[muttly61]

Hi
Could someone help me try to install windows on an older Compaq Armada 4100 laptop which has a blank harddrive. I have a Win 95 CDrom installation disc & the laptop has a PCMCIA connected external CDRom drive. I have the driver for the CdRom on floppy disk but I dont know how to install this on to the blank hard drive on the laptop. I have tried using an old Win 95 boot disc to get me into dos which seems to work & has allowed me to format the hard drive however I dont know how to get the Cdrom driver to install so i can then load windows 95 o/s via the installation CD. Please help.

 

[dr20]

Hi,

I take it with this laptop you don't have access to the CD-Rom and the floppy drive at the same time? In other words you have to swap to use one or the other?

Either way you will need to edit the Config.sys and Autoexe files in order to be able to read your CD-Rom. Are you familiar with doing that?

 

[Bob Cerelli]

Since you have to swap, it really doesn't matter if you modify the autoexec.bat and config.sys file on the floppy, since you can't put in the CD ROM at this point anyway to access it.

The easiest way is create a bootable CD ROM with the generic CD ROM drivers from a Win98 CD. There is one you can download at http://www.onecomputerguy.com/install/floppies.htm that also has a lot of the basic DOS utils that don't normally get included.

Include on that CD ROM the source files for Win9x.

Then you can boot with the CD ROM in install the OS. You also might want to copy the source files from the CD to the Hard drive and install from there. Then when windows needs and base files or drivers, you won't be prompted to insert a CD. This would be especially helpful if you happen to have the floppy drive plugged in at that time.

 

[dr20]

Bob,

After modifying the autoexec.bat and config.sys files I was going to have him copy them over to his HD along with system files and the CD-Rom driver so he could boot from there after the drive swap.

But if he can create a boot disk that's better yet, only does that site you provided carry the special CD-Rom driver he'll need for his laptop? Even though they claim generic sometimes they don't work if the laptop has a removable PCMCIA CD-Rom.

 

[Bob Cerelli]

Misread the original e-mail and didn't catch the PCMCIA CD ROM. My old Armada just had it where you could swap either the floppy drive or CD ROM.

Also from the post I didn't quite get that you wanted him to format the hard drive and use the correct config.sys, auoexec.bat and drivers there, which would work great as well.

They could also be added to a bootable Win9x CD ROM. I tend to make these a lot because they are so easy to use.

 

[dr20]

Creating a boot disk with the proper CD-Rom driver would be the way to go in those cases where you have to swap drives, then you don't have to bother copying things over all the time. I don't understand why some of the manufacturers won't provide these tools for download to make things easier for customers.

 

[muttly61]

Hi Guys
Thanks for your responses.
I will give your ideas a try and post back the results.