Windows Forum

Ask something
Discussion Locked

installing win2k on older laptop

0 helpful
10 replies

by kyleknicks

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

I'm wondering what are the steps in order to install win2k or win98 onto an older laptop where you can't hotswap, either diskette or cd is mounted...and not on a network...

i understand that i would have to bootup with probably the win98 startup diskette..but that means i still have to get the cd rom drive into the laptop to copy the install files onto the c: drive but this laptop is not hotswappable... what should i do next? assume the harddrive is formatted with nothing on it at all....

10 replies

by tdoyle

If your laptop can boot off the CD-Rom Check your BIOS to see if it possible if so you can off Win2k
CD-Rom.

by thechas

Take the hard drive out, and temporarily install it in a desktop PC.

Create a folder, and copy the install CD to the drive.

Place the drive back into the laptop, boot from the floppy, use DOS commands to go to the folder with the CD files.
Run setup.

If you leave the CD files intact, you never need the Windows CD to install devices or protocals.

I use a hot-swap bay on my machine to install temp drives just for this purpose.
It can also be a great way to deal with drives that won't boot.
You can go in and edit the files from a working PC.

Chas

by cdobbin

I'm sorry but some of the answers I see on here are just ridiculous.

Here's what you do, and its pretty darn simple,
install floppy drive and install dos 6.22
edit your autoexec.bat file and make sure the dos drivers are loading for the cdrom and it is accessable through DOS, once it is accessable through DOS you can then install from your cd-rom.
If you end up installing 95 for some reason make sure you copy the cab files to the local HDD, because if you reboot during the install your cd-rom maybe in-accessable, when it wants to copy more files from the cd just point it to the cab files.

This discussion is closed to new replies.