cwclifford
asked on
Installing XP on ThinkPad with no CD or Floppy drive
I have a ThinkPad 570e with no CD or floppy drive and need to re-install XP.
I tried putting the hard drive in a newer ThinkPad which worked fine while the drive was in there but did not when I placed it back into the older laptop. I get a blue screen telling me there was an error reading the disk.
So, I believe the issue might be with the bios? Is there a way to avoid having to buy or borrow an external CD drive to do this? I have USB but the concern is whether or not a USB drive will even be recognized or bootable.
Thanks,
-Craig
I tried putting the hard drive in a newer ThinkPad which worked fine while the drive was in there but did not when I placed it back into the older laptop. I get a blue screen telling me there was an error reading the disk.
So, I believe the issue might be with the bios? Is there a way to avoid having to buy or borrow an external CD drive to do this? I have USB but the concern is whether or not a USB drive will even be recognized or bootable.
Thanks,
-Craig
ASKER
This seems viable. What does it entail for the "hard drive to be made bootable"? XP is installed on the drive so would I simply copy the CD files to any random directory?
-Craig
-Craig
how :
copy the i386 folder to the disk
put the disk in the laptop where it should be
boot from a bootdisk, and run the setup from the disk
www.bootdisk.com
copy the i386 folder to the disk
put the disk in the laptop where it should be
boot from a bootdisk, and run the setup from the disk
www.bootdisk.com
note : the easiest way for this is partitioning and formatting your disk as FAT32
To make the hard drive bootable, I suggest you put it in another system, as mentioned, and, after booting from a 98 boot floppy, you use the "sys" command.
At the A:\>_ prompt you type:
sys [drive letter]: [Enter]
example: sys C: [enter]
You must take care to disconnect any other hard drive in the system, or make sure you use the drive letter that corresponds to the laptop HD; otherwise you could mess up the system hard drive boot record.
/RID
At the A:\>_ prompt you type:
sys [drive letter]: [Enter]
example: sys C: [enter]
You must take care to disconnect any other hard drive in the system, or make sure you use the drive letter that corresponds to the laptop HD; otherwise you could mess up the system hard drive boot record.
/RID
> no CD or Floppy drive
Doesn't bootdisk require a floppy drive?
> but the concern is whether or not a USB drive will even be recognized or bootable.
The 570 does not support USB booting. Because you'll run into this situation again, I'd recommend creating a small bootable DOS "utility" partition. This will act as your bootable floppy drive in future situations.
1. Mount the 570's HD in your other laptop and use partition software to create a FAT partition large enough to hold DOS and your i386 folder. Install DOS and copy your i386 folder from your XP disk.
2. Make sure the DOS HD is bootable in your new system before transferring to your 570. it should now boot into DOS in your 570. Run the XP setup from your DOS partition.
3. When you're completed with the XP install, you should have a boot menu that gives you the option to boot into DOS or XP.
I highly recommend that you slipstream the latest service pack and drivers into your XP install folder before you copy it to your DOS partition. You can use nLite for this purpose if you are feeling ambitious.
nLite
http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html
Doesn't bootdisk require a floppy drive?
> but the concern is whether or not a USB drive will even be recognized or bootable.
The 570 does not support USB booting. Because you'll run into this situation again, I'd recommend creating a small bootable DOS "utility" partition. This will act as your bootable floppy drive in future situations.
1. Mount the 570's HD in your other laptop and use partition software to create a FAT partition large enough to hold DOS and your i386 folder. Install DOS and copy your i386 folder from your XP disk.
2. Make sure the DOS HD is bootable in your new system before transferring to your 570. it should now boot into DOS in your 570. Run the XP setup from your DOS partition.
3. When you're completed with the XP install, you should have a boot menu that gives you the option to boot into DOS or XP.
I highly recommend that you slipstream the latest service pack and drivers into your XP install folder before you copy it to your DOS partition. You can use nLite for this purpose if you are feeling ambitious.
nLite
http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html
ASKER
The "other" laptop has been used steadily on business trips lately so it's been a game of patience for me to wait until I can try these suggestions. wahhh.
Knowing I do not have access to a floppy drive on either laptop, VerifyMe's solution seems likely to succeed. I will try partitioning the HD and installing DOS for the i386 folder.
Could I get some pointers on the following:
"Install DOS" - Is this an easy procedure? Never done it before.
"a FAT partition large enough to hold DOS" - What's a good size? Will this also be a permanent partition? The 570e drive is only 6GB.
"Make sure the DOS HD is bootable" - what does this entail? Again, easy? I think I could figure it out but I can ask you. :)
I will also give nLite a whirl. Slipstreaming the latest service pack and drivers BEFORE copying to the XP install folder will be tricky, yeah? I'll have a DOS partition but no system on the drive to run apps so I am not sure how this is possible.
-Craig
Knowing I do not have access to a floppy drive on either laptop, VerifyMe's solution seems likely to succeed. I will try partitioning the HD and installing DOS for the i386 folder.
Could I get some pointers on the following:
"Install DOS" - Is this an easy procedure? Never done it before.
"a FAT partition large enough to hold DOS" - What's a good size? Will this also be a permanent partition? The 570e drive is only 6GB.
"Make sure the DOS HD is bootable" - what does this entail? Again, easy? I think I could figure it out but I can ask you. :)
I will also give nLite a whirl. Slipstreaming the latest service pack and drivers BEFORE copying to the XP install folder will be tricky, yeah? I'll have a DOS partition but no system on the drive to run apps so I am not sure how this is possible.
-Craig
ASKER
Well, I never got a response about my last post so I've postponed trying to fix my problem. I am asking that some of the procedures suggested by VerifyMe be explain in more detail:
1) I will put the 6GB drive in the laptop WITH a CD-ROM drive. Then, use partitioning software create a FAT partition to install DOS??
How do I 'use' or 'install' anything with a blank drive in there??
-Craig
1) I will put the 6GB drive in the laptop WITH a CD-ROM drive. Then, use partitioning software create a FAT partition to install DOS??
How do I 'use' or 'install' anything with a blank drive in there??
-Craig
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ASKER
Thanks, Rindi. I will most likely make the purchase of an external CD-ROM drive. This'll be the best solution after all.
Thanks!
-Craig
Thanks!
-Craig
Your welcome
Craig,
Apologies for not reponding. Been out of town travelling and focused on work. Trying to get back to all my EE loose ends this month. No hard feelings eh?
Apologies for not reponding. Been out of town travelling and focused on work. Trying to get back to all my EE loose ends this month. No hard feelings eh?
ASKER
No, no, I just kinda gave up on doing the install the "hard" way. Getting an external CD-ROM will be the best bet. Thanks again for your help.
Oh, and if you care to elaborate on the solution I am all ears. :)
-Craig
Oh, and if you care to elaborate on the solution I am all ears. :)
-Craig
You could try copying the entire contents of the install CD to the Hard drive, when it sits in another system, and then take it back to the original laptop and run the install from the HD. This requires the hard drive to be made bootable, of course. It may also violate some MS license rule, but that is your problem.
/RID