Helppppppppppppppppp,,,,

[best4less]

Hi guys i have scored a Sony laptop
But it has no CD no floppy ect it has a USB port that
works with windows 98SE but I can't boot from the USB so i loaded
98se on to the HDD using another lappy and then stuck that back into the Sony and i got it going that way

But i really need to put XP on it
How am i going to do that as i am sure its not as easy as 98SE LOL

Any suggestions would be great

Cheers

[MrElectricity]

OMG

[rob916]

do it the same way.
It does work.
You will prolly need to sort some drivers etc, but it will usually get you a desktop.

[mtv]

Have you tried an external USB CD/DVD drive?

[best4less]

I have tried a external HDD and dvd and usb and none will boot from Bios

If i remember right i have to have the HDD partitioned and formatted one for fat and the other for ntfs

any clues

[mtv]

As it already has 98se on it, I would have thought that now you actually have an OS working on it, that using an external CD drive, you should be able to upgrade?

If it can see the external CD drive, can you set that as the first boot device in the bios?

Then just put the XP disk in the drive & reboot... that's the theory anyway.

[tagg]

Too easy mate, take the harddrive out get yourself a laptop to ide adaptor hook it up to your pc create two patition one small one large copy your XP disk to the small patition then put it back in to the laptop and go from there

Tagg

[gavpk]

if you can get an external cd drive working with win98
you could upgrade within windows, or can you copy the cd contents
onto your partition (slave drive to another computer) and launch
xp setup from command promt using a dos bootdisk
(like you can with win98)? i havnt tried the later before but maybe an option.

[best4less]

I have tried with the External USB CD but it doesn't see it once it re boots

Can i partion the HDD in win98se ???
If so how LOL
And what type of format do i do on the drive and what size ???
as i can drag the xp CD on to a usb and then on to the hdd

cheers

[JIT]

Mate try

Pull the drive. Use a IDE to USB converter if you like or just use a mini IDE to 40pin and put it into another machine with a CD

Set the drive up as C:

Do the base install from the CD. you know the blue screen stuff.

Once finished and it wants to reboot. Remove the drive and connect it to a PC as drive D

Copy I386 to it.

Put HDD into laptop and then continue install. when asked for location for files and drivers. use c:\i386 (if that is what you called it)

I know it sounds like a pain in the ass. but with a good USB to IDE converter it is easy.

Cheers

JIT

Hi guys i have scored a Sony laptop
But it has no CD no floppy ect it has a USB port that
works with windows 98SE but I can't boot from the USB so i loaded
98se on to the HDD using another lappy and then stuck that back into the Sony and i got it going that way

But i really need to put XP on it
How am i going to do that as i am sure its not as easy as 98SE LOL

Any suggestions would be great

Cheers

[z80]

be careful taking the hard drive out method....it's not a 5 volt drive...its 3.5 volts...

[JIT]

Yes check the drive.

But with the info. A PC running windows 98se. Did they have 3.5v drives then?

Cheers

[best4less]

Yeah I wont use 5 volts thanks for the tip

Jit good plan but i am stuck with using a laptop i have lost my converter

so iam stuck with partition the HDD drive idea

but still need some pointers LOL

cheers

[gavpk]

ah you already said you cant boot from usb, so no dos boot disk.
if you can use partition magic or somthing to create a second partition,
copy the winxp contents there and modify your autoexec.bat to
run the xp setup, upon reboot this should start the xp setup?
never done this before, just some food for thought

[fandtm666]

if you have loaded 98se make sure you have downloaded the required drivers for the laptop and installed them

1: install the usb drivers for the external cd drive you have as they are not within the 98se driver list.

reboot

2: it should now find the external drive

3: put in your xp disc and then select upgrade .

it will copy everything over prior to its reboot and should finalise the install even though the external drive is not visible until full boot



also if it is an older laptop it may not be sending the required power to the cd so it may need its external power connected

[gavpk]

also have a look here

[mickc]

partition magic or norton ghost will split the drive for you
c and d drive d drive needs about a gig and copy the contents of xp to d
you may need sp2 version then via comand prompt find d:/i386 then setup or update?
or you could install me via usb/hdd and that will have all usb drivers and then install xp by external usb cd drive

[z80]

have a look here mate, this should be useful for you.


apologies to the Non-premium members for this link...NOT

[me_ashman]

it sounds like a very old and probably by now cheap laptop. Toss it...let it go find something cheap and more useful. Just kidding, you'll be right.

[z80]

Check the bios for boot device options.

A manufacturer of laptops without an optical drive needs to allow for it for exactly your situation.