Re: laptop - new HD - no CD or floppy drive

Well, I think you're right about condition "C" below.

I put the laptop HD back in the PC and I could boot from it. It will not
boot when in the laptop.

And as luck would have it... the PC that I have does not have BIOS settings
for HD geometry. It's an older PC, a Dell Dimension 8200. And like you
said, the laptop has NO settings for that.

I didn't achieve what I wanted to but, I sure learned some helpful things
for the future.

Thanks!!!




"Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OWrhJwpBIHA.3848@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
You may see this message
a) If the primary partition has an incorrect boot sector.
b) If the boot partition is not marked "active".
c) If the disk geometry is incorrect.

Conditions a) and b) can be fixed retrospectively:
a) Boot sector:
- Connect the laptop disk as the sole disk to a
desktop PC.
- Boot that PC with your Win98 boot disk.
- Type this command: fdisk /mbr
b) Active partition:
- Connect the laptop disk as the sole master disk to
a desktop PC.
- Boot that PC with your Win98 boot disk.
- Type this command: fdisk
then mark the primary partition "active".

c) is a much more difficult problem. On desktop machines
the BIOS usually lets you select a disk geometry of Auto,
LBA (Logical Block Adressing) or CHS (Cylinder/Head
Sector). On laptops this option is frequently absent. If the
laptop expects one type of geometry and the disk was
partitioned under a different geometry then the machine
won't boot. What's worse is that the condition is not easily
detected. I know of a single program that tells me - it is
an obsolete version of PQMagic.

If a) or b) fail to deliver then you have to start all over
again and do it by trial and error like so:
- Connect the laptop disk as a slave disk to a desktop PC.
- In the BIOS, select LBA for the slave disk.
- Launch Windows.
- Delete all partitions on the laptop disk, then recreate them.
Remember that the primary partition must be an active FAT32
partitions.
- Manually copy these hidden files to the laptop primary partition:
c:\ntdetect.com
c:\ntldr
c:\boot.ini
- See if the laptop will boot with this disk. It should complain
with a message that it cannot find ntoskrnl.
- Repeat the above exercise with a CHS setting.

After you have found the correct drive geometry, proceed
as per the previous posts.

"JohnB" <jbrigan@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OKLU8bpBIHA.5328@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I got further with it this time. I added the config file with the himem
command, and used SmartDrv.
It finished copying all the files, then I get the message saying "Windows
has completed the DOS portion of Setup, press Enter to reboot and
complete Setup"

But, at bootup I get "NTLDR missing".

It seems like this "should" work. Have you gotten this method to work?

BTW - it did install XP to the first partition



"Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23WzEjWdBIHA.748@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
See below.

"JohnB" <jbrigan@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ePKErwcBIHA.3400@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I'm confused about which partition will ultimately be the XP partition
I've got Win98 booting from the C: partition, and D: contains the i386
folder.

And I noticed that when winnt runs, it copies files to C:

I partitioned them the way I did, thinking D: would only be used to
store the i386 folder. (For imaging software, I use Ghost. And I
could fit a compressed image in that 5gb partition.) And, I would like
the final location of the XP partition to be as large as possible.
That was my reasoning.

A 5 GByte partition is too small for an image. WinXP tends
to consume between 9 and 15 GBytes after a while, and since
imaging programs achieve a compression of about 50%, you
need around 10 GBytes for drive D:.

Sorry, but I need a picture to understand this :)
This is how I see what you described in your instructions:


Partition 1 Partition 2
------------- --------------
| | | |
| E: | | C: |
| i386 | | SmartDrv |
| | | Win98 |
------------- ---------------
20 gb Remaining gb

I'll use Himem the next time around, but I have a feeling this didn't
work for other reasons too.
Before I try this again; your instructions say run winnt from C: - I
guess you meant E: ?

I expected you to create the i386 folder on the first partition,
hence the C: drive letter. However, it does not matter where
the i386 folder resides. On the other hand you must make
sure that WinXP installs on the first partition. Do NOT allow
it to go to the second partition!

When I run fdisk, the first partition letter defaults to c: How would
you get it to be E:?
And now that I see that partition 2 is ultimately going to be the XP
boot partition, I'll make it much larger.... like 35gb

Any other suggestions? By the way, thanks for your time on this.


You're welcome.


"Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OqkWRgcBIHA.748@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I suppose you have since found out that smartdrv does
not create a virtual drive. It is a disk caching program
that speeds up the installation process enormously.

I wonder why you created your partitions the way you
did. Having partition 2 at 5 GBytes is useless - you might
as well do with out it. However, if you omit it then you
may not be able to use imaging programs as per my
first reply.

I suggest you give it another try, this time WITH smartdrv.
AFAIR, you will also need himem.sys plus a reference in
c:\config.sys like so:
device=c:\himem.sys



"JohnB" <jbrigan@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uS4vnZcBIHA.1212@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ok, I tried this the first time through not quite sure what I would
use SmartDrv for, and I had a problem ( I know what it is; it creates
a virtual drive from RAM).

This is what I did;
- created 2 partitions; 1 = 35 gb and 2 = 5gb
- formatted both as FAT32
- Sys'd partition 1 (C:)
- the 2nd partition is D:
- copied the I386 folder from the CD to d:\i386
- put the HD back in the laptop and booted to Win98 command prompt
- from d:\i386, ran Winnt
- at that point it told me it could not find SmartDrv (now I know why
it's needed)
- selected the option to proceed without SmartDrv
- it gave me a message saying "copying files to drive"
- and then it stopped, seemingly in the middle of setup. The laptop
was not locked up. But it was still on the screen titled copying
files.

Where'd I go wrong, other than not having SmartDrv?



You're on the right track but you need to make some adjustments:
1. Connect the new disk to the desktop PC.
2. Partition & format it like so:
First partition: 20 GBytes FAT32
Second partition: NTFS or FAT32.
3. Boot the desktop with a Win98 boot disk (www.bootdisk.com).
Make sure that smartdrv.exe is on that disk.
4. Run this command: sys c:. ((assuming that E: is
the first partition on the new disk)
5. Copy a:\smartdrv.exe to c:\.
6. Boot the desktop into WinXP.
7. Copy your WinXP CD to E:\i386 (assuming that E: is
the first partition on the new disk).
8. Install the new disk on the laptop. It should now boot into DOS.
9. Run smartdrv.exe.
10. Run this command to start the installation of Windows:
c:\i386\winnt
11. When finished, convert drive C to NTFS if desired.

With an ultraslim laptop like yours you must take extra precautions
to protect yourself against similar mishaps in future. Get yourself
a copy of an imaging program (e.g. Acronis TrueImage), then create
an image of drive C: and store it on drive D:. The next step is to
copy that image file to an independent medium so that you can
restore it if the disk should fail again (which, of course, it
won't!).















.

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