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[JamesV6CDX]

Mate, I'm not far from Warwickshire, and I've spent the last 6 years working with computers - I'm sure I can resolve your probs. PM me and we'll sort something out if possible.

I won't charge you anything.

[Allenm]

Ok, a bit more info on the machine would help. (Bios etc)  But....

Have you tried booting off the the old disk with the new disk in the external cage, inserting the XP CD and running setup to the new disk?
If setup will run, then you will still have to modify boot.ini before you can boot off it, but that is easy.

Other options...

Put the new disk into the external (usb?) cage, take it to a machine that has got a working floppy, boot that machine into dos and format /S  the drive on that machine.

Edit the sectors on ther hard drive and manually create the MBR (you would need a disk editor and patience!)

there are more ...

[theolodian]

Mate, I'm not far from Warwickshire, and I've spent the last 6 years working with computers - I'm sure I can resolve your probs. PM me and we'll sort something out if possible.

I won't charge you anything.

I'm up by Coventry, but it would be worth a road trip if you are sure.  I'll pm you now.

[theolodian]

Ok, a bit more info on the machine would help. (Bios etc)  But....

Have you tried booting off the the old disk with the new disk in the external cage, inserting the XP CD and running setup to the new disk?
If setup will run, then you will still have to modify boot.ini before you can boot off it, but that is easy.

Other options...

Put the new disk into the external (usb?) cage, take it to a machine that has got a working floppy, boot that machine into dos and format /S  the drive on that machine.

Edit the sectors on ther hard drive and manually create the MBR (you would need a disk editor and patience!)

there are more ...

It wouldn't let me install XP anywhere but C:?  My other computer is a Mac Mini, and I am pretty sure that they don't run DOS.  Maybe I can find someone with one.

[Taxi_Driver]

If your still stuck and the orig hard drive still works.

I may be able to help.....I have some cloning software somewhere....havent used it in ages and not sure if ive got any licenses left  :-/

Basically you bung in a pcmcia adaptor in and plug the new hard disk onto the end of the cable.
Then you boot off a floppy disk and tell it to clone your orig disk to the new one.
Then take the old one out and replace with the new one  

I used to use when clients wanted their hard disks upgraded in size.....easiest way to do it  

But reason i mention about licenses was every time i used the prog it used to decrease the license by 1.
I used to buy 10 at a time.

Anyway as i say if your still stuck give me a shout and I'll have a hunt for it

Cheers

[theolodian]

Thanks for the offer TD, but I can't boot from a floppy or a CD/DVD.  I can't find anything that will clone one external drive to another.  I might be able to make some progress if I had access to another computer, but I just don't think that it is going to happen with what I have.  

If I had more money I would just buy a new laptop and be done with it.  On the other hand, I don't desperately need a laptop.  I am pretty annoyed at all the stuff that has blown up and can't be readily repaired.  My laptop and my DVD surround system both went this summer.  Me and electronics are NOT getting along right now!

[Taxi_Driver]

Thanks for the offer TD, but I can't boot from a floppy or a CD/DVD.  I can't find anything that will clone one external drive to another.  I might be able to make some progress if I had access to another computer, but I just don't think that it is going to happen with what I have.  

If I had more money I would just buy a new laptop and be done with it.  On the other hand, I don't desperately need a laptop.  I am pretty annoyed at all the stuff that has blown up and can't be readily repaired.  My laptop and my DVD surround system both went this summer.  Me and electronics are NOT getting along right now!

Why doesnt it boot from floppy?
If it wont boot from floppy and just boots from HD then either you dont have a bootable floppy in the drive or its set in the bios to boot from the HD disk first.
Look for the access light coming on the floppy drive when it starts to boot.....if it comes on then off and then boots from the HD then its coz no bootable floppy on the drive.
If it doesnt come on at all then its the setting in the bios.

Anyhow i'll have a think what its called....been ages since ive used it and forgotten who makes it  
I'll post a link to their website when i remember! But it is a good bit of kit.....and that was 5 years ago!

[theolodian]

No internal floppy.  No boot from USB either so USB floppy drive not active during boot.  If it would just boot from CD like it's supposed to then I wouldn't be having all this trouble.  Been through the BIOS so many times it makes me dizzy to look at it.

[Taxi_Driver]

No internal floppy.  No boot from USB either so USB floppy drive not active during boot.  If it would just boot from CD like it's supposed to then I wouldn't be having all this trouble.  Been through the BIOS so many times it makes me dizzy to look at it.

Do you have an external floppy drive for it thats not usb?

I dont have an internal floppy drive on my labtop but it does have an external one that plugs into an multiway connector

[theolodian]

I haven't seen one of those in a long time!  My 133MHz Pentium from 1997 had one of those, but not my other laptops.

[Taxi_Driver]

I haven't seen one of those in a long time!  My 133MHz Pentium from 1997 had one of those, but not my other laptops.

Mines a Dell lightweight.....bout 4 years old now....750Mhz....no cd drive, no floppy drive....carnt fit...too slim....so all external devices

[Martin_1962]

They do it seems (Dell with out of Sony spec charging circuitry & Sony batteries)

I am dangerous with hardware - great as it stops me being pestered to repair peoples PCs.

Anyway I have a 200GB HDD with a fried board Maxtor Diamondmax 9 (can't find it) anyone able to repair it?

[sounds2k]

well acronis trueimage supports external drives - USB and firewire. Once installed you can then create a bootable CD. If you have access to another PC, you could connect the original drive to it (via an external box if necessary), then backup the data either to an image file on the temporary PC or possibly even to the new drive in another external box.

Reminds me of a problem I had with a mate's laptop a year or so ago - that also wouldn't boot from the CD. I stripped it to bits - couldn't find anything wrong - put it back  together again, then had a final look in the BIOS and found the secondary IDE channel was disabled  

Re-enabled that and (funnily enough) it booted from CD fine afterwards .... worth checking??

[theolodian]

Cheers.  Can't find anything about IDE in the BIOS.  The website for Acronis doesn't say anything about being able to clone one external drive to another or not.

[Allenm]

Theo can't boot this off anything external, so he needs to get a working boot sector on the new hard disk.

Its been a while since I installed XP Pro so I can't remember the options on where you can install, but it should give the option to install in a different location (you did try Pro and not Home edition?).

What Machine & BIOS is it?