formatting laptop harddrive

[Ryan Young]

Hi folks. My laptop CD-ROM crashed and Windows went down as well. Since I
cannot boot to the Windows CD from the laptop, I have removed its hard drive
and connected it to my desktop system via a USB adapter and I have
reformatted it. My question now is how can I install boot files on this
drive (i.e. boot files)? I think what I want to do is make the drive
bootable, copy windows onto it, reinstall it in the laptop then boot to the
hard drive and install windows. Any feedback is appreciated!

 

[Pat Coghlan]

You're basically asking if it's possible to create a hard drive version
of the WinXP CD.

I don't think this is possible. Any bootable media needs to be able to
load all the drivers necessary to operate your hardware. While the
WinXP CD has this capability (ditto for Norton Ghost etc.), I don't know
if the entire file structure can be copied to an active partition which
could be used to boot your laptop.

I think you're gonna have to buy a $20 CD-ROM drive, install it, and
boot from a WinXP CD.

 

[Bill Ridgeway]

You need to re-install Windows on the computer in which the hard drive is
installed. To do this -
Install the hard drive.
Put the Windows CD in the tray
Boot up
Go into the CMOS settings
Change the boot up sequence so that the CD is the first to boot up on
Continue to boot up

You will now have the opportunity to re-format the hard drive (NTFS is
recommended) and install Windows.

Regards.

Bill Ridgeway
Computer Solutions

 

[Andy]

Hi folks. My laptop CD-ROM crashed and Windows went down as well. Since I
cannot boot to the Windows CD from the laptop, I have removed its hard drive
and connected it to my desktop system via a USB adapter and I have
reformatted it. My question now is how can I install boot files on this
drive (i.e. boot files)? I think what I want to do is make the drive
bootable, copy windows onto it, reinstall it in the laptop then boot to the
hard drive and install windows. Any feedback is appreciated!

1.Boot the desktop PC with a Windows 98 bootable diskette or CD.
(available from <http://www.allbootdisks.com/>)
2. Execute the command sys x: , where x is the drive letter of the USB
disk, to make the USB disk bootable to Win 98 version of DOS.
3. Copy himem.sys and smartdrv.exe to the USB disk.
4. Boot the desktop PC to Windows and copy directory i386 from the
Windows CD to the USB disk.
5. Create config.sys file on USB disk containing line
device=himem.sys

6. Install disk back in laptop and boot to DOS.
7. Execute smartdrv.exe.
8. Change directory to i386, and execute winnt.exe.

 

[LVTravel]

Where are you going to find a $20 drive for a laptop?

 

[LVTravel]

Read the OP's initial statement. The CD ROM is broken!

 

[visitor]

I bought a cdrom/dvd combo drive on ebay for
$15 + shipping. When i received it was the wrong
type (cable select) instead of the original drive, which was(master/slave). As long as the model is correct you can just reflash the drive with the correct bios. Your original cd drive should have the flash version etc. on it somewhere.
My cdrom model was sd-r2102. Search the net for ways in which you can flash a dead cdrom.

EggHeadCafe.com - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
http://www.eggheadcafe.com

 

[Jim Macklin]

Cable select, master and slave are set on all drives by the
placement of jumpers. These are easy to set if you have
small needle nose pliers or forceps. They are small plastic
bits with metal contacts inside, they slip over the pins on
the back of the drive. If you are going to replace or add
an optical drive, consider getting a DVD-DL RW drive, it
will handle everything, CDs, burn CDS, burn single and dual
layer DVD. Prices are very reasonable now.



<visitor> wrote in message
|I bought a cdrom/dvd combo drive on ebay for
| $15 + shipping. When i received it was the wrong
| type (cable select) instead of the original drive, which
was(master/slave). As long as the model is correct you can
just reflash the drive with the correct bios. Your original
cd drive should have the flash version etc. on it somewhere.
| My cdrom model was sd-r2102. Search the net for ways in
which you can flash a dead cdrom.
|
| EggHeadCafe.com - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
| http://www.eggheadcafe.com

 

[Kerry Brown]

Laptop optical drives are not the same. With most the cable/master settings
are set in the firmware not with jumpers.

 

[Jim Macklin]

You didn't say "laptop" in the first post.


message | Laptop optical drives are not the same. With most the
cable/master settings
| are set in the firmware not with jumpers.
|
| --
| Kerry Brown
| Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
| http://www.vistahelp.ca
|
|
in message
| | > Cable select, master and slave are set on all drives by
the
| > placement of jumpers. These are easy to set if you have
| > small needle nose pliers or forceps. They are small
plastic
| > bits with metal contacts inside, they slip over the pins
on
| > the back of the drive. If you are going to replace or
add
| > an optical drive, consider getting a DVD-DL RW drive, it
| > will handle everything, CDs, burn CDS, burn single and
dual
| > layer DVD. Prices are very reasonable now.
| >
| >
| >
| > <visitor> wrote in message
| > | > |I bought a cdrom/dvd combo drive on ebay for
| > | $15 + shipping. When i received it was the wrong
| > | type (cable select) instead of the original drive,
which
| > was(master/slave). As long as the model is correct you
can
| > just reflash the drive with the correct bios. Your
original
| > cd drive should have the flash version etc. on it
somewhere.
| > | My cdrom model was sd-r2102. Search the net for ways
in
| > which you can flash a dead cdrom.
| > |
| > | EggHeadCafe.com - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
| > | http://www.eggheadcafe.com
| >
| >
|

 

[Ryan Young]

Thanks for all the help. I got Windows XP Pro running on the system, but
man is it slow. Took 2 days to load Windows and now takes 15 minutes to
boot on a clean install of Windows. Going to get the RAM checked to see if
it has issues. Also hearing a click in the hard drive once in a while. If
there is anything more wrong with this, I think I'll sell it for parts.
Anyone need a Toshiba Satellite 1800 for parts?

Thanks again.