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09-01-2005, 07:23 PM
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#1 |
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Member (4 bit)
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 11
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Installing XP on a laptop with no drives....
I had a Fujitsu laptop given to me that doesn't have drives on it. No CD or floppy drive. The computer is compatible with XP as it had XP professional on it when it originally came from the factory. It is only two years old. I bought an adapter so I could put the hard drive in my desktop and install a retail version of Windows XP Home on the drive. The OS is new and has not been used on another machine. It installed fine, but when I put the drive back in the laptop, it wouldn't boot. It would boot in the desktop. Eventually I just had to put an old copy of Windows 98SE on the drive the same way, and it booted and works fine. Does XP include some kind of security feature that will only allow it to run on the PC that it was installed on? I'm not going to be using it on this desktop, just used it to install it on that drive. I will be getting a USB floppy and CD drive in a couple of months to be able to install XP properly, but is this why it wouldn't work, or am I just doing something wrong? Thanks.
Also, here are the specs.... Notebook Fujitsu Lifebook B2620 PIII-M 850Mhz 256Mb ram 30Gb HDD The desktop used to install the OS on the laptop drive HP Pavilion a710n Athlon XP 3100 1Gb ram and other stuff Hope the additional info is helpful. Last edited by Gabe1972; 09-01-2005 at 07:28 PM. Reason: Additional Info |
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09-01-2005, 07:40 PM
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#2 |
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Member (1 bit)
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 1
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XP stores basic system information so to try and prevent the copy of xp being used on more than one machine (they call it a protection feature). SO you can only install XP for the laptop, on the laptop. If it won't boot into the XP setup, then enter the bios and choose "CD drive" as the first boot up device.
to try and get XP to work correctly, uninstall every driver you possibly can, before moving the hard drive across. at this point it should autodetect the hardware and reinstall appropriate drivers, thus fooling xp. This isn't a foolproof plan though, and if the components of the laptop and the desktop are overly different, the problem could persist. |
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09-01-2005, 07:52 PM
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#3 |
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~ Ryan ~
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Jackson TN
Posts: 3,516
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It most likely isn't starting because XP configured itself to the hardware on your PC, you would have to do a repair install of XP on your laptop so it adapts to the new hardware. Unfortunetly, to do a repair install you need a cdrom drive to use to boot from the XP install cd.
You might be able to attach an external optical drive and if BIOS detects it, set it as primary boot and from there do the repair install. I am not sure you can clear the CMOS on a laptop, or how to go about doing it, I don't know if it is as simple as it is on desktop pcs, but I'm sure someone in the PCMech world knows how to go about this.
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RiotCats.com, an internet domain specifically fabricated and visually erected for the appreciation of the feline kingdom! |
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09-01-2005, 08:05 PM
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#4 |
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Member (10 bit)
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Edmonton, AB, Canada
Posts: 628
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Just a quick shot here, may or may not work. Partition the drive into 2 logical drives, copy the entire windows cd to one of the drives (copy from the second smaller partition). Then when booting select the second drive to boot from and install on the primary partition, once installed and configured you can delete the second partition, although without a cd rom, I would just leave it on.
Again don't know if its even possible, but worth a shot. |
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09-01-2005, 10:04 PM
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#5 |
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brewer, mostly...
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Laying on the floor, in the brewery
Posts: 1,315
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If that laptop has USB ports you could probably copy the XP disk to an external USB hardrive and installl it from there (if it will read the external drive).
I keep several external drives around for data back-up, security program installation and situations just like this one. -Kev
__________________
Symantec-free zone. To stay malware free: AVG antivirus/antispyware, Malwarebytes anti malware, Commodo Pro free firewall, ccleaner, Windows updates. or.... just install Linux Too many computers in this house to list. They are all my builds, some AMD some Intel... |
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09-01-2005, 11:47 PM
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#6 |
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Member (4 bit)
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 11
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Thanks for the help guys. I am just going to wait until I get the USB floppy and CD drives. The Bios does allow USB booting from floppy, which will allow me to load drivers for the USB CD drive, so until I get them I will just have to deal with good ole reliable W98se. Thanks again.
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09-02-2005, 05:13 AM
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#7 |
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~ Ryan ~
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Jackson TN
Posts: 3,516
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Good Luck. Remember, installing xp on the harddrive will create a new partition and you will lose the data currently on the drive, if you need to back it up do so before.
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09-02-2005, 08:41 AM
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#8 |
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Member (4 bit)
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 11
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I know that I will lose everything, but I'm not really going to have anything important on it anyway. The laptop, amazingly, was just a freebee, and it's only about two and a half years old. My mother's office got all new computers and they just gave it to me. It's not a great laptop, as compared to my desktop, the thing is as fast as a snail, but still, what the heck, it gives me something to mess around with.
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