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| Thread ID: 117102 | 2011-04-02 07:08:00 | Laptop OS reinstall - possible or not? | Paul.Cov (425) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1191429 | 2011-04-02 21:30:00 | Thanks folks, It's a very old laptop, Dell Inspiron 7000. 400Mhz Celeron! Don't laugh! It's got a very fouled up version of XP (fouled up by failures in Partition Magic's shortcut reassignment routine), and a working copy of Office 2003. It may be underpowered, but it is still a capable machine for a tight-ar$3 (me) with no other portable options. I'm pretty sure this thing is from an era prior to booting off USB, but I will investigate further. Given its age, it's not worth replacing the optical drive... or the dead batteries... it's simply a working portable device that needs to be used near a power point, coz it's a only good as a doorstop if away from a power point. |
Paul.Cov (425) | ||
| 1191430 | 2011-04-02 21:35:00 | I agree with pctek, most old laptop optical drives that I,ve come across, are just a standard low profile optical reader with custom bits attached to match the particular laptop connection, electrical and mechanical. It would help if we knew the make and model. | jinja_thom (4306) | ||
| 1191431 | 2011-04-02 21:35:00 | Does it have a totally stuffed OS, or partly working ? A repair install is possible if it has the i386 folder. | wainuitech (129) | ||
| 1191432 | 2011-04-02 22:04:00 | I'm pretty sure this thing is from an era prior to booting off USB, but I will investigate further . Given its age, it's not worth replacing the optical drive . . . If it can't boot from USB natively you can probably use this (on a floppy) to boot from USB . . plop . at/en/bootmanager . html" target="_blank">www . plop . at I've used it several times and it's quite good . If it doesn't work you might need to change the 'layout' of your bootable USB drive . A new optical drive might be worth it if you can find one on eBay or something for $5 . |
Agent_24 (57) | ||
| 1191433 | 2011-04-03 01:07:00 | Thanks folks. I might look into getting a cheapie optical drive, as it probably is a fairly generic drive simply sharing the same interface with the floppy. In the meantime, the repair install holds a lot of appeal. I feel I should know the proceedure, but my mind is mush at the moment (too many things to do, too little time). How do I kick off the repair routine? (WinXP) |
Paul.Cov (425) | ||
| 1191434 | 2011-04-03 02:11:00 | As long as the i386 folder is on the drive and not damaged you can do a repair install without a CD or from USB . It may be hidden, so it pays to show all folders to check first . Heres how: Reboot the PC in Safe Mode with command Prompt ,You should then have something like C: documents and settings\your name\ Type in CD C:\I386 <Press Enter> Type in winnt32 . exe <Press Enter> Agree to anything, this will then reinstall windows as doing a repair install from CD . Enter the product key that’s on the Case or on the box the CD Case / Packet the XP CD came in, it will reboot several times this is normal, it will take approximately an hour . when it reboots you will have your Desktop all up and going, you may need to reactivate the OS, that’s a phone call to MS on their activation window, and tell them you had to reinstall from the product key on the PC . Then install all the updates etc . IF you have IE8 installed on the PC, uninstall it first, as it can cause problems with startup after the repair install . |
wainuitech (129) | ||
| 1191435 | 2011-04-03 03:29:00 | Thanks Wainui. I'm now able to make the repair install the second option, as I've found I could swap the optical drive with one from another dead laptop... and so I now have a working CD! My preference is to wipe the drive entirely, as there's just so much stuff that's out of order in terms of files, partitions, registry, and I don't want to be left with any residue of those issues. Might have to image the drive next before I risk mangling it any further. Thanks to PCTek and Jinja_Thom re the optical drive - I'd always just assumed they were custom drives rather than generic. |
Paul.Cov (425) | ||
| 1191436 | 2011-04-03 08:48:00 | To check, plug in a USB drive, reboot into the BIOS,look for boot order, and see if USB is available. If it is, download WinsetupfromUSB (www.mediafire.com) - File has been removed for some violation or other. May be MS forced its removal. |
mikebartnz (21) | ||
| 1191437 | 2011-04-03 09:07:00 | Hm strange, it was there last night - may be the site took it down -- Oh Well, the other link works still, or get it directly from a MS Forum Here (www.msfn.org) - the links open the same previous site. | wainuitech (129) | ||
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