How to install Windows on old lappies??

[chapmc]

I have several old Thinkpads (486 and early pentium) with no OS. Most have a hard drive with no OS and either a CD or a floppy but not both. I did attach one of the hard drives to my desktop and formatted and put win95 CD on it and that works. But the hard drives are encased in outer enclosures and are a pain in the ** to get the drive out and put it back. I've tried using the floppy from one model on another but they are generally not compatible. Any suggestions? I'm stumped. The ones with floppy I can boot but can't read the windows cd. The ones with cd I can't boot (won't boot from a cd). Maybe pulling hard drives is the only way.

Thanks for reading about my frustration. Please suggest something or perhaps sympathise.

[Scott Tiger]

I hear ya..

I used to have a old Thinkpad with a p120 and no cdrom. It did have a working floppy so I used that and an external cdrom running from a parallel cable to get it working.

Hope that helps.

[DoctorReno]

To access the CD you need to have the MSCDEX.exe file on your bootable floppy. You can find this on any system that has 95/98 or ME. Use Find and just copy the file to the bootdisk. Then the CD drive should be accessable when in DOS.

As far a putting an OS on a old system there is a way I have receintly discovered in an attempt to install 98 on a disabled/handicapped friends old Toshiba. It involves copying the CD's 9x folder files onto a HD, then zipping them, then using a DOS compatable file splitter to break them down to floppy size, then copying the file segments into a directory on the target machine, then recombining the file segments, then unzipping the file and finally installing the OS from the HD vs. the CD.
It's convoluted and lengthy but it works excellent. I will share the method and programs you will need if you don't mind waiting for me to type up the directions.

PM me so I have a way to contact you if you are interested.

[TOAD6147]

MSCDEX.EXE is not enough by it's self. You need the CD-ROM driver as well such as *CD-ROM driver*.sys. If you do have a floppy then the "bootme" generic all Windows boot disk should work.

[chapmc]

Thanks for the suggestion DoctorReno, I hadn't thought of breaking a file up onto multiple floppies. However, I think I would rather disassemble a hard drive from the carrier; probably less trouble than all the floppies.

What about the lappies that only have a CD. I don't know how I can boot them without something on the hd. Perhaps scsi from Pcmcia slot which I don't have. Can you boot from parallel port?

[DoctorReno]

Check the BIOS to see if the CD can be made the 1st boot device.

[chapmc]

No, it's too old.. won't boot from a Cd. I'm just going to have to disassemble the hard drive assembly and connect it to a desktop.