Reinstall win2k when the HD is the ONLY bootable device???

[mike]

My win2K laptop (Fujitsu B112) has become bloated with junk and leftover
pieces of shareware and I want to reinstall it.

Problem is that the Hard drive is the ONLY bootable device.
I can access external CD/floppy/USB drive from within windows2K,
but I can't boot from any of them.
If I just try to install win2k from within 2k, it tells me to reboot
from the CD, which I can't do.
Is there a way to make this work?

To recap and save some time, NO, there is no other bootable device other
than the hard drive. Yes, I've updated the bios. No, it won't boot from
my usb floppy.
No, it won't boot from my PCMCIA CD Drive.
I have the Fujitsu floppy drive, but it requires the port expander
to hook it up. I do not have the port expander.
I can copy the win2k CD to the hard drive, but I don't know how to
cause it to run from there. It wants me to reboot from the CD, which I
cannot do. Is ther some secret switch that will force it to install
from the files on the hard drive?

When I run norton ghost 9 backup, it copies itself to ramdisk and
reboots the system in some dos-like mode. Can this be used to advantage
to start the win2k install off the HD? I'd just try it, but the system
runs now. Once I screw it up, I'm in for major hassle getting it rebuilt.

Ideas?
Thanks, mike

 

[Pegasus]

My win2K laptop (Fujitsu B112) has become bloated with junk and leftover
pieces of shareware and I want to reinstall it.

Problem is that the Hard drive is the ONLY bootable device.
I can access external CD/floppy/USB drive from within windows2K,
but I can't boot from any of them.
If I just try to install win2k from within 2k, it tells me to reboot
from the CD, which I can't do.
Is there a way to make this work?

To recap and save some time, NO, there is no other bootable device other
than the hard drive. Yes, I've updated the bios. No, it won't boot from
my usb floppy.
No, it won't boot from my PCMCIA CD Drive.
I have the Fujitsu floppy drive, but it requires the port expander
to hook it up. I do not have the port expander.
I can copy the win2k CD to the hard drive, but I don't know how to
cause it to run from there. It wants me to reboot from the CD, which I
cannot do. Is ther some secret switch that will force it to install
from the files on the hard drive?

When I run norton ghost 9 backup, it copies itself to ramdisk and reboots
the system in some dos-like mode. Can this be used to advantage
to start the win2k install off the HD? I'd just try it, but the system
runs now. Once I screw it up, I'm in for major hassle getting it rebuilt.

Ideas?
Thanks, mike

When you purchase your next laptop, make sure to get one
that is bootable from devices other than just your hard disk.

With your current laptop your only option is to remove the
disk and connect it to some desktop PC, using a suitable
$10.00 adapter. You could then do this:
1. Make two FAT32 partitions: One primary & active
partition for Win2000, one primary or logical drive to
take a copy of the Win2000 CD.
2. Copy the Win2000 CD to the second partition.
3. Boot the machine with a Win98 boot disk, e.g. from
www.bootdisk.com.
4. Use the sys command to make the first laptop disk partition
bootable.
5. Copy smartdrv.exe to the first partition.
6. Put the disk back into the laptop and boot the machine into
DOS7.
7. Run smartdrv.exe.
8. Run d:\i386\winnt.exe to install Windows.
9. Convert one or both partitions to NTFS if desired.

 

[mike]

When you purchase your next laptop, make sure to get one
that is bootable from devices other than just your hard disk.

With your current laptop your only option is to remove the
disk and connect it to some desktop PC, using a suitable
$10.00 adapter. You could then do this:
1. Make two FAT32 partitions: One primary & active
partition for Win2000, one primary or logical drive to
take a copy of the Win2000 CD.
2. Copy the Win2000 CD to the second partition.
3. Boot the machine with a Win98 boot disk, e.g. from
www.bootdisk.com.
4. Use the sys command to make the first laptop disk partition
bootable.
5. Copy smartdrv.exe to the first partition.
6. Put the disk back into the laptop and boot the machine into
DOS7.
7. Run smartdrv.exe.
8. Run d:\i386\winnt.exe to install Windows.
9. Convert one or both partitions to NTFS if desired.

Thanks for putting me on the right track.
Turns out that you also need himem.sys to make smartdrv run.
The second partition is superfluous. Works just fine from one partition.

Here's what I ended up doing.
On the desktop, make a dos bootable hard disk.
Copy the contents of i386 to that drive.
Copy all the needed laptop drivers.
Image the dos drive to an external usb drive.
I used Acronis.
Restore the image to the target laptop.
Reboot to dos and install in place on the laptop.
Works great.
Thanks, mike