XP + Compaq Mini installation

[plasma dragon00]

Ok I am at the end of ideas. I have a Compaq mini 110c (netbook), and cant for the LIFE of me figure out how to install xp onto it. Ive tried many ideas and methods and cant get a single one to work.

The thing came installed with xp on it, but all the crap that is pre loaded onto it... ugh I hate buying premanufactured pc's. The thing is slow now so I would like to start fresh. I have a usb dvd drive, and my xp home cd bluescreens when it tries to load. my xp pro cd is fine but it says "setup cannot find any hard drives installed in this pc"

I have tried using Nlite to integrate SATA drivers into the disk (I have a feeling that the disk is to old to recognize the sata controller in the pc), but the modified disk doesnt say "press any key to boot from cd" it just goes to normal windows load.

Windows 7 does detect the drives, but the pc is under powered... intel atom (1.6ghz), 1 gig ram... not gonna work so well, eh... I did xp's install through the current xp install, but when I choose to boot "windows xp home setup" it says "error reading from disk".

wtc do I do -_- the tech support guy from hp said "oh well to install an OS onto an hp computer you need to buy our special disk"

last ideas I have - trying to use Nlite again, or connecting a floppy disk through USB to put the drivers on a floppy and load that... nevermind I dont have a USB floppy >_>

Edit - Burned the img with ImgBurn rather than Nlite directly, and it works! Formatting the hard drive, lets see how the install goes. Case closed for now, I think

 

[plasma dragon00]

Uh oh, the thing bluescreens when booting. Booting into safemode doesnt change anything. What the heck happened?

Edit - I have a copy of Hiren's Boot CD - http://www.hirensbootcd.net/

I feel this will be instrumental in getting the laptop to work.

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/141762-compaq-mini-110c-ris-install-bsod-after-install/ - Same stop error that I am getting, meaning the driver isnt installed. Thing is, i dont know how to install the driver manually and tell windows how to find it. Or would I have to create a whole new boot disk with Nlite?

 

[plasma dragon00]

And I figured it out.

 

[coldice]

Please help

Hello mate,

I was searching google for a solution for installing xp on my hp mini 311c as the installation just doesnt seem to detect the western digital sata hdd but win 7 does as you state in your original post.

I understand you have solved the problem but am unsure what/ how you did it so please help as this is driving me crazy!

These are the things I don't understand clearly:

1) Which Nvidia drivers do I need & where to get them from? I have a 311c 1020ea & it has a Nvidia ION vga card (& chipset I believe)

2) You say you burnt the image with IMGburn insteadof Nlite but where did this image actually come from? Was the image created with Nlite first & then burnt with IMGBurn or does IMGBurn create/ slipstream the image the same as Nlite? Please can you advise on full steps on howto create this image?

3) Is there any chance of doing this install on this new hdd with the original recovery disc created off the systems original hdd (no longer available)? The machine came with XP installed & I used the recovery disc creator to make a set of disc but when I try to recover using thiese discs on the new hdd, it just doesn't seem to see the drive when selecting where to restore the backup so I can't proceed.

Any help will be greatly appreciated as you will understand how frustrating this is!

Thanks

Alps

 

[plasma dragon00]

You will have to do some searching around and looking in Device Manager to find what nVidia products your compaq uses. There is a command line option to unpack all the contents of the executable driver install to a defined location, but I don't remember it off hand.

I dont remember much of how nLite works because I am not looking at it right now but once you find the driver, integrate all of the textmode drivers in the file into your windows install disk. I dont remember whether I burned the final, working disk with nLite or ImgBurn, but I DID make the iso with nLite. Maybe play through a few cd's and find which combination works for you.

For the last question, it sounds like you are gonna need to find the driver for your IDE/SATA controller (whichever the drive is connected through) and integrate it into the disk.