help needed in installing OS in my old laptop

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hello
i was trying to fix my old dell laptop L400.
the problem is that it havent got any CD or floppy drives.
i have got another thoshiba laptop and a desktop.
i have connected the hard disk of dell to toshiba and installed OS and put it back in dell. but it doesnt work.
is there any other chance of installing the OS either by network boot or boot from externel devices(usb) etc..
the dell laptop has got USB and eathernet ports.
Help me
kind regards.
 
keshav1209 said:
i have connected the hard disk of dell to toshiba and installed OS and put it back in dell. but it doesnt work.
How does it not work?

I'd do the following:

- connect the old laptop hdd to a desktop PC

- copy Windows installation files (assuming that's what you want to install) to it, to a FAT partition

- boot the desktop PC with a DOS floppy, having only the old laptop hdd connected

- launch Windows setup from DOS

- not reboot after the textmode setup is complete but shutdown

- put the hdd back to the old laptop

- Windows setup continues and starts to scan the hardware etc.

That requires the hdd to be bootable, however.
 
Whoa there,

Taking a laptop HDD out can damage it. Before you do take that advice please could you go into your BIOS setup program and post the details on device security and boot options. Could you also tell us what OS you want to install and what the problem was that caused you to want to in the first place?

In answer to you question on network install I belive RIS is only resident on server systems and unless you've got a copy of NortonGhost and an image of your previous good config I don't know of any other option.
USB is why I want you to give me the BIOS info.
 
My BIOS details

the BIOS details for Security are as follows
internal HD password : Clear
user password : clear
supervisor password : clear

set internal HD password : [ENTER]
set user password : [ENTER](this one is disabled. its grey)
set supervisor password : [ENTER]

password on boot :[Disabled]

service tag :H5SM41S
Asset tag :

processor serial number :[Disabled]


and the boot options are
1. [ATAPI CD-ROM Drive]
2. [Removable Devices]
3. [Internal Hard Drive]
4. [Network Boot]

kind regards
keshav
 
Okay, being a laptop you may have a boot-menu key to press at startup. It'll appear in a similar way to your BIOS setup key. If this is the case, then you should Choose the CD-ROM and launch the XP install from there. You may be prompted to boot from CD-ROM, it'll look like this:

Press any key to Boot from CD-ROM...

The '...' at the end will tick from '.' to '...'. When it reaches the last dot, you'll have reached the end of the time limit and the machine will attempt to boot using another device.

If you don't have a boot menu, then you should follow the instructions detailed above, simply ignoring the related advice.

If none of this works you might try disabling the other boot devices in your BIOS and trying again. Don't worry about doing this as you won't 'loose' any of the devices because of this, you'll just deselect them and they'll still be available when you decide to reactivate them.

Hope it Helps.
 
you don't actually have to boot from cdrom. mitch is correct. copy files into hdd. and run installation from dos. the command is winnt32.exe
 
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