Loading software on IBM Thinkpad when both floppy and CD ROM are removable

[Gbrooksgeorge]

My friend bought a used thinkpad and because of licensing of Microsoft the Windows directory was deleted. He has bought new software, but we can not figure how to install it. It would be quite easy if the laptop had both the floppy drive and the CD ROM installed at the same time. The Thinkpad has only one slot to install either of these. Any helpfull hints.

 

[Justin]

Why do you need the floppy in at the same time? Are there drivers you must load during Windows setup?


One solution: Format the laptops hard drive, booting from a Windows 98 CD or other such CD that gives you a prompt and access to the disc. Copy the entire I386 directory from the Windows XP CD to the hard drive.

Then, replace the floppy drive, boot from a 98 floppy or any dos floppy for that matter, and run WINNT (not WINNT32) from inside the I386 directory on the hard drive. You are now in Windows setup, without a cdrom.

 

[Masque]

If you're loading from an XP full load cd, it's bootable....he'll just have to configure boot devices in the system bios. Hold down the F1 key when you power it on....it'll come up.

 

[Justin]

If you're loading from an XP full load cd, it's bootable....he'll just have to configure boot devices in the system bios. Hold down the F1 key when you power it on....it'll come up.

... which is rendered useless if there were IDE drivers or whatnot that had to be loaded off a floppy during Windows setup. But then again, he never did say what the reasoning was.

 

[Vigilante]

If by "new software" you mean XP. Should be cake. Put the CD-ROM in and make sure the system boots from CD-ROM. It should load XP setup right from your CD. From in there you can partition and format and everything.

If you have 98SE full CD, that is bootable too, same thing.

Anything older and you'll have to do like Soul Harvester said and copy all the setup files to the hard drive and load Windows from there.

If it won't boot off the CD, you'll have to check the BIOS.

cheers