install win2k but cd-rom busted

[DrAsh]

hello,

my laptops cd-rom drive is broken. but it broke after i formated the hardrive. now i can't install my win2000. i have another cd drive, it's an external burner, but i don't know how to get that drive to substitute for the laptop. My bios refuses to look at any other cd-rom except teh one installed on my dell 7000 inspiron. ANY HELP greatly appreciatd?

DrAsh DrAsh

 

[FosTech]

DrAsh,

Are you trying to setup the extenal CD Drive (burner) to work on your laptop to install Windows 2000?
Does the CD Drive hook-up via the printer port or USB?
Do you have the installation disc/software for the external drive?
Is there anything on the hard drive of the laptop? -Operating system?
Please provide some detail and we'll give you some assistance.

-Brett

 

[dilettante]

I'm sure not what you mean by "broke" either. The Inspiron 7000 is a 1999-era machine, so I'd think the BIOS supports booting from CD. Maybe that's what you need? To set up your BIOS to boot from the CD?

If not, you need the Win2K install floppies to get started, or maybe at least a DOS boot floppy with driver and MSCDEX support to be able to see the CD-ROM drive.

The setup disks can be created using a computer where the CD-ROM drive "works."

To create Setup startup disks:

1. Insert a blank, formatted disk into the floppy disk drive, and insert the Windows 2000 Professional CD into the CD-ROM drive.

You need four blank, 1.44 MB formatted 3.5-inch disks. Label them "Setup Disk 1," "Setup Disk 2," and so on.

2. Click Start, and then click Run.
3. At the prompt, type the following command, replacing d with the letter of your CD-ROM drive and a with the letter of your floppy disk drive.

d:\bootdisk\Makeboot.exe a:

4. Follow the instructions that appear.

Then take the floppies and CD back to your notebook machine and boot from the first floppy and follow the prompts.

Good luck, though this may not be your problem.

 

[DrAsh]

My laptop has an internal cd-rom drive. That drive DOES not work. It is broken, useless. I have an external drive though. When Iput up with cd-rom support, it does not recognize the external cd-rom. And when it looks for a cd-rom, it looks at the built in one which IS broken. How can I get the bios to read the external cd-rom and not the laptop one. Therefore, when it boots with cd-rom support, it will install win2000 from the cd-rom. I understand i need win2k boot disks, but I still want to know how to get that external drive working. What if I wanted to install win 98 instead. The same problem. It won't read the drive that works. DrAsh

 

[jabdul]

Do you have access to a microsoft network? if you do, Load DOS 6.22 on your laptop, and connect to the network. Put the win 2000 pro cd in a computer that has a working cd rom and access it through the network. Or, use the setup disks made from another win 2000 pro machine, copy the I386 DIR to a networked computer from the cd rom and when asked for the location of the I386 dir, point it to the networked drive that you copied the I386 Dir to.

 

[FosTech]

Insert the Windows 2000 CD into the external drive.
Use the startup discs that "dilettante" was kind enough to provide detailed instructions to create.
The Windows 2000 installation procedure will detect the external drive and start copying needed files from the CD.
If the external drive is not detected by the Windows 2000 installation procedure, the drive is:

1. Not installed correctly
2. Defective
3. Not supported by Windows 2000

Again, Does this drive attach to your computer via the printer or USB port?

Please provide some detail.

 

[dilettante]

DrAsh says he has a "burner" so I would guess it is USB or possibly PCMCIA-card based. It might be parallel but I have my doubts.

USB support for DOS is as rare a thing as I can picture, I know Iomega offers nothing for their products along this line.

If the machine has network support the suggestion "jabdul" made might be the answer. Even so DrAsh is probably not familiar with DOS networking.

Using a LapLink type product and a parallel cable might work as well, though you'd probably have to do something like partition the laptop hard drive, format the second partition, then copy the I386 directory onto the second partition over the LapLink cable. After that he could install into the first partition from the second partition under DOS by running winnt.exe from that second partition. I don't see any long filenames to get in the way.

This is a messy one to try to cure from a distance.

I would at least TRY plugging in the drive and using the Win2K install floppies - there is a long chance the necessary USB support and CD driver is included.

 

[elass0wyp0]

Have you tried physically removing the cd rom drive then booting up? I know on my laptop (and most I have used) you can take th drive out. The bios should not see it, maybe the external will be detected then. I doubt you could make the external boot, but crazier things have happened.