I recently acquired this Pentium III IBM laptop. The hardrive died, somehow, after I brought it on a two hour trip to my aunts house in my backpack, and was basically dead. I purchased a new one (same specs, size and such) and I got some message after I let it load that basically says that there is a problem reading the hardrive, and to press control alt delete to restart the computer. Tried it a couple times, and had the same problem. I'm pretty sure that the reason this is showing up is basically because there IS no information on the hardrive, nor is it really set up with the laptop quite yet?
Now I wanted to install Windows XP, but whenever I insert the disk and do the first step where it reformats the disk and get up to where it restarts, it goes right back to that "cannot read" error. So I figured it just wasn't booting from the disk. I did some research, and tinkered with the settings. When you first load up the computer, there is an F1 and F12 option. F1 for all of the main settings excluding Bio and F12 for manual loading, such as the CD drive, hardrive, etc. If you let it load a bit longer, you can press control or alt S to load the Bio settings. So as I said, I tinkered with the settings, and now I made it so whenever it loads you have to choose what you want to load. The problem is, I just tried re-downloading the OS, and after it finished step one, I tried just simply booting from the OS. Didn't work. Just went to the main screen. I tried just letting it sit without the settings I chose. Nothing. I have no idea what to do, what not to do, but mainly how to get my OS running on my tripled laptop.
So, my main question, in short, is this. How do you get Windows XP up and running on a laptop with a brand new (used, really but wiped completely) hardrive?
Now you'll have to bear with me a bit with out of OS options. When it comes to the actual OS, I'm an expert. But when it comes to out of OS options such as Bio settings, choosing what to load and whatnot, I'm near lost. I've done a lot of research, and either my laptop has completely different options than most, or I just have no idea what I'm doing. So, help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much to the one who helps me with this.
EDIT: I've come to the conclusion that the computer simply isn't saving information to the hardrive. I'm nearly positive that this is the problem. What's wrong, and how do I fix it? Is the hardrive done for; even though it's brand new?
Now I wanted to install Windows XP, but whenever I insert the disk and do the first step where it reformats the disk and get up to where it restarts, it goes right back to that "cannot read" error. So I figured it just wasn't booting from the disk. I did some research, and tinkered with the settings. When you first load up the computer, there is an F1 and F12 option. F1 for all of the main settings excluding Bio and F12 for manual loading, such as the CD drive, hardrive, etc. If you let it load a bit longer, you can press control or alt S to load the Bio settings. So as I said, I tinkered with the settings, and now I made it so whenever it loads you have to choose what you want to load. The problem is, I just tried re-downloading the OS, and after it finished step one, I tried just simply booting from the OS. Didn't work. Just went to the main screen. I tried just letting it sit without the settings I chose. Nothing. I have no idea what to do, what not to do, but mainly how to get my OS running on my tripled laptop.
So, my main question, in short, is this. How do you get Windows XP up and running on a laptop with a brand new (used, really but wiped completely) hardrive?
Now you'll have to bear with me a bit with out of OS options. When it comes to the actual OS, I'm an expert. But when it comes to out of OS options such as Bio settings, choosing what to load and whatnot, I'm near lost. I've done a lot of research, and either my laptop has completely different options than most, or I just have no idea what I'm doing. So, help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much to the one who helps me with this.
EDIT: I've come to the conclusion that the computer simply isn't saving information to the hardrive. I'm nearly positive that this is the problem. What's wrong, and how do I fix it? Is the hardrive done for; even though it's brand new?
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