firebug wrote:

it looks for a systems disc on boot up so.......

Hah copped it. Bet the Cd drive is too slow for th CD

sceptre

Like the others I'm doubtful about putting XP on a laptop with a 2gig drive (less so because of the drive, though that's a factor, I was thinking more that a laptop with a 2 gig drive might have an old processor and graphics (very important, after the processor and ram the GPU can be the big bottleneck for XP in particular) but it's your penny.

So what make is the laptop (and if possible, what model is the CD drive) - there may be one or more firmware upgrades that might make the drive Torisan-compatible or whatever the actual term is for an optical drive that can be booted from. As you say the real problem is getting the thing to boot from the CD given that you don't appear to be able to connect a floppy drive (or USB pen drive or anything else USB). If it was 95 or 98 you could use a zip drive of some sort to put the files on the hard drive and install from there or put the drive in another machine and do the same but with XP you're going to need all that space you have just for the temp files for the install. So a few model numbers might help.

Also, in the boot order section of the BIOS, given that the CD drive isn't listed, is it just the hard drive listed then?

liamo

Is it that the case that

a) the BIOS cannot be changed to boot from CD
b) that you don't know how to
or
c) you can change the setting but it still won't boot from CD?

Nukem

Min requirements

[font=verdana, geneva, helvetica]Minimums[/font][font=verdana, geneva, helvetica]:
[/font] [font=verdana, geneva, helvetica]CPU[/font] [font=verdana, geneva, helvetica]300 MHz (single CPU for Home edition, Single or dual for Professional edition)[/font] [font=verdana, geneva, helvetica]RAM[/font] [font=verdana, geneva, helvetica]128 MB[/font] [font=verdana, geneva, helvetica]Disk Space[/font] [font=verdana, geneva, helvetica]1.5 GB free[/font] [font=verdana, geneva, helvetica]Video Card[/font] [font=verdana, geneva, helvetica]Super VGA (800x600)[/font] [font=verdana, geneva, helvetica]Media[/font] [font=verdana, geneva, helvetica]CD-ROM or DVD[/font]
[font=verdana, geneva, helvetica]
You need at least 700mb for running space as well!!!!!!!!
[/font]

greglo23

fill the drive with zeros and when you boot with the xp disc inserted it will auto run. xp looks for an unformatted disc when it boots. find one here http://tinyurl.com/3nz9y . it creates a bootable floppy ( i know you dont have one but maybe you could borrow a usb one for half an hour ) and the rest is easy.

aidan_walsh

greglo23 wrote:

e xp disc inserted it will auto run. xp looks for an unformatted disc when it boots.

Never been picky with me before...

greglo23 wrote:

i know you dont have one but maybe you could borrow a usb one for half an hour

If he could borrow a USB floppy it would be far more in his line to find an XP bottdisk instead... The XP installer would take care of formatting the drive...

Agent Smith

he doesnt have a usb port....



i'd go with 98 TOPS....

firebug

Ok i have tried changing to bios, boot sequence it will only let you use diskette First or Hard-Disk Only these are the only 2 choices. It is a Dell latitude LM with 72mb of RAM the model number is TS30G, Im still stumped at how im going to get it boot to a c prompt, any more ideas, by the way i might install window 95 or 98 but i will have the same problem, it wont boot from the disk drive, thanks for all your help so far

Kevin

aidan_walsh

firebug wrote:

by the way i might install window 95 or 98

Josh Lyman wrote:

Victory is mine, victory is mine, great day in the morning people, victory is mine.

firebug

LOL I hate 95 and 98 but i suppose i can use them as a last resort they are crap in comparison to XP ahhh well!!, so any ideas on how i could get a c prompt?

liamo

1) The only bootable drives are either the Hard Disk or the Floppy.
2) You've formatted your hard disk. (oops!)
3) You don't have a floppy. (getting that sinking feeling yet?)

Based on the information you've supplied, the only way you're going to boot that sucker is with a floppy drive. If it's listed in the BIOS there's probably a way to connect a floppy drive. Is the CD drive removeable and replaceable with a floppy drive? If not, better get flogging that horse

firebug

yup the cd drive is removable to looks like im going to have to search ebay for a floppy drive that will fit in!!!!

Agent Smith

if you cant add a floppy drive, at least you have a nice paperwight...



or get a linux disc and run that

aidan_walsh

agent smith wrote:

if you cant add a floppy drive, at least you have a nice paperwight...



or get a linux disc and run that

But if the CD drive isn't bootable*

*If I've been following correctly

Nukem

My god man - what are you really attached to this Lappie or what.
No Usb
2Gb HDD
74mb Ram

I would sling 98 on to it. get a PCMCIA USB or Firewire card & a USB floppy and forget it. Happy days.

Nukem

liamo

Or, if you're desperate to get it up and running, you could try removing the hard disk and attaching it to a laptop (or a desktop) that has a CD drive attached that you can boot from. Install what you need (please, oh please don't torture that poor little lappy with XP) , perhaps W95 or W98 or maybe Linux, and see what happens when you reattach the Hard Disk to your laptop.

It's not something I've tried before and it's not something I'd recommend very highly unless, of course, you had no means of booting the laptop and you've formatted the hard disk. Oh wait .....

Nukem

I wouldnt touch the HDD; god knows it might turn to dust. Setting it up outside that lappie/Comp would kill it(i think) might drive it mad because you set it up on a newer comp/Laptop with newer parts yada......yada

No wont work come to think of it

liamo

Nukem wrote:

I wouldnt touch the HDD; god knows it might turn to dust. Setting it up outside that lappie/Comp would kill it(i think) might drive it mad because you set it up on a newer comp/Laptop with newer parts yada......yada

No wont work come to think of it

Oh yeah, 'cos then he'd be so much worse off than he is already

sceptre

firebug wrote:

It is a Dell latitude LM

Cool. The latest BIOS file is available here. true to form, there's no info whatever on what's enabled by the update and here's the problem: you don't have a floppy drive so you can't update it anyway. Lots of floppy drives for it on ebay for half-nothing. The trouble you'll face at that point is that you'll want the floppy and CD connected at the same time (I don't think they were hot-swappable but I'll hapily be corrected on that) as you'll want the floppy drive to run the boot disc and the CD drive to install windows from your CD. So you'll need to get the cable for using the floppy drive externally as well. Might be cheaper to look on ebay for a PC card USB adapter and it'll be of more use to you in the long run (you can borrow a USB floppy drive from someone for the setup if that's the only time you'll need the drive and you've then got the rather useful USB option for well, stuff)

And don't mind those doomsayers talking about the HD turning into dust. Fecking drama queens (anything not very new and shiny and they talk doom (no offence guys:)). I wouldn't advise popping the drive into another laptiop and installing any recent version of Windows that way. Windows doesn't like that at all at all and tends to go crazy. XP can tend to get unactivated that way too but it'll still go gaga with the different hardware. And seriously stay away from XP with your hardware. It won't like it, it can't handle it and you're not missing out on anything much by going for an older version anyway. 98 or 95. It'll like 95 better but you might like 98 yourself and it'll do fine on it at a pinch, especially if you've got the MMX version of the LM (p166 and above).