installing o/s on a laptop with no cd/floppy drives

shazyuab · 10-29-2004, 02:07 PM

Hi there,

I wonder if any one can help with a problem i am having.

I have an Acer 332T travel mate laptop with no drives (no cd or floppy). i do however have a ide 2.5" to 3.5" connector to connect the laptop hard drive to a desktop computer and aso a usb 2.0 caddy to hold the laptop hard drive.

I also have an external pcia cdrom from another laptop but this cant work on the acer as drivers are required.

The laptop hardrive has no o/s on it and is currently used in the usb caddy.

Does any1 know how to install windows 98 on the laptop hard drive?

thanks

shaz

**Praetor** · 10-29-2004, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Does any1 know how to install windows 98 on the laptop hard drive?

Tried booting off an installation cd?

shazyuab · 10-29-2004, 02:22 PM

i dont know much about computers,

what u mean??

Super_Nova · 10-29-2004, 02:43 PM

Connect the laptop hard drive to your desktop and format it to be bootable. Then copy the windows 98 CD to a folder on the hard drive. Put the Hard drive back into the laptop. Boot from the hard drive, you will get a C:\ prompt. Navitage using your mad DOS skills to the folder you made where you copied the windows 98 cd and execute setup.exe..

Let me break it down easier:

Obtain a Windows 98 Startup floppy
Use the 2.5 to 3.5 adapter to connect the hard drive to the Desktop. It's probably best that you disconnect the full size hard drive for now and make the laptop drive the only one for this project.
Boot from the Windows 98 Startup Disk
Use FDISK to create a partition on the drive
Reboot, keep the Windows 98 Startup disk in the drive.
Type Format C: /s
If you didn't choose CD-ROM support when you booted from the Startup Disk reboot and choose CD-ROM support
Insert Windows 98 CD
Make sure you're at your C:\ prompt by typing C:
Type MD WIN98
(let E represent your CD-ROM drive letter however it may vary) Switch to your CD-ROM by typing E: You should get a E:\ prompt
Type CD\win98
Type copy *.* c:\win98 This should copy the contents to your hard drive
Put Hard Drive back into your laptop and boot to the C:\ prompt
at the C:\ prompt type cd\win98
type setup

I don't expect you'll have any problems doing it this way. I've done it plenty of times.

**Praetor** · 10-29-2004, 02:48 PM

Quote:

i dont know much about computers,
what u mean??

Put the installation CD in the drive, turn on the computer. With laptops, it should try and boot off the CD... if not, you'll have to go inot BIOS and change it so that it checks the CD drives first

Once its booted you just follow the insturctions

shazyuab · 10-29-2004, 03:04 PM

thanks

Much Appreciated

10-29-2004, 02:07 PM	#1 (permalink)
shazyuab New Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 3	installing o/s on a laptop with no cd/floppy drives Hi there, I wonder if any one can help with a problem i am having. I have an Acer 332T travel mate laptop with no drives (no cd or floppy). i do however have a ide 2.5" to 3.5" connector to connect the laptop hard drive to a desktop computer and aso a usb 2.0 caddy to hold the laptop hard drive. I also have an external pcia cdrom from another laptop but this cant work on the acer as drivers are required. The laptop hardrive has no o/s on it and is currently used in the usb caddy. Does any1 know how to install windows 98 on the laptop hard drive? thanks shaz

10-29-2004, 02:43 PM	#4 (permalink)
Super_Nova Gold Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Memphis, TN Age: 29 Posts: 440	Connect the laptop hard drive to your desktop and format it to be bootable. Then copy the windows 98 CD to a folder on the hard drive. Put the Hard drive back into the laptop. Boot from the hard drive, you will get a C:\ prompt. Navitage using your mad DOS skills to the folder you made where you copied the windows 98 cd and execute setup.exe.. Let me break it down easier: Obtain a Windows 98 Startup floppy Use the 2.5 to 3.5 adapter to connect the hard drive to the Desktop. It's probably best that you disconnect the full size hard drive for now and make the laptop drive the only one for this project. Boot from the Windows 98 Startup Disk Use FDISK to create a partition on the drive Reboot, keep the Windows 98 Startup disk in the drive. Type Format C: /s If you didn't choose CD-ROM support when you booted from the Startup Disk reboot and choose CD-ROM support Insert Windows 98 CD Make sure you're at your C:\ prompt by typing C: Type MD WIN98 (let E represent your CD-ROM drive letter however it may vary) Switch to your CD-ROM by typing E: You should get a E:\ prompt Type CD\win98 Type copy . c:\win98 This should copy the contents to your hard drive Put Hard Drive back into your laptop and boot to the C:\ prompt at the C:\ prompt type cd\win98 type setup I don't expect you'll have any problems doing it this way. I've done it plenty of times. Last edited by Super_Nova; 10-29-2004 at 02:57 PM.

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10-29-2004, 02:22 PM	#3 (permalink)
shazyuab New Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 3	i dont know much about computers, what u mean??

10-29-2004, 03:04 PM	#6 (permalink)
shazyuab New Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 3	thanks Much Appreciated