Boot and install using only hard drive?

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soulman76

Limp Gawd
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Jan 18, 2006
Messages
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Ok, so I have a tricky situation and I hope someone can help me out here.
I have a thin and light laptop that will only boot to the hard drive, there are zero external boot options available.

No cd/dvd, floppy, usb or network boot available.

I have access to the hard drive, and a usb adapter so I can plug it into my main rig and write whatever I need to on it.

What I'm trying to do is to make the disk bootable so I can install XP from a folder on the drive. I have done this before for a libretto to install win2k using the sys command from a 9x box to make it boot to a dos prompt.
Problem is, I do not have a 9x box anymore, I have XP and Vista dual boot on my main system and Win2k Pro on my file server, and I've been unsuccessful so far in trying to figure out how to do this. I've tried this for a few days and I'm about to give up.
I was able to get Win2kPro on it by basically using an image of my libretto drive and reinstalling, but so many of the devices aren't recognized (including any network adapters) that I want to go for xp.

Ideas? Answers? Let me know, thanks!

 
soulman76 said:
Ok, so I have a tricky situation and I hope someone can help me out here.
I have a thin and light laptop that will only boot to the hard drive, there are zero external boot options available.

No cd/dvd, floppy, usb or network boot available.

I have access to the hard drive, and a usb adapter so I can plug it into my main rig and write whatever I need to on it.

What I'm trying to do is to make the disk bootable so I can install XP from a folder on the drive. I have done this before for a libretto to install win2k using the sys command from a 9x box to make it boot to a dos prompt.
Problem is, I do not have a 9x box anymore, I have XP and Vista dual boot on my main system and Win2k Pro on my file server, and I've been unsuccessful so far in trying to figure out how to do this. I've tried this for a few days and I'm about to give up.
I was able to get Win2kPro on it by basically using an image of my libretto drive and reinstalling, but so many of the devices aren't recognized (including any network adapters) that I want to go for xp.

Ideas? Answers? Let me know, thanks!

Click to expand...

place the i386 directory (the whole thing) from the XP install CD on the disk in the root (C:\i386) and then go into the i386 directory and run the setup program. The biggest limitation is that you _cannot_ format the disk during the install, else the rest of tthe installer will fail as the install files will be gone. This trick has worked as far back as NT4.
 
Thanks svet-am, but that just gets me "Operating System not found" on a disk with an i386 folder.
I know how to do an install from the i386 directory, I need to get the disk bootable to some sort of command prompt
 
soulman76 said:
Thanks svet-am, but that just gets me "Operating System not found" on a disk with an i386 folder.
I know how to do an install from the i386 directory, I need to get the disk bootable to some sort of command prompt
Click to expand...

are you removing the drive and then copying the media to it, or is the machine up and running in some primative form when you do the file copy? if the latter, then running the setup program will write out all of the MBR and boot files you need. If the former, then format the drive entirely with the /system flag to make it bootable (perferably DOS bootable) (or you can just 'sys' the drive) and then copy the i386 directory and follow the procedure as I described. I think I'm just not properly understanding your situation.
 
I guess what I'm looking for is the command to actually "sys" the disk from XP, Vista, or...egads, Win2K. (don't take that wrong, I actually love win2k, but I'd have to unbury my server)


Right now, I have a blank, formatted laptop hd with no, OS, MBR or boot loader/Grub or anything. I know how to "sys" then copy the i386 folder using a 9x machine, I just don't have a 9x machine available to me.

I've looked at all sorts of "bootable" disks/usb configs/floppies and none of them have been able to copy to the (laptop) HD to make it bootable to some sort of prompt.
 
I should probably add that format with the /system flag doesn't work under XP, it gives, "Invalid parameter - /system"
 
this site, while very ugly, might be a start
http://mirror.href.com/thestarman/asm/mbr/BootToolsRefs.htm#MBRWiz

some of those tools appear to be able to write an MBR to the disk. Once you can write an MBR to it, you can essentially make it a DOS boot disk, by copying the contents of a DOS boot disk to the root of the HDD. If that works, then the rest of the tip with copying the i386 folder should work. Your key right now is to get a working MBR on that drive.
 
I was perusing the first link, and it's interesting, but I can't seem to find what I'm looking for, yet.
As for the second one, with the HP usb tool, it does provide an option to transfer the system, but the software says the drive is too big (9gb) and fails to do anything. I even tried partitioning the drive, but the program sees the whole drive and isn't fooled by partitions.
I tried that one actually as a link from damnsmalllinux.org while I was looking for alternate ways to "make it work".
 
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