trouble installing win2k on lappy...

D

dfarrales

n00b
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Jun 7, 2004
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ok, i have a sony vaio pcg-sr7k (no internal floppy or cd-drive, only external usb ones). had win2k on there when i bought it used w/ tons of viruses. i decided to format instead of messing w/ each virus. b/c the drives were all USB, i coulnd't format using fdisk and reinstall the OS w/ the way it was set up. so i removed the HD, installed it into my amada 1700, formatted the HD and then installed win2k. then i put it back into the sony only to get the error msg: NTLDR is missing.

here's what i've tried so far...

on another forum, someone suggested putting the hd in my other lappy, copying over the i386 folder, putting the hd back into the sony, then running winnt.exe to begin the install. didn't like that either. same msg about ntldr missing after the first restart.

someone suggested i instal win98se on there w/ the hd on the other lappy. i did that and i was able then able to boot to win98se on the SONY. i still couldn't get the lappy to see my usb cdrom, though. i had to move the hd back into my other lappy, copy over the install files for win2k, then reboot the hd in the sony and run the win2k update from the hd. started out fine. before it restarted (after it copied over the files or whatever it does the first time around), i checked to make sure the ntldr and ntdetect.com files were in the root. they were. so, i let it restart and guess what... same thing again.

i checked out this site: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm
it sd something about trying to boot to an unbootable source (maybe since there is no floppy or cd to boot to??). could it be that since there's no internal cd/floppy, it's causing this error? don't know why it won't see my usb cdrom. i know the usb was functional before the install. also, the usb cdrom can be seen in my other lappy. would a pcmcia cdrom be seen?

this has me very frustrated. i thinking of going to an actual pc tech and have them take care of it. hate to do that though...

any other ideas, guys?
 
not that i can see. if i did, wouldn't it be one of the items on the boot order list or would it be seperate somewhere else?
 
You could try installing on the Compaq lappy, then at the first shut down (after it copies all the files over), try putting the HDD into the Sony lappy.

Or possibly try installing fully on the Compaq lappy, then trying sysprep and then when it shuts down, put the hdd into the Sony...it may boot up and do a mini install
 
I looks like you're going to have to format the drive on the sony, then do as dbwillis said in his first suggestion.
 
dbwillis said:
You could try installing on the Compaq lappy, then at the first shut down (after it copies all the files over), try putting the HDD into the Sony lappy.

Or possibly try installing fully on the Compaq lappy, then trying sysprep and then when it shuts down, put the hdd into the Sony...it may boot up and do a mini install
Click to expand...

i did the first one already and i get the ntldr is missing when it boots back up.

can you explain to me what the sysprep is and how to do that?
 
Your hard drive location is changing when you shift it, thats why it can't find ntldr (boot.ini). Try this. Put it into other machine, create two partitions. One that is almost the whole drive, and a small secondary one just big enough for i386. Do what you did before to get bootable to run winnt.exe and all that junk. This time, when you run setup your location shouldnt be changing because you are installing from one drive to another. Give it a shot.
 
^^^^^^
Can you boot from CD/FDD in the BIOS? The CD/FDD are USB correct? If so give it a shot might just luck out and that feature support USB for those devices even though it doesn't state it or have you been there done that.

For some other miscellaneous ramblings. Not sure if this will work but worth a shot. On another laptop install the drive or you can use a 2.5" USB or PCMCIA caddy plugged into those relative ports on the other laptop, format the drive and partition it into 2 partitions, first partition, most of the drive, 2nd a small one 2-3gig make it bootable. On the 2nd partition copy the entire contents of your bootable W2K disc. If the boot files are hidden some extra effort maybe involved. Take drive out put in target lappy and try to get it to boot from that second partition. Which should start install. Then if the install goes okay......................
Once the install is complete either go back in and delete the 2nd partition and resize, or change it to non bootable and save that partiton with the W2k files, maybe make that partition hidden, who knows might need those files if you format and reinstall again at some point.

Andy
 
I miss the days when you could just put Win95 on a Zip disk and use guest.exe to set up the zip and then install Win95... Your issue is really bugging me.


What chipset does the laptop have?
 
yeah, this whole thing is really bugging me too :confused:

i don't see CD/FDD in the BIOS. it's definately not one of the items in the boot order. there, all it shows is atapi cdrom, floppy and hd. i don't see anywhere in the bios referring to USB. now in the advanced tab, it has a primary ide (says 9042mbs, or something similar) and then a secondary ide that says 'none'. if i try to select a 2nd ide it get to choose a number between 1-36. it has something to do w/ hd type (????). anyone know what i'm talking about. i have no idea what it's referring to or if it has anything to do w/ my prob.

re: making the two partions...

i guess the problem i'm having it making that second partion in fdisk. if i have a formatted hd ( format c:\s) to make it bootable, then do i create the 1st larger partion? or do i create the smaller partion and make it active? then create the larger partition?

how do i know what chipset the laptop has?
 
OK, so sony's support site sucks ass. I can't find anything useful about the laptiop. I was thinking about the chipset thing because if you install 2000 on a system with the same chipset, it has a pretty good change of working on the laptop.

The only thing I found useful on Sony's web site was for their system restore CD information. It says if you can't boot off of the system restore CD, then you should plug in the CD-ROM and then go into the BIOS and select load setup defaults. This isn't a whole lot of information, this makes me think that the default boot order for the system is USB CD-ROM, HD. So you may want to try that. The only issue that bothers me is there is a little warking note that says it will only work with sony CD-ROM drives.
 
set the BIOS to boot from CD, have your cd plugged in with your W2k disc in it and see what happens.

Using Fdisk to create your partitions: something like partition magic would work real good for this.
1st It sounds like you have a 10 gig hd
Delete all partitions on drive
Now create your new partitions
Make your first partition approx 7- 7.5 gig
Make a second partition with the remaining space and set it active
Copy the contents of the W2k cd onto the 2nd partition
 
andy A said:
set the BIOS to boot from CD, have your cd plugged in with your W2k disc in it and see what happens.

Using Fdisk to create your partitions: something like partition magic would work real good for this.
1st It sounds like you have a 10 gig hd
Delete all partitions on drive
Now create your new partitions
Make your first partition approx 7- 7.5 gig
Make a second partition with the remaining space and set it active
Copy the contents of the W2k cd onto the 2nd partition
Click to expand...

ok, so if i do it that way the 7.5g partition is my c: and the smaller one is my d: drive. i need to format d: to make it bootable (format d:/s) and just format c: like normal? or should i make the smaller one c: or does it even matter ????
 
Dont those Sony VAIO's have an I/O port for an external cdrom, if you ever want to install an operating system your going to need that.
 
Lord of Shadows said:
Dont those Sony VAIO's have an I/O port for an external cdrom, if you ever want to install an operating system your going to need that.
Click to expand...

this one doesn't... it DOES have a pcmcia slot. i'm thinking that i may need to pick one up and see if that does the trick. the thing is that my local fry's doesn't carry them. i'll have to check elsewhere.
 
looks like the original or factory cd that would come with this lappy uses the PCMCIA interface and you have a USB cd correct? This is part of the issue. My advice would be to purchase/borrow a 2.5" USB caddy put the laptop drive in the caddy and plug it into any machine that has a USB interface. Use a program like Partition magic, and delete all the partitions then as mentioned before create 2 partitions one most of the drive and a small one to write the contents of your W2k cd to. Then do as mentioned prior.
 
andy A said:
looks like the original or factory cd that would come with this lappy uses the PCMCIA interface and you have a USB cd correct? This is part of the issue. My advice would be to purchase/borrow a 2.5" USB caddy put the laptop drive in the caddy and plug it into any machine that has a USB interface. Use a program like Partition magic, and delete all the partitions then as mentioned before create 2 partitions one most of the drive and a small one to write the contents of your W2k cd to. Then do as mentioned prior.
Click to expand...

hmm... what if i try to buy/borrow a pcmcia cdrom? think that'll work?

i did the 2 partition thing, as you all suggested. partition 1 (c:) the larger one and partition 2 (d:) being the bootable, active partition w/ the Win2K files on it. when i power up, i get "cannot locate operating system" or something like that.

did i setup the partition correctly, w/ C: being the non bootable, non-active partion?

i'm thinking i'm going to need to locate a pcmcia cdrom and see if that boots up.

any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.
 
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