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[theolodian]

You guys are going to think that I am a sour old git after all my complaining lately, but I am getting close to torching my laptop.  Even the shops can't fix it, it is going to have to be sent off.  I don't want to spend much money on it, but I don't want to buy a new one until next year - or at least Xmas.  Then the only choice is no laptop hence my interest in torching the POS!

It is 2yrs old.  Needs a new hard drive but will not boot from CD so can't install XP on new drive.  Therefore also can't use any of the clone utilities I have found so far.  Having to use a PC card for USB ports doesn't help there either.  Can't find a cloning utility that will let me clone one external drive to another.  I can't believe this cr@p is so hard in this day and age.  I keep running across problems that no one has bothered to solve?

[Admin]

Ok, first suggestion is list IN DETAIL the problems.

If it requires a new hard drive, go get one, even for laptops, they are not expensive.
If that is shot, then you won't be able to do anything until it is replaced.

[theolodian]

Cheers,

-Have new HD. no OS installed, and USB enclosure
-Have original XP Home SP1 install cd and new SP2 Pro bootable cd
-USB ports fried on motherboard, have to use PC card USB ports
-Old HD still works, but bearings make an almighty noise if jarred
-Will not boot from CD no matter what.  Even tried replacing CD drive
-Has boot from network option, but not USB
-Everything copied off HD

I'm not completely useless around computers, and I've spent 4+ whole days on this over the last 2 months.  2hrs online with Compaq and no improvement, upgraded BIOS and everything.  I've talked to 3 or 4 shops that do repairs and no luck.

[M-Tek Performance]

you posted before i replied.. doh

[Allenm]

If you have usb on a PCCard, then get yourself a USB floppy drive (£20), boot up from floppy and create 2 partitions on the hard disk.  Then make partition 1 bootable, and copy the contents of the XP boot CD onto this parition.

Boot up from the hard disk and then install XP from there.

HTH

[theolodian]

If you have usb on a PCCard, then get yourself a USB floppy drive (£20), boot up from floppy and create 2 partitions on the hard disk.  Then make partition 1 bootable, and copy the contents of the XP boot CD onto this parition.

Boot up from the hard disk and then install XP from there.

HTH

I do have a USB floppy drive.  I can try that, but I thought that if it wouldn't boot from a bootable external HD then it won't boot from a USB floppy.

I don't get what you mean by the partitions.  I tried copying the CD to the HD while it was in an external enclosure.  All I got was a blinking cursor at boot.

[Allenm]

Use FDISK to create a partition and make it bootable.  

If you were able to copy the files onto the hardrive, but not able to boot, then you should just need to make that drive bootable.  Which can by done with disk manager within NT/XP or if you are in command prompt only, then you need to use the DOS command sys  "SYS C:"   Once the machine will boot of the internal hard drive, you can then just run setup from the XP disk.

[theolodian]

Use FDISK to create a partition and make it bootable.  

If you were able to copy the files onto the hardrive, but not able to boot, then you should just need to make that drive bootable.  Which can by done with disk manager within NT/XP or if you are in command prompt only, then you need to use the DOS command sys  "SYS C:"   Once the machine will boot of the internal hard drive, you can then just run setup from the XP disk.

FDISK doesn't exist under XP?  I have found where to make partitions, but not where to make them bootable.

[theolodian]

I have been all through the help files for Disk Management and can't find any way to make a disk bootable.  Some things seem restricted to 64bit?

I get the feeling that this is one of those things that everyone thinks can be done, but in the end it can't.

Cheers,

Theo

p.s.  Going to ASDA soon.  Maybe I should add lighter fluid to the list.  

[Elite Pete]

It all sounds a bit Klingon to me, if it involves more than the on and off button thats me lost.

[STMO123]

Dont know that much about computers. What I do know is that when I get a new Pc/laptop I make a set of recovery discs and I back up to disc every week.

[Allenm]

No FDISK is a DOS program,  it is called DISKPART in XP and can be found under computer management/Disk Management.  Trouble is with XP is that is does not treat booting the same way.  To make a drive bootable in XP you create an Active partition and the XP will look for the following 3 files :

boot.ini
ntdetect.com
ntldr

Boot.ini tells XP where to load the bootsector. You can do this, but unless you have a (previously) working XP system, NTLDR will just bomb out leaving you no better off.

What I am suggesting is that you go back to DOS briefly, so as you can get on the net etc, I would suggest that you get a boot disk (try somewhere like bootdisk.com) and the use the dos programs to create a bootable partition on your new (about to get wiped clean) disk.

so FDISK - will create a partition (you sound like you already have one so you can skip this)
You will need to format the drive after a FDISK. Use the command "format c:"  

Then from a boot disk (dos), run the program "SYS" and point it to your harddisk ie "SYS C:"

If you can boot from floppy this gets very easy.


Trust me,  this CAN be done.

[theolodian]

Did all that.  Never accessed floppy during boot.  Boot from floppy or USB were not options in the BIOS.

Oh I bet this can be done, but only in exceedingly painful and probably expensive ways.

[Allenm]

Did all that.  Never accessed floppy during boot.  Boot from floppy or USB were not options in the BIOS.

Oh I bet this can be done, but only in exceedingly painful and probably expensive ways.

Put the disk into the external cage, boot off the old disk,  insert the boot floppy and go into the command prompt.

Then within the command prompt.

A: enter
SYS <drive letter of new disk>: enter

Copy the XP files off the CD into a folder on the new drive

Boot off the new disk,  then run setup from the folder where you copied XP.

[theolodian]

Tried that.  Says incorrect DOS version.  I did the 6.22 from bootdisk.com

Thanks for trying to help me on this.  We've tried more than anyone else had come up with before.  Therefore I'm more hopeful, but not ready to really get my hopes up yet.