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| Thread ID: 37946 | 2003-09-22 22:20:00 | Laptop with no cd - help please | rocke (4610) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 177148 | 2003-09-23 04:22:00 | I'd be reluctant to advise you to remove the HDD of a laptop and connect it to another computer. Sure it's a "nice" way to load a disk up, but laptops are fragile. They use very thin cables, very light duty connectors. It's a lot easier to break one than to fix it. :-( You'd be much safer using DCC, and a "Laplink" cable on the parallel ports, or a "null modem" cable on serial ports. Then you copy the installation directory of the CD on to the laptop hard disk, and install it from there. It might be slow, but it's a oncer. And it won't do any damage. The floppy way is also possible (just ZIP compress the installation directory, using the "span" option to use multiple floppies), but less desirable. I'd guess that a lot of floppies would be required. :D |
Graham L (2) | ||
| 177149 | 2003-09-23 04:31:00 | a lot of the hdds are user removable. plug out and push in basically. this is how my P3 and my P2 was like. drag it out, connect to a IDE cable, copy files across, reconnect it back to the laptop. IDE cable roughly works the same price as a laplink cable thou.... 2 equal decisions |
nomad (3693) | ||
| 177150 | 2003-09-23 04:34:00 | A lot aren't. If removing the disk drive needs a screwdriver, the cable way will be a lot safer. | Graham L (2) | ||
| 177151 | 2003-09-23 04:54:00 | I have found DCC (Direct-Cable Connection) using the parallel ports to be a cheap and satisfactory solution compared to forking out big $$ to transfer stuff from one PC to another . It is slow, but you're only doing it once, so that won't matter . DCC does not appear to be included with Windows XP but if your desktop PC is also using Win 98 (or anything earlier than Win XP) you should be OK . Like Graham said, what you need to do is copy Excel's installer folder to the desktop PC and then copy it to the lappie via the DCC (or whatever you end up using) . You can find plenty of DCC how-to sites with a search on Google . A couple of useful ones can be found here ( . wown . com/j_helmig/dccmain . htm" target="_blank">www . wown . com) and here ( . lpt . com/Support/DccCommonProblemsAndSolutions/dcccommonproblemsandsolutions . htm" target="_blank">www . lpt . com) . |
Susan B (19) | ||
| 177152 | 2003-09-23 10:37:00 | To Nomad, Graham L & Susan B. Thanks very much for all your suggestions. As a matter of interest, the hdd on the laptop just pulls out so if I can find an ide adaptor this may be the easiest way of loading the software. Hey Nomad, do you know if the ide adaptor will be set up such that it will be impossible to plug the laptop hdd in the wrong way round?. Thanks for the connections to the DCC sites Susan. I really appreciate everyones help. Cheers, Rocke. |
rocke (4610) | ||
| 177153 | 2003-09-23 11:18:00 | The cable, I think u need one of those funny cables. Cos desktop uses 3.5" hdd, laptops are 2.5". Avail at DSE ... To be honest I have never tried, I have network and optical drives on the lappie. | nomad (3693) | ||
| 177154 | 2003-09-24 02:31:00 | I fear that the connector you see when the drive is unplugged won't be the same as the one a 2 . 5"-3 . 5" adaptor will fit . I could be wrong (:D) . . . the one to match an adaptor is a 44 pin one, (2 rows of 22 pins) . . . which is smaller in both dimensions than the 40 pin IDE one . (The extra 4 pins are for power) . If you want to get an adaptor, take the disk into the shop so you can see . As far as idiotproof adaptors go, there's sometimes a key slot in the housing on the drive connector, so a socket with a key ridge can only be put in one way . I've seen floppy and IDE cables which can only be put in the wrong way round . Plastic surgery to cut off the key fixes that:D) . Usually you are trusted to ensure that pin 1 goes to pin 1 . . . (and the pin1 wire is usually the one with a coloured stripe on the cable . ) |
Graham L (2) | ||
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