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Calling Computer Geeks

MadReefer

MadReefer

Vice President
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I have an IBM Think pad and reformatted the hard drive so I could reinstall Windows XP; it Win 98. There is no CD drive so I borrowed an external one and plugged it into the USB. The PC will not recognize the external drive. Any ideas???

Thanks
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Now there’s a conundrum. You no longer have Windows and the external driver needs a driver to work.

I’ve got to believe someone will have a solution. I’m a computer idiot, so I can’t help….good luck.
 
Sunny

Sunny

NJRC Member
Article Contributor
Try to check the bios and see what is the booting order. It says something like press F12 to enter setup etc ..
 
lefkonj

lefkonj

Sometimes these puppies will allow you to boot from USB, have to check the BIOS when you boot up for the choices there. What model Thinkpad is it?
 
MadReefer

MadReefer

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NJRC Member
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The boot sequence I tried to change but didn't work. The removable device showed hard drive and CD-rom. Another opt was IGA something that said checking cable and then test failed.

Paul, I haven't done this in awhile and only for desktops, first time trying to fix a laptop.
 
D

duijver

what type of thinkpad? It should say like T21.. T50... etc. Anything with a Pentium M processor, or greater, should support USB CD boot, but it might be listed as removable device vs HD or CDROM since they usually consider CDROM to the IDE (now SATA) rom vs a USB device.

Some of those older systems had a special external CDROM drive that was priopritary (spelling?)..

You can try the floppy disks with the external CDROM drive (with the XP CD in in course).
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=8030
 
Sunny

Sunny

NJRC Member
Article Contributor
What is in the CD drive? Is there a bootable windows CD there? In Bios just leave CD rom in boot sequence and see what happens.
 
D

duijver

also.. i'm not sure how worth it the system is since the battery is probably dead. Anyway, it will probably take some effort.

You could also try a few other methods.

- boot off of one of bart's floppies - http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/

do a network boot to connect to another machine that is hosting the cdrom drive - then run the old skool dos install (fdisk, format, copy to c: then install)

take out the HD and copy the files to the c: drive and just delete every other folder/file on the drive (using an external enclosure) and then boot from a floppy and do an install using the old dos method

go on ebay and buy a $20/$30 cdrom drive for that computer.

:)
 
AJ1080

AJ1080

Because its so old Im assuming the bios does not support booting to usb devices.

Is there a reason why you would take a Win98 laptop and try to load XP on it? By the time the computer gets all of the service packs and patches it will be a slug. If you plan on putting an antivirus it will be even worse. I doubt the computer has more than 1GB of memory in it since that was a limit of Windows 98. Most free antiviruses have a system requirement of 512mb, windows recommended is 128mb, Java is 64MB, not to mention the memory that will be shared by the video card.

My guess would be that you will max out all the resources just putting the basics on to have it ready to browse the internet.


The last win 98 laptop I saw was screwed to the wall in Fridays as a decoration. :)

If you are set on doing this, why not try to install a lite version of linux.
 
Sunny

Sunny

NJRC Member
Article Contributor
AJ1080 said:
Because its so old Im assuming the bios does not support booting to usb devices.

Is there a reason why you would take a Win98 laptop and try to load XP on it? By the time the computer gets all of the service packs and patches it will be a slug. If you plan on putting an antivirus it will be even worse. I doubt the computer has more than 1GB of memory in it since that was a limit of Windows 98. Most free antiviruses have a system requirement of 512mb, windows recommended is 128mb, Java is 64MB, not to mention the memory that will be shared by the video card.

My guess would be that you will max out all the resources just putting the basics on to have it ready to browse the internet.


The last win 98 laptop I saw was screwed to the wall in Fridays as a decoration. :)

If you are set on doing this, why not try to install a lite version of linux.
Click to expand...

Mark

After reading this, I will NOT waste any more time. This is by far the BEST way to put it. Hats off to AJ.

Sunny
 
MadReefer

MadReefer

Vice President
Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
AJ, I was looking into Linux. The laptop originally had XP but for some reason the person removed and installed 98. I found this out by going through the system I saw restore to original XP or something like that. So I hit restore it went through deleting 98 but crashed because the XP files were gone. I was just going to use it surf the web for the wife and son.
 
AJ1080

AJ1080

MadReefer said:
AJ, I was looking into Linux. The laptop originally had XP but for some reason the person removed and installed 98. I found this out by going through the system I saw restore to original XP or something like that. So I hit restore it went through deleting 98 but crashed because the XP files were gone. I was just going to use it surf the web for the wife and son.
Click to expand...

Basically here is the problem.

You need to load drivers for an external drive to work in Windows 98.Being that the OS is non functioning you have a real problem here.

Your best bet is to look and see if there is a BIOS update for the laptop. Hopefully there is one in which they added support for booting to usb. If there is not support for booting to USB flash or as some older systems called them "USB zip" then your pretty much out of luck.
 
shipwrecked

shipwrecked

Mark,not sure if yr interested,when you come for the zoos,I have a laptop that you may be interested in.As most of ya know Im no comp geek.But yr more than welcome to have it for free if you want it.Just remind me when you come.You might have to restamp it or reform it or whatever you call that stuff ya do to 'em
 
J

jsciarrino

if you live any where need me i can fix it for you. im a computer ENG.

I live in hillsborough

MadReefer said:
I have an IBM Think pad and reformatted the hard drive so I could reinstall Windows XP; it Win 98. There is no CD drive so I borrowed an external one and plugged it into the USB. The PC will not recognize the external drive. Any ideas???

Thanks
Click to expand...
 
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