Laptop, no OS

jthsax87 · #1 July 29th, 2005, 10:44 PM

Ok here is the deal, i have an old IBM ThinkPad and we just put in a new hardrive cuz the old one crashed. we have a boot disk and external flopy and CD drives. we also have the restor CDs for Win98. the problem is... the boot disk works fine but the computer doesn't recognize the CD drive we have. is there anyway around that? i dont know what ups... HELP!?!?!?

Gnome · #2 July 29th, 2005, 11:45 PM

Hi,
Start with this,
Have you checked in the BIOS that the boot order is set to 1. A:/ Floppy- 2. CD Drive- 3. Hard Drive

Also in BIOS check that the CD is enabled.

On some PC's you have to replace the windows CD Driver with the CD Makers Driver (On the Boot Floppy ).

If i'm readiing this right you say you have a " restor CD for Win98 " This will not re-install the OS (Win98) You will need a full Win98 install disk

Please Post Back Good or Bad

**Miz** · #3 July 30th, 2005, 03:15 AM

After booting up with the floppy, what command are you typing? If it tells you it can't find the D: drive, which is usually the CD drive letter designation, try E. Win98 bootdisks set up a temporary drive and usually designate it as D, moving the CD drive down one letter to E temporarily.

jthsax87 · #4 July 30th, 2005, 08:40 PM

i've fiddled with it more and perhaps haven't given enough information...the flopy i have is an IBM ThinkPad Recovery CD-ROM Boot Diskette. basicaly what it apears to do is to set the computer up to take the information from the CD we have... (i also might add that all drives are external). it sets it up and works fine... th en it says to use the CD and offeres only two choices for external CD ROM drives. the PCMCIA drive we have is a "backpack bantam" and the only choices it gives us is " IBM Portable CD-ROM Drive CD-20X" or "Panasonic 783 Portable CD-ROM Drive" we dont have those and im thinking that they are so old... wouldn't be able to find them... so one thing i thought id try... is to just take the hardrive out and put it in another laptop with an internal CD drive. only problem is... the only other ones we have are a Compaq and HP and aparently the Hard drive isn't working with those.... so now im at a loss as to what to do...

jthsax87 · #5 July 30th, 2005, 08:41 PM

gr

GaSTAnk · #6 July 30th, 2005, 10:45 PM

That is strange, unless it's an old hdd it should be fine.

As to the CD-ROM I cannot really help there, other than suggesting you try a normal windows boot floppy, but with strange external drives you may not have much luck.
Maybe you can put a different hard drive in the offending laptop?

**Miz** · #7 July 31st, 2005, 04:42 PM

When you get to the point where it offers you the choice of CD drives, try choosing one and see if it works. I'd try the IBM drive first.