XP Home Install on olderToshiba Laptop

[C J.]

My 2nd system is a Toshiba Satellite 2805-S202 that was originally built to
run either Win2000 pro or Windows ME. I am presently running Ubuntu 7.04
Linux on it, but I would like to install and run a Retail copy of XP Home
Edition I've purchased on it. It has a 770 Mhz Intel processor and 256 mb
of Ram installed with a 60GB harddrive and CD/DVD rom drive, built in modem,
lan, usb. The maximum amount of Ram I can install is 384MB.

Most Toshiba forums I've been to, seem to believe that attempting an
installation of XP on a laptop this old is a waste of time, I beg to differ
with them. Anyone here with Toshiba expertise have any advice or
suggestions?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

My 2nd system is a Toshiba Satellite 2805-S202 that was originally
built to run either Win2000 pro or Windows ME. I am presently
running Ubuntu 7.04 Linux on it, but I would like to install and
run a Retail copy of XP Home Edition I've purchased on it. It has
a 770 Mhz Intel processor and 256 mb of Ram installed with a 60GB
harddrive and CD/DVD rom drive, built in modem, lan, usb. The
maximum amount of Ram I can install is 384MB.
Most Toshiba forums I've been to, seem to believe that attempting
an installation of XP on a laptop this old is a waste of time, I
beg to differ with them. Anyone here with Toshiba expertise have
any advice or suggestions?

The Toshiba forum would be where I would suggest going in the first place.

Does Toshiba even offer drivers for this model for Windows XP?
If not - then the Toshiba Forum responders are likely right... You might
get it installed and you might get lucky and all the drivers will be in
Windows XP itself (doubtful) or a third-party option might be available
(video/nic - maybe - sound - possibly but less likely, chipset and others -
who knows...)

It'll run - albeit with the RAM limit - a little slower than one would
like - although turning off the XP bells and whictles might get you going to
a tolerable speed. The question is, really - will all the parts of it work
as expected? Hardware drivers are a big thing - particularly with laptops -
and if you don't have the right ones - it may well be more trouble than it
is worth.

My suggestion...

- Image the machine as it stands now (working with whatever OS...)
- Install CLEAN - Windows XP Home...
- Install all the hardware drivers you are missing from Device manager that
you can...
- Update with the latest OS security updates/patches (not drivers) from
windowsupdate.microsoft.com

Come back and let us know how it went.
Worst case - you restore to the image you made before trying all this.

Symantec/Norton Ghost
http://snipurl.com/13e00

Acronis True Image
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

BootIt™ NG
http://terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html

 

[C J.]

The Toshiba forum would be where I would suggest going in the first
place.
Does Toshiba even offer drivers for this model for Windows XP?
If not - then the Toshiba Forum responders are likely right... You
might get it installed and you might get lucky and all the drivers
will be in Windows XP itself (doubtful) or a third-party option might
be available (video/nic - maybe - sound - possibly but less likely,
chipset and others - who knows...)

It'll run - albeit with the RAM limit - a little slower than one would
like - although turning off the XP bells and whictles might get you
going to a tolerable speed. The question is, really - will all the
parts of it work as expected? Hardware drivers are a big thing -
particularly with laptops - and if you don't have the right ones - it
may well be more trouble than it is worth.

My suggestion...

- Image the machine as it stands now (working with whatever OS...)
- Install CLEAN - Windows XP Home...
- Install all the hardware drivers you are missing from Device
manager that you can...
- Update with the latest OS security updates/patches (not drivers)
from windowsupdate.microsoft.com

Come back and let us know how it went.
Worst case - you restore to the image you made before trying all this.

Symantec/Norton Ghost
http://snipurl.com/13e00

Acronis True Image
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

BootIt™ NG
http://terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html

Thx Shenan.

 

[C J.]

Thx Shenan.

Heres an update. I thought I had a full retail version of home.. It turns
out the idiot who took my order sent me an Upgrade CD instead. I did a
clean install, and used a Win 98 CD to qualify for upgrade, and it installed
normally. No one was more surprised than I was when I got out onto the
desktop, and had a look in Device Manager. "All my ducks were in a row"
Here I figured I was going to have to download some drivers, but the Home Ed
Update CD must of had everything the Laptop needed.

I plan to image this drive in the morning.