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jenny
Guest
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 Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 3:06 pm Post subject: How to boot a sick laptop |
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I have a Toshiba Portege Tablet notebook computer
that is supposed to have XP on it.
It didn't come with the plug-in cd or floppy. I had to
reformat and now need to reinstall. It doesn't go into
a setup screen like most computers. You press F12
which gives you enough time to select the boot method
but none work because I don't have cd or floppy.
I tried a flash card and it doesn't see it. I tried an
external cd into USB and it doesn't see it.
If I pull the hard drive and just move some files onto it
while in my computer system network, what files should
I put on it so I can make this whole thing happen???
Thanks!!!!! |
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Davy
GURU
Joined: 30 Apr 2005
Posts: 1862
Location: Nr Manchester. UK
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| Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 12:08 am Post subject: Re: How to boot a sick laptop |
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Hi Jenny,
have a peep here, might be useful, clicking link will open in a new window. http://www.cyberwalker.com/columns/mar01/080301.html
You really need the installation disc with Xp on, once you entered bios you set the CD as the 1st boot device and the hard drive the 2nd boot device, insert the CD and reboot... that should make the machine boot from the CD and will reformat and install. Halfway through the installation you have to take the CD out before the computer reboots as from now on it needs to boot from the hard drive.... so might as well go into bios and reset the hard drive as the 1st boot device... whether you set the CD as the 2nd boot device is up to you... as you will need never boot from the CD again ~ tis the hard drive job from now on.
With Xp you don't need any floppy or start up disc, it's all done from the CD, bear in mind after installing Xp you'll need to install the mobo drivers.
Davy |
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kony
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 5:59 am Post subject: Re: How to boot a sick laptop |
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On Fri, 9 Feb 2007 19:24:08 -0500, "jenny"
<jenny@hotmail.net> wrote:
| Quote: |
"x5" <wsp231-nospam-@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:n93ps2lq6cml47guqn5ttbmkpk1l4t3t1p@4ax.com...> reformat erased the OS!
well you need OS cd XP/ME/98.with no OS
there is nothing you can do. buy an OS or get
linux
if you still have some warranty you cant try to go
were you bought it and get a re-install.
Sorry, you don't understand. I know formatting erases
everything.
I have the OS. That is not the problem. I can put the laptop harddrive
in one of my other computers and load whatever I want on it. What
files should I put on the harddrive so it start up?
|
1) Partition the hard drive into 2 partitions. Easiest is
to determine now how big you'll want the windows partition
to be and make the first partition that size. As for the
second partition size, whatever you want it to be, larger
for more segragated storage/etc or only big enough to hold
the windows installation files would be covered by (rounding
up some) 600MB.
2) Format both as FAT32. You can later choose NTFS for
your windows installation, but for the time being, both as
FAT32.
3) Make the first partition bootable. You can do this when
you format with the "format /s" command, or later with "sys
L:", subsituting the correct letter for the first partition
for the "L".
4) Get himem.sys & smartdrv.exe from wherever you need to,
Google will find them, or they'd be on an old DOS/Win9x boot
floppy. Copy those to the first laptop HDD partition.
5) Create two text files on the first partition as
autoexec.bat & config.sys
Autoexect.bat contains the line (text, edit with notepad
then save it):
smartdrv.exe
Config.sys contains the line (text, edit with notepad &
save):
device=himem.sys
Now with these files added to the already bootable first
partition, the laptop HDD will be bootable and load smartdrv
(it needs himem.sys to provide the memory for it) which
greatly speeds up the rest of the process... but you're not
ready to remove the drive from the desktop yet.
6) On the second FAT32 partition, copy your entire windows
installation CD, or at least the /I386/ directory, files.
Now you are done, unless you wanted to also copy other files
to be able to have more access to the laptop later (which is
highly advised), like a modem or network adapter driver,
unless you are sure windows has viable support for the
laptop's networking features built in (or don't worry about
it if you have another way to get files into the laptop
after a basic Windows installation is running). Also
remember that if the driver is compressed in a compressed
format, windows would have to be able to extract it, it
could handle a ZIP for example but not a RAR (unless
self-extracting EXE).
7) Plug HHD back into laptop and boot to it. You should
see it has loaded smartdrv and be sitting at a dos command
prompt. If I have overlooked anything up till now, mention
where the process stops so someone can fill in anything I've
overlooked.
8) change directory to the windows installation files, for
example:
cd d:\I386
9) Run the Windows Dos installer file
WINNT.EXE
10) At this point the setup & installation should start
looking familiar, at this point if you wanted to do away
with your FAT32 partition and install Windows to NTFS, that
option is provided during setup, to format it as NTFS before
copying the setup files to it.
11) Windows setup continues as it had ran from CD,
eventually it reboots and loads to windows setup again from
HDD and finishes up. |
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jenny
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 6:00 am Post subject: Re: How to boot a sick laptop |
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"Michael Cecil" <macecil@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:MM-dnRtZwfa1D1HYnZ2dnUVZ_o-knZ2d@comcast.com...> You need to make it
bootable and have the XP source files on the drive.
| Quote: | First, repartition and format the drive as FAT32. You probably want to
boot up with a 98 floppy on the other computer and do a sys command to the
laptop drive to make sure it will be bootable. Might want to also copy
smartdrv onto the laptop drive. Check with fdisk to make sure the
partition is set as active.
Then copy over the entire i386 folder onto the harddrive from an XP disc.
Put the drive back into the laptop, reboot and it should come up with the
W98 dos prompt. Load smartdrive and then run the winnt.exe setup file
inside the i386 folder to start the XP install. Of course, you'll want to
select the existing folder as the destination and leave the format as is,
for now. After XP is installed you can use convert to change the
filesystem to ntfs.
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Thanks Michael!!! THAT is EXACTLY what I needed to know. |
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Michael Cecil
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 6:01 am Post subject: Re: How to boot a sick laptop |
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On Fri, 9 Feb 2007 19:26:08 -0500, "jenny" <jenny@hotmail.net> wrote:
| Quote: |
"Michael Cecil" <macecil@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:MM-dnRtZwfa1D1HYnZ2dnUVZ_o-knZ2d@comcast.com...> You need to make it
bootable and have the XP source files on the drive.
First, repartition and format the drive as FAT32. You probably want to
boot up with a 98 floppy on the other computer and do a sys command to the
laptop drive to make sure it will be bootable. Might want to also copy
smartdrv onto the laptop drive. Check with fdisk to make sure the
partition is set as active.
Then copy over the entire i386 folder onto the harddrive from an XP disc.
Put the drive back into the laptop, reboot and it should come up with the
W98 dos prompt. Load smartdrive and then run the winnt.exe setup file
inside the i386 folder to start the XP install. Of course, you'll want to
select the existing folder as the destination and leave the format as is,
for now. After XP is installed you can use convert to change the
filesystem to ntfs.
Thanks Michael!!! THAT is EXACTLY what I needed to know.
|
Sure thing.
--
Michael Cecil
http://home.comcast.net/~macecil/
http://home.comcast.net/~safehex/
http://home.comcast.net/~macecil/hackingvista/ |
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jenny
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 6:03 am Post subject: Re: How to boot a sick laptop |
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"x5" <wsp231-nospam-@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:n93ps2lq6cml47guqn5ttbmkpk1l4t3t1p@4ax.com...> reformat erased the OS!
| Quote: |
well you need OS cd XP/ME/98.with no OS
there is nothing you can do. buy an OS or get
linux
if you still have some warranty you cant try to go
were you bought it and get a re-install.
|
Sorry, you don't understand. I know formatting erases
everything.
I have the OS. That is not the problem. I can put the laptop harddrive
in one of my other computers and load whatever I want on it. What
files should I put on the harddrive so it start up? |
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| Back to top |
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jenny
Guest
|
| Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 6:05 am Post subject: Re: How to boot a sick laptop |
|
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"Michael Cecil" <macecil@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:MM-dnRtZwfa1D1HYnZ2dnUVZ_o-knZ2d@comcast.com...
| Quote: |
You need to make it bootable and have the XP source files on the drive.
First, repartition and format the drive as FAT32. You probably want to
boot up with a 98 floppy on the other computer and do a sys command to the
laptop drive to make sure it will be bootable. Might want to also copy
smartdrv onto the laptop drive. Check with fdisk to make sure the
partition is set as active.
Then copy over the entire i386 folder onto the harddrive from an XP disc.
Put the drive back into the laptop, reboot and it should come up with the
W98 dos prompt. Load smartdrive and then run the winnt.exe setup file
inside the i386 folder to start the XP install. Of course, you'll want to
select the existing folder as the destination and leave the format as is,
for now. After XP is installed you can use convert to change the
filesystem to ntfs.
--
Michael Cecil
http://home.comcast.net/~macecil/
http://home.comcast.net/~safehex/
http://home.comcast.net/~macecil/hackingvista/ |
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jenny
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 6:06 am Post subject: Re: How to boot a sick laptop |
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"kony" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message
news:057qs2p53k1oika4cqeq9mtk2ecjl5d5tp@4ax.com...
| Quote: | 1) Partition the hard drive into 2 partitions. Easiest is
to determine now how big you'll want the windows partition
to be and make the first partition that size. As for the
second partition size, whatever you want it to be, larger
for more segragated storage/etc or only big enough to hold
the windows installation files would be covered by (rounding
up some) 600MB.
2) Format both as FAT32. You can later choose NTFS for
your windows installation, but for the time being, both as
FAT32.
3) Make the first partition bootable. You can do this when
you format with the "format /s" command, or later with "sys
L:", subsituting the correct letter for the first partition
for the "L".
4) Get himem.sys & smartdrv.exe from wherever you need to,
Google will find them, or they'd be on an old DOS/Win9x boot
floppy. Copy those to the first laptop HDD partition.
5) Create two text files on the first partition as
autoexec.bat & config.sys
Autoexect.bat contains the line (text, edit with notepad
then save it):
smartdrv.exe
Config.sys contains the line (text, edit with notepad &
save):
device=himem.sys
Now with these files added to the already bootable first
partition, the laptop HDD will be bootable and load smartdrv
(it needs himem.sys to provide the memory for it) which
greatly speeds up the rest of the process... but you're not
ready to remove the drive from the desktop yet.
6) On the second FAT32 partition, copy your entire windows
installation CD, or at least the /I386/ directory, files.
Now you are done, unless you wanted to also copy other files
to be able to have more access to the laptop later (which is
highly advised), like a modem or network adapter driver,
unless you are sure windows has viable support for the
laptop's networking features built in (or don't worry about
it if you have another way to get files into the laptop
after a basic Windows installation is running). Also
remember that if the driver is compressed in a compressed
format, windows would have to be able to extract it, it
could handle a ZIP for example but not a RAR (unless
self-extracting EXE).
7) Plug HHD back into laptop and boot to it. You should
see it has loaded smartdrv and be sitting at a dos command
prompt. If I have overlooked anything up till now, mention
where the process stops so someone can fill in anything I've
overlooked.
8) change directory to the windows installation files, for
example:
cd d:\I386
9) Run the Windows Dos installer file
WINNT.EXE
10) At this point the setup & installation should start
looking familiar, at this point if you wanted to do away
with your FAT32 partition and install Windows to NTFS, that
option is provided during setup, to format it as NTFS before
copying the setup files to it.
11) Windows setup continues as it had ran from CD,
eventually it reboots and loads to windows setup again from
HDD and finishes up.
|
Wow, super info!!!
Someone on another forum suggested I just get Live XP and copy it onto the
harddrive and that would be it. Do you think that is correct?? |
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kony
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 5:39 am Post subject: Re: oops, another isue |
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On Thu, 15 Feb 2007 11:31:58 -0500, "jenny"
<jenny@hotmail.net> wrote:
| Quote: |
"kony" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message
news:uc88t2l9jf7mt11ripg4rmb2n8rk34v90m@4ax.com...
Now you're glad you loaded smartdrive so the "wait" is much
shorter. At this point the installation just continues on
as you'd expect. I mean, assuming it IS copying the files
right after it presents that message. If you didn't load
smartdrv, just walk away and have lunch or something then
come back when it asks for more user intervention to setup
XP.
I had loaded smardrv but I apparently didn't do something right.
It is on the main drive. When I started the i386 winnt, it said it
couldn't see smartdrv and it suggested starting smartdrv and then
proceed with setup.
When I had previously tried to start smartdrv, it asked for a ...uh
gosh, can't remember what it is called but it is an extension letter
that tells smartdrv what kind of scan to do. I had no idea. All of
the choices were confusing.
And it did take forever to load but then had an error that it didn't
work essentially.
So now I have to pull the hdd from tablet and I guess put smartdrv
inside the i386 folder. But I still don't know how to run it and at the
same time install i386. Any suggestions?
Thanks so much for hanging with me kony!!
|
Smartdrive is not required to do what you need to do, it
just makes the process much faster by providing a cache for
the files.
The typical way smartdrv is used is to create an
autoexec.bat and config.sys file on the drive you're
booting, and include smartdrv.exe and himem.sys on the drive
as well. Then when the system is booted from that drive,
smartdrive loads automatically, until windows installation
has progressed far enough to take control of the boot
process which it will automatically after it is done with
the first stage of setup and tells you it's going to reboot.
Autoexec.bat and config.sys are standard text files,
autoexec.bat has "smartdrv.exe" as the only line
config.sys has "device=himem.sys" as the only line.
You could specify more parameters for smartdrive but it
isn't necessary, the above will suffice. |
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