windows 98se laptop installation

[TekEmperor]

i have a laptop with a shared slot for cdrom/floppy. normally that wouldn't be a problem, but its BIOS doesn't support booting from cd. there's no OS on it right now. i can boot from floppy no problem, but i can't access the cdrom drive to install windows because the cdrom drive couldn't be found while the floppy was there. but if the floppy wasn't there, i couldn't boot. (it's a chicken/egg thing). anyway, is it possible to run through the cdrom detection without a floppy? (copying the floppy to C: after making it bootable doesn't work, a:\ is hardcoding in a few places i can't find)

[John Prophet]

one of those weird laptop problems.

An unrelated way to fix this might be to take the hard drive out and take it to another machine and put the cab on it, then bring it back and boot off floppy and go from there.

Unless there is some way to boot off of a usb floppy??

[Marvinator]

Most systems with swappable Floppy/CDRom drives have the El Torito system for booting from a CDRom. Go through the BIOS again and carefully read the options. It may not say "CDROM" as the option but may say "REMOVEABLE DEVICES" or even something else. Look for a setting OTHER than Floppy and try each one. One of them may be the right one.

Now, that said, let's examine how you can get the OS installed should you discover that there really isn't any option that will work above.

This may be a difficult workaround, but could help you get the system installed.

1) Install Dos on the hard drive using Floppy disks. Now your Hard drive will boot. You will need to have the CD Rom driver for dos (www.driverguide.com).

2) Boot to the Hard Drive and Copy the cab files from the CD to the hard drive.

3) Boot to a bootable floppy and install the OS from the hard drive being careful NOT to allow it to format the hard drive.

[catbizz]

Similar problem but not quite. My laptop is an older model that has only a floppy. I also have a SCSI cd-rom atch. I am unable to boot with the floppy and can't seem to format the hard disk at all. I am stumped. But then not a big leap, I'm easily stumpable.

Dell Latitude XPI
20GB hd - new
OS - W98se (someday-I hope)

Got any ideas guys?

[John Prophet]

Personally I think I would just take out the hard drive and go to another machine and use that machine to put the W98se cab files on the hard drive.

You'd need a 3.5" to 2.5" ide adapter.

[catbizz]

Would I do that simply by putting the HD in another laptop and inserting the 98se bootdisk?
I am really a novice in this stuff and would really prefer a
1)
2)
3) list of what to do. Woe is me.