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re: Re-install w/o CD, have USB pen and setup/boot floppies Sunday, December 30, 2007 at 5:08 pm Posted by Jim O'Calaghan (264 messages posted) Is this a trick question? Why in god's name would you want to install anything on a laptop without a cd drive? even if you could, which you cant. You need the 2k cd. Jim On Sunday, December 30, 2007 at 3:25 pm, Peter Van Aken wrote: >I lost the password for an old dell laptop running W2KPro. The CD drive does not >work. I only have a USB pen drive with W2KPro on it and four setup/boot floppies >for W2K (A-drive does work). Can I re-install from the pen drive? [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Re-install w/o CD, have USB pen and setup/boot floppies Sunday, December 30, 2007 at 7:53 pm Posted by DEX (11847 messages posted) Dealing with Unwanted Spyware and Parasites Click Here You behind a rock and a hard place.. 1st. the files that are on the pen drive can be put on a boot type cd ,but win2k needs it that way b/4 you can repair or reinstall ... You can download software to recover the password or change it. But the bottom line is the CD rom must be replace b/4 you do anything, most programs now days come on cd's. And like JIm said you can't install from the pen drive,it's a USB item and windows loads up the USB ports the norm. Good LUck Are you a wood worker ?,if so Click Here On Sunday, December 30, 2007 at 3:25 pm, Peter Van Aken wrote: >I lost the password for an old dell laptop running W2KPro. The CD drive does not >work. I only have a USB pen drive with W2KPro on it and four setup/boot floppies >for W2K (A-drive does work). Can I re-install from the pen drive? [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Re-install w/o CD, have USB pen and setup/boot floppies Sunday, December 30, 2007 at 8:12 pm Posted by Jerry (934 messages posted) "You need the 2k cd." Well, maybe you do, and maybe you don't. I've installed Win2K on machines without a CDROM before using a parallel-port ZIP drive to transfer the files. I used a DOS-boot floppy disk to format the hard drive with FAT-32, and loaded the DOS system files onto the hard drive. Then I used Iomega's free GUEST.EXE driver loader (on a floppy) to load the necessary drivers for the parallel-port ZIP drive. You need all the files in the I386 folder on the Win2K install CD, but nothing else. (You may have these files on your USB stick.) Once the I386 folder is on your hard drive, reboot and let the computer bring itself up in the DOS you put on the hard drive. Then, Change Directories and put yourself in the C:\WINNT folder. Start your installation with the WINNT.EXE file. Jerry [Reply or follow-up to this message] Another way to do this Sunday, December 30, 2007 at 9:15 pm Posted by DNA (553 messages posted) You could remove the hard drive from the laptop and use an IDE(2.5")-to-USB adapter (or a 2.5" IDE-drive external USB enclosure) to connect the 2.5" drive to a desktop. The adapter or enclosure is worth having around anyway, because you can retrieve your data from the laptop's drive if Windows won't start, or if the laptop gets damaged. The enclosure is even better, because you can put another hard drive in it, and use it for general backup/file transfer purposes! When the drive is connected to the desktop, you can retreive any of your old data off of it. If the drive is less than 32 binary GB (usually the case on older laptops), you can format the drive as FAT32 from within Win 2K/XP, without 3rd party software. Then, copy Setup.exe and the i386 folder to the root directory of the laptop drive. If you need to install SP4 separately, you can copy W2KSP4_EN.EXE to C: as well. Reinstall the drive in the laptop, and boot with your Setup floppy disk. Go to C: , then type DIR, to make sure that Setup and the i386 folder are seen in C: by your Setup disk. Then you can run Setup from that point. I've installed 98 and XP to my laptop in this manner, because Setup runs much faster when the installation files are on a hard drive (vs. optical), and you save wear on the optical drive. On my desktop, I partitioned my laptop's new 120 GB drive into 3 partitions (with Partition Magic 7), copied the Windows 98 CD's Win98 folder to C:, copied the XP Pro's Setup.exe and i386 folder to E:, and I was good to go! (I converted E: to NTFS after XP was installed) I've hardly ever used the optical drive in my laptop! I used external hard drives connected to a USB 2.0 PC card to install virtually all of the programs on that laptop (I did have to install the Maximus Decim Generic USB drivers for Win98SE from a CD-RW, but once that was installed, I could use my external hard drives!) I'd have to say that once you have Win2K SP4 installed, you won't really 'need' an onboard optical drive. With SP4's generic USB driver, you could install most programs from a USB flash drive/hard drive, and you could also use an external optical drive! ----------------------------------------------------------- Athlon 3000+ 939 - 1GB RAM = 98SE (@768 MB RAM) & XP Pro SP2 Athlon 4000+X2 AM2 - 3GB RAM = 2000 SP4 & XP Pro SP2 IBM ThinkPad PIII 933 - 512 MB RAM = 98SE & XP Pro SP2 Windows 2000 Server in the basement [Reply or follow-up to this message] Who needs an onboard CD drive on a laptop? Sunday, December 30, 2007 at 10:54 pm Posted by DNA (553 messages posted) Why in God's name would you want to install anything on a laptop without a CD drive? **************************************** If the laptop is otherwise functional, why not? (A lot of the new 'ultra-light' laptops have no onboard optical drive!) When you're in a public place web-surfing on their Wi-Fi, the odds are that you're not using your optical drive (which would shorten your battery life, anyway!) .... If you're in a hotel room, then it's no problem to use an external optical drive. I do. My IBM's onboard 8× DVD burner isn't as fast as my external DVD burner (I was using 8×-speed DVD+RW discs to back up my vacation pictures, and my IBM's burner only handles up to 4× for DVD+RW discs). Also, I'd rather put the 'wear and tear' on the standard 5¼" size DVD burner in my enclosure, because regular 5¼" desktop DVD burners are cheaper, faster (and much easier to find!) than 'proprietary' (ie: IBM-form) laptop DVD burners! My post below details how I installed 98 and XP to my laptop, without using its optical drive. I downloaded ALL of the drivers, for both O.S.'es, from IBM's websites. Honestly, the only program that I installed from a CD was the Maximus Decim Generic USB driver for 98SE, only because I forgot to copy that .exe installer to the new 120 GB drive while it was connected to my desktop (I did copy all of the IBM drivers to that drive's "D:" partition, and I keep them on there in case any get corrupted or missing) SO, unless you just "have to" be able to play CD's/DVD's while you're in the coffee shop, or install programs from a CD while you're eating dinner, I'd say an external optical drive would adequately cover the 'need' for a CD drive (especially on newer laptops than can boot from a USB device!). ----------------------------------------------------------- Athlon 3000+ 939 - 1GB RAM = 98SE (@768 MB RAM) & XP Pro SP2 Athlon 4000+X2 AM2 - 3GB RAM = 2000 SP4 & XP Pro SP2 IBM ThinkPad PIII 933 - 512 MB RAM = 98SE & XP Pro SP2 Windows 2000 Server in the basement [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Another way to do this Monday, December 31, 2007 at 3:23 am Posted by DEX (11847 messages posted) Dealing with Unwanted Spyware and Parasites Click Here that's true for most PC's but because it's laptop and the hardware is very proprietary win2k will not have the right drivers to load up most of the hardware.. The screen driver for just one of many,it will pop up a screen but it will not have the drivers for the modem or the lan card so getting them off the net will be a real pain. That's why most laptops come with a recovery disk. ============== Are you a wood worker ?,if so Click Here On Sunday, December 30, 2007 at 9:15 pm, DNA wrote: >You could remove the hard drive from the laptop and use an IDE(2.5")-to-USB adapter >(or a 2.5" IDE-drive external USB enclosure) to connect the 2.5" drive to a desktop. > >The adapter or enclosure is worth having around anyway, because you can retrieve >your data from the laptop's drive if Windows won't start, or if the laptop gets damaged. >The enclosure is even better, because you can put another hard drive in it, and use >it for general backup/file transfer purposes! > >When the drive is connected to the desktop, you can retreive any of your old data >off of it. If the drive is less than 32 binary GB (usually the case on older laptops), >you can format the drive as FAT32 from within Win 2K/XP, without 3rd party software. >Then, copy Setup.exe and the i386 folder to the root directory of the >laptop drive. If you need to install SP4 separately, you can copy W2KSP4_EN.EXE to >C: as well. > >Reinstall the drive in the laptop, and boot with your Setup floppy disk. Go to C: >, then type DIR, to make sure that Setup and the i386 folder are seen in C: by your >Setup disk. Then you can run Setup from that point. > >I've installed 98 and XP to my laptop in this manner, because Setup runs much faster >when the installation files are on a hard drive (vs. optical), and you save wear >on the optical drive. > [Reply or follow-up to this message] Sorry, DEX, I'll clarify.... Monday, December 31, 2007 at 7:47 am Posted by DNA (553 messages posted) I should have noted that I downloaded all of the IBM drivers (onboard video, chipset, LAN, modem, etc.) to my desktop first, then I copied them to the laptop drive's second ("D:") partition while it was still connected to the desktop. I keep those drivers backed up on my desktop, the laptop, and on external hard drives. I haven't had any problem getting laptop drivers online from IBM or DELL (to name two). I don't have a 'recovery' CD for my ThinkPad, but I don't need one. The drivers online are likely more up-to-date than those for the CD, so you should search for drivers at the Mfr's website, before using a recovery CD. If you did need to use drivers from a recovery CD, you could usually use a desktop to transfer them to an external flash/hard drive. So, yes, to install an O.S. and programs to a laptop with no onboard CD drive, you do have to have access to a desktop computer, the ability to remove/replace your laptop hard drive, and the means to connect the drive to the desktop (HD Interface-to-USB adapter, or 2.5" drive enclosure). -------------------------------------------------------------- Athlon 3000+ 939 - 1GB RAM = 98SE (@768 MB RAM) & XP Pro SP2 Athlon 4000+X2 AM2 - 3GB RAM = 2000 SP4 & XP Pro SP2 IBM ThinkPad PIII 933 - 512 MB RAM = 98SE & XP Pro SP2 Windows 2000 Server in the basement [Reply or follow-up to this message] To answer your "install from pen drive" question Monday, December 31, 2007 at 8:39 am Posted by DNA (553 messages posted) My neighbor happens to be off today, as am I (New Year's Eve), so I borrowed his Dell Latitude C600 with Win2KPro (a year ago, yours truly installed an 80 GB HD, and did a fresh install of 2K, using Dell's drivers from the website that are more up-to-date than the drivers on his recovery CD!) You can hit "F12" during the first stage of startup to access the boot menu. The boot menu's entries show "Internal HDD", "CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive" (he has a 'combo' drive), "Cardbus NIC", and "Mini-PCI NIC". This is likely a representative boot menu for your Dell. If the USB drive is not accessible at the BIOS level, as is the case here (and not accessible from your Setup floppy disk), you can't use the files on the 'pen drive' to install an operating system. PS: The network (NIC) boot options imply that if you can boot to a network that has your Win2K Setup.exe and i386 folder accessible, you could install Windows from the network, as "Sysadmins" (IT System Administrators) typically do! -------------------------------------------------------------- Athlon 3000+ 939 - 1GB RAM = 98SE (@768 MB RAM) & XP Pro SP2 Athlon 4000+X2 AM2 - 3GB RAM = 2000 SP4 & XP Pro SP2 IBM ThinkPad PIII 933 - 512 MB RAM = 98SE & XP Pro SP2 Windows 2000 Server in the basement [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Sorry, DEX, I'll clarify.... Monday, December 31, 2007 at 9:50 am Posted by DEX (11847 messages posted) Dealing with Unwanted Spyware and Parasites Click Here That's why I use the software from http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ50QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQsassZsweeney0 They have all the drivers for the laptops,,I don't like to use the recovery disk the norm, it puts the same old crap back on the machine.. It can takes hours to find the right driver for most of the laptops ,they use so many types of hardware in them from so many diff .Mfg.and without the right part number many don't work. ========= Are you a wood worker ?,if so Click Here On Monday, December 31, 2007 at 7:47 am, DNA wrote: >I should have noted that I downloaded all of the IBM drivers (onboard video, chipset, >LAN, modem, etc.) to my desktop first, then I copied them to the laptop >drive's second ("D:") partition while it was still connected to the desktop. I keep >those drivers backed up on my desktop, the laptop, and on external hard drives. > >I haven't had any problem getting laptop drivers online from IBM or DELL (to name >two). I don't have a 'recovery' CD for my ThinkPad, but I don't need one. The drivers >online are likely more up-to-date than those for the CD, so you should search for >drivers at the Mfr's website, before using a recovery CD. > >If you did need to use drivers from a recovery CD, you could usually use a >desktop to transfer them to an external flash/hard drive. > >So, yes, to install an O.S. and programs to a laptop with no onboard CD drive, you >do have to have access to a desktop computer, the ability to remove/replace >your laptop hard drive, and the means to connect the drive to the desktop (HD Interface-to-USB >adapter, or 2.5" drive enclosure). > >-------------------------------------------------------------- [Reply or follow-up to this message] Tip: Use one of the [Reply or follow-up to this message] links above to add a message to this thread Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows 2000 Discussion Forum