GBMUD Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 Hi I have a really ancient P1 laptop here that I used to use for Memory Map in the days before I got my PDA. Sadly I had to replace the HDD and now it needs an operating system. I have W95 and W98 on CD but no way of installing the CD on the machine - it only has a floppy drive. What I need is a copy of Windows on floppy disks so that I can install that and go on from there. A CD would be fine as long as I know what belongs on what floppy disk, I can create my own floppys - does that make sense? Or does anyone have any other suggestions/top tips for how to proceed? Thanks Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troddenmasses Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 I'm sure I have some disks somewhere - will have a look for you now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LR90 Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 Chris, try here: http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm Anything (DOS6.2) that lets you mount the CD drivers will do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBMUD Posted May 22, 2006 Author Share Posted May 22, 2006 Thanks Kier, appreciated. Trev, CD drivers are all very well - I even have a boot disk - but sadly I am without a CD ROM drive on that machine. Should have made that clearer. Thanks anyway. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LR90 Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 Ah. Does it have a network connection? If so you could just create boot disk with network support and copy the Win9x install files to the HD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomG Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 Try taking the hard disk out of the laptop and pop it in one of those 2.5" IDE/USB2 caddy things. Attach to a newer computer and copy Win95/98 onto it in a subfolder. Pop harddisk back into laptop and use a DOS bootdisk, then run the Windows setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBMUD Posted May 22, 2006 Author Share Posted May 22, 2006 No network or USB ports. Tom. Top plan - sadly, having tried it the machine just reports that it cannot find the HDD when formated in any other machine (FAT32 is the best I can do) and although I can start the machine in DOS, I can only seem to create and format a very small partition - too small to save W95 in. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthdicky Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 I'm sure I've got an external laptop drive at home Chris, if you can't sort it and find yourself in Sussex then you're welcome to borrow it. Can't remember what connection it uses (PC Card maybe?) but if not I think I've still got a CD writer that connects to the printer port that would work. Richard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishd Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 Hmm, you can try mucking about with the BIOS settings. This is not possible with a USB hard drive cage, but if you have an adapter to attach the hard drive to the internal IDE cable of a desktop it should work. With the hard drive in the original laptop, open the BIOS and check the hard drive settings. It should tell you how many heads/sectors/etc it is using. Make a note of these. Powerdown the laptop and pop the drive into the powered off desktop. Fire up the desktop and go into the BIOS. In the hard drive section choose the "Manual" setting rather than "Auto" and enter the settings you copied down from the laptop. You should then be able to partition and format the drive and still have the laptop recognise it. This is all because IDE harddrive controllers actually ignore the actual number of heads/sectors/etc of the drive and make something up. As long as both machines are looking at the same set of made-up numbers everything should be ok. If you need a suitable 2.5inch -> 3.5inch IDE adapter then Maplin is your friend. Oh, and a FAT32 partition should be able to go to a reasonable size... FAT16 is limited to 2Gb but even that should fit a Win9x setup disc set on it without trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RocKeR Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 Chris, if you can boot into DOS with a W95 boot disk, you should find and use FDISK to create the partition before you format the HDD. FDISK will allow you to completely clear the partitions on the HDD, and then just create one new clean partition, which you can then format, aslo from the boot disk. Then as trevor says, use the network option to connect to another PC and copy the W95 setup files onto the HDD. I doubt any other newer OS will have any chance on this dinosaur! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBMUD Posted May 22, 2006 Author Share Posted May 22, 2006 Network not an option as the computer has no network cards. The whole thing with swapping between PCs sounds a little beyond me. I will just have to wait until I find the Windows 3.1 disks and go from there. I was running W98SE before so I know it is possible. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LR90 Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 Chris, you might do better to put a minimal Linux on it, three floppies IIRC. It will do all the disk partitioning and you can then use it to uucp the Win98 files across before just swapping out the boot sector. In fact if I recall correctly you should be able to just copy on a pre installed set of Win98 boot files enabling you to do the install on another (faster) machine first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJ101 Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 errr , ye,, right all as clear as mud !!! saying that, am 95% sure there are some floppies with 95 on, at work somewhere, will have a look in the morning Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBMUD Posted May 22, 2006 Author Share Posted May 22, 2006 Chris, you might do better to put a minimal Linux on it, three floppies IIRC. It will do all the disk partitioning and you can then use it to uucp the Win98 files across before just swapping out the boot sector. In fact if I recall correctly you should be able to just copy on a pre installed set of Win98 boot files enabling you to do the install on another (faster) machine first. Linux? Ha ha, it is all I can do to master Windows! I am having to learn OS X too now. Might give it a try if nobody comes up with 3.1. Thanks Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Wightman Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 Chris, as you know of my computer skills I'll not try to help other than to say the laptop I got from the scrapyard runs Windows 3.1. Can it be sucked out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattD110td5x Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 I have a really ancient P1 laptop here.... I have had the same problem with a laptop (i486?) which I have now been able to run win98. Unless your bios supports boot drivers for the PCMCIA port AND you can find some dos drivers for the card in the PCMCIA port, you are fairly stuffed BUT the parallel port can be booted from in a standard bios. You will need a parallel port CD rom (on shelf next to hen's teeth) or an old iomega parallel port 100M disk. - copy win98 CD onto iomega disk (you will need 2) using real computer. - boot P1 laptop with DOS, - load iomega dos driver disk, - copy iomega disks to hard drive, - run win98 setup from hard drive. Share and enjoy.... Matthew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LR90 Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 or laplink and swipe Paul's 3.1 install Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBMUD Posted May 23, 2006 Author Share Posted May 23, 2006 Thanks all for your help on this one. I think I have this sorted now with a set of 3.1 disks on their way. Fingers crossed. Failing that, a parallel CD drive sounds favourite... Cheers Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bull Bar Cowboy Posted May 23, 2006 Share Posted May 23, 2006 Chris, If you are still in need ………… I have win3.1 here ……. the original 3.1 for workgroups is on 8 floppys. You know the contact details Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonb Posted May 23, 2006 Share Posted May 23, 2006 Its all sorted now, Chris discs in post 2 moz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBMUD Posted May 25, 2006 Author Share Posted May 25, 2006 A big thankyou to all who contributed, I have now enjoyed success. Cheers Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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