Install XP with no Optical Drive = Fail

Cool, I was just ranting a bit after getting rebuilding 5 machines with Windows 7 and getting all the issues hammered out dealing with yet something else just get to be overload. But then here I am at 3 in the morning trying to figure why I now have a Test Mode watermark on desktop!
 
Once I get xp loaded.. I will be able to use the pcmcia wireless card & my usb thumb drive. The battery seems to have had better days, yet I run my computers off an apc so..

I hope it runs without too many problems. I only want to use it for reading at my bed side table. Or play a little bit of music. ( I could also run WorldTimeClock and just have the brightest / biggest bedroom clock ) ha ha ha.
 
Yeah it's 3:11 here.. am.. of course..

I don't mind rantings. We all need to do it once in a while with others that understand the frustration we go through :)
 
SudburyOntario said:
Fell asleep... but it's asking me for my name and key now :) .. I'll say it is going good.
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Been there, done that... my wife found me in the computer room with hy head in my hands... I fell asleep around 2ish, and she found me at like 4ish... :D
 
Bawww.. it's hot and I got enough bags under my eyes damnit. Besides at least the dreams are okayish.

Back to the laptop... it's working in xp all running :D:D:D
 
This thread was an interesting read! I don't know that I will ever be motivated to attack a project on hardware this old, but nonetheless quite a neat process.
 
Thank you, It has been fun and perhaps a sticky could be made on how to install an OS without an optical drive, usb, network, ect. That would help many people. Until next time.. I'm sure I will take something else.
 
Late to this thread, but i thought I would put my 2c in. I would of taken a totally different approach. Here is what i would of done.

1. move harddrive into another machine and disconnect the ones that are there to begin with.

2. Install windows on the hdd

3. download all of the drivers you will need on the laptop and place them somewhere on the drive.

4. Generalize the install using sysprep.

5. Once sysprep is done and the machine is powered off move the HDD back to the other machine and boot up. The mini-setup will run, after it is complete you will have a fully working ntfs install with all your drivers installed and everything configured as it was before you ran sysprep.

Ofource this is alot harder than it looks as you really have to know what you are doing when syspreping to make sure all the drivers get loaded and whatnot. I am not going to go into detail but if you want here is a basic syspreping guide: http://www.vernalex.com/guides/sysprep/introduction.shtml .
 
Problem.. I am getting a boot up option asking if I want windows XP or if I want the previous operating system on C: which was formatted..

Ideas ?
 
Just delete the extra listing in the boot.ini file - right click on My Computer, choose Properties, then Advanced, Startup options, it's in there someplace to adjust the boot.ini, or just uncheck the box that controls the display of the boot menu.

Honestly I haven't run XP in so long I can't remember the exact path to do that... geez, I'm getting old. ;)

But nice to see all that worked out...
 
Now, the smart thing for you to do would be - before you add too much to it - image that hard drive in that laptop. Yank it out once more, attach it to the desktop once more, and then use some imaging software like True Image, etc to make a bit-for-bit image of it exactly as it is right now this instant. That way if you ever need to restore it again in the future, for whatever reason, you won't need to go through all this bullshit again.

If you image it right now before you put too much stuff on it, the image of the drive (the imaging software will typically compress it) should easily fit on a single DVD5 (single layer DVD, about 4.7GB capacity), and if the needs arises you'll be able to restore the image without issues in minutes, like less than 5 mins typically, put the drive back in the laptop and wham, be running again in far far less time than it took to get it where it currently is right now. :D

If you've added a bunch of software already the resulting image might not fit on one single layer DVD, so... uninstall some stuff if necessary, but typically you can still fit an image on a DVD5 even with 6-8GB of "stuff" already on the drive. I doubt you've put that much on it this fast, so... most definitely make an image, and soon.

If it's a Seagate or Maxtor hard drive, Seagate offers a free version of True Image included with their SeaTools software; if it's some other brand, there are some free imaging tools available but I still recommend True Image above and beyond all others.

Just another tip that could prove useful at some point in time... ;)
 
Well hopefully he has a network connection on it so it won't have to yank out the hard drive again!
 
Yah, I considered that the laptop most likely has a NIC in it but as he still doesn't have an optical to boot off (to do the imaging, of course), it could still pose a problem. I don't use the Windows version of True Image but, if he can acquire it that should allow for in-place imaging with Windows in operation to a network drive, etc. So, in that situation it's actually easier just to pull the drive out, attach it to the desktop, do the image drive to drive (way faster than a network connection) and he's pretty much done - of course, then burn the resulting image to some kind of backup media.

He'll figure it out...
 
Indeed I will figure it out.. the network card is pcmcia only and I don't know why it doesn't have one built in. From now on I should refrain from accepting older laptops.. but it just makes a guy feel good to have shit that takes longer to break lol.

I have Acronis dos boot. That should do.
 
SudburyOntario said:
Indeed I will figure it out.. the network card is pcmcia only and I don't know why it doesn't have one built in. From now on I should refrain from accepting older laptops.. but it just makes a guy feel good to have shit that takes longer to break lol.

I have Acronis dos boot. That should do.
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I have seen MANY laptops the age of yours, and many do NOT have NIC's built-in.... if it's a 333Mhz machine, it would probably be built sometime around 1999-early 2000.
 
What would this Dell Latitude CPT C - Series be worth ?

No original psu, no optical drive.. 333mhz celeron with 64mb ram. 6.4gb hdd. Dead Battery
 
Virtually nothing... I have seen people give away(for free) better machines than that. Sorry. :(
 
This was a great read - congrats on getting it working! I love projects like this.
 
ARRRGGGGG I'm back with another Dell.. D400 this time.

It can boot from floppy and usb. still no cd drive. I can't format it on another pc as it only offers me ntfs.
 
Never mind... found a none english xcopy.exe for dos, now making a copy of the thumb drive to the hard drive and I have smartdrv ready aswell.. I shall click back in after the casino
 
If it can boot from a floppy and has a USB port then get a USB optical drive and save yourself some hassle. But it does seem you like to do this kind of stuff. I'm always looking for the easy way out!
 
I do like working with computers, as I learn new ways of doing things.. but I don't want to buy an external cd drive lol... if I aquire one for free than I'll be happy.

( I don't really end up in these situations or hardly use the optical drive )
 
I understand. Fixing stuff is cool. When I saw this post it bought back memories because I've gone through what you've done with that machine about a dozen times over the years and to be honest it was never worth the hassel to me. Now that I'm over 40 I have become a lot more selective as to the stuff I put time into because the older I get the more I realize that I've only got so much time, just like money.

The night you were working on your first project was the same night I was rebuilding this tx2z. State of the art machine and it took FOREVER to get it working well under Windows 7 and it's STILL not right. So I've come to pick and choose my battles I guess.

Plus it's nice to get a little WOW factor out of projects and I have to say that this tx2z even with the gimped multi-touch features is so incredibly cool! If you like to surf in bed tablets are just awesome. I have to admit I'm completely enamoured with the tablet input panel in Windows 7. I'm writing this post with it now and its simply the most impressive technology on a PC I've ever seen. I can't wait to get it all working when the production drivers for the digitizer come out!

Enough of my geek rant. Good luck with that D400!:D
 
Over 40,, definitly a geek rant lol! I hear you tho.

I'm starting to get a similar feeling of being selective as to the things in which I choose to work on. I will do my best to stay away from anything pre xp. I'm also trying to select myself into simpler fields of work such as network cable runner and format the heck out of your computer cause it's easier, job. I am still trying to get this D400 to do something but I'm going to yell at my brother in law to bring over that damned external drive for it. Mr. no good to drive a little bit :D

Back to work! Besides, does anyone know the number of posts it takes before each ranking nearest our names ?
 
heatlesssun said:
Now that I'm over 40 I have become ....
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Heh heh....

You young whippersnappers! Joe Average was rambling on yesterday about how he's an over 40 'old fella' too!


I got the best part of a coupla decades on you lot, and I'm damned if i'm agonna get all 'old man cranky' just because a challenge presented to me is old kit. If the challenge is stuff you've long since forgotten about it just turns the 'learning' into 'relearning'.


:D
 
Something about that gull damned fat32 and ntfs I don't care for. But it is now running the blue setup screen. Every operating system should come with a usb adaptable exe.
 
Done once again running smoothly.

Problem.. the other laptop I did asked me for a username, This laptop made Administrator and that was it. Strange! Why does this happen and what difference does it make if I create another admin account or leave the main one on ?!?!
 
These are both XP Pro machines? I think when you install XP Pro you have to the option of creating provide an login for an administraive account, I can't remember now since I haven't done it in a while. A common security precaution is to disable the Administrator account because that's an attack vector, people can just hack that password so I would definately create another admin level account and not use administrator.
 
The easiest way I've done this is connect the HD to a desktop via adapter, install XP, and at the reboot after the files are installed (and right before the hardware is detected) shut it off. Put the HD back in the lappy, and when you turn it on, it resumes the installation ,hardware detection and final setup like it never knew what happened.
 
heatlesssun said:
I understand. Fixing stuff is cool. When I saw this post it bought back memories because I've gone through what you've done with that machine about a dozen times over the years and to be honest it was never worth the hassel to me. Now that I'm over 40 I have become a lot more selective as to the stuff I put time into because the older I get the more I realize that I've only got so much time, just like money.

The night you were working on your first project was the same night I was rebuilding this tx2z. State of the art machine and it took FOREVER to get it working well under Windows 7 and it's STILL not right. So I've come to pick and choose my battles I guess.

Plus it's nice to get a little WOW factor out of projects and I have to say that this tx2z even with the gimped multi-touch features is so incredibly cool! If you like to surf in bed tablets are just awesome. I have to admit I'm completely enamoured with the tablet input panel in Windows 7. I'm writing this post with it now and its simply the most impressive technology on a PC I've ever seen. I can't wait to get it all working when the production drivers for the digitizer come out!

Enough of my geek rant. Good luck with that D400!:D
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My wife has one of those HP TX2Z's, and it sucks... the touch feature is sooooo unsensitive.... she got it from work for free, because the guy didn't want it anymore... he bought a Fujitsu, and is WAY happier with the touch sensitivity.
 
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