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Very old laptop query.

  • 01-04-2005 12:56pm
    #1
    scojones
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,230 ✭✭✭


    Hey guys,
    I have a very very very old IBM Thinkpad, we're talking pre pentium 1 here, it has a floppy drive, no usb - just a serial port, and it has no OS on it. My girlfriend just needs ms word or the like on it - so I'm wondering what would be the best way to go out doing this... I think my only options are to try and locate win95 on floppy, or else to see if i can take out the hard drive (if i remember correctly old laptops had the same hard drives and pcs) and install win95 on it. How would you guys go about getting win95 on this? She only needs it to type a report for her Co-op. It has to be word/openoffice/abiword - no VI as she needs formatting and she's not the best with computers anyway.

    I'll get the exact model of the laptop on Sunday night as it has slipped my mind and I won't be home until Sunday.

    So any ideas about the best way to go about this? It's a 2 gig hard drive IIRC.


Comments

  • #2
    scojones
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,230 ✭✭✭scojones


    Also to be noted is that i have an external serial iomega 100mb zip drive with 1 zip disk. Not sure if the laptop would boot the zipdisk though.


  • #3
    Repli
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,322 ✭✭✭Repli


    I think the hard drives are the same as new ones, the hard drive in my old thinkpad is the same as the 40gb one in my new laptop, so basically u could remove the hd, put it into a laptop with a cdrom, install windows and put it back in..


  • #4
    sceptre
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,608 ✭✭✭✭sceptre


    I reckon the simplest way to install win95 on the thing would be to copy the /options/cabs section of the Win95 disc on to a 100MB zip disc (it'll fit with about 40 megs free IIRC) format the drive, boot from a floppy with the DOS zip drive driver, copy the files to the C drive and install from there. That used to be my standard method of install when faced with an old machine and works rather well.

    Openoffice will fit on the zip disc for an install when you've that done.


  • #5
    scojones
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,230 ✭✭✭scojones


    Thanks alot for the replies lads. sceptre: I will try your method tomorrow evening


  • #6
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 93,596 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    If you have windows 95 disks, check disk 10 first a lot of them were corrupt

    c:\windows\options\cabs is missing a few files like setup.exe IIRC they are on disk one and on the Win95 folder on the CD

    OpenOffice would crawl on such a low spec PC other options 602suite instead or if really pushed there used to be a shareware spell checker for write

    The HDD should be removeable - if you are going to format it then do it in the laptop in case another PC or USB enclosure uses different geometry.

    back then there were no certs of auth. on the PC's so licencing might not be obvious, it may have a designed for windows 95 sticker on it though, check the amount of ram too. Windows 95 really needs 12MB ram before can boot without using the swap file, forget about the 4MB figure in the manual - I've seen systems take 16 minutes to boot into 95 !


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