Laptop XP Re-Install Problems...

Hey guys,


I just bought a Addonics External Pocket CD-ROM Drive for my laptop with a screwed up Windows XP installation. Windows will not boot, it just sits at the option screen for Safe Mode and gets stuck. I know why it does that, I had to image it off of a desktop system to test whether the hard drive was dead and Windows is seeing a totally different hardware setup.. Now my problem is that I can't boot to the CD-ROM, which is connected via PCMCIA. The laptop BIOS supports PCMCIA booting, but when I select that option it just skips over the drive and goes back to the improper shutdown menu. I copied the Windows XP Installation CD onto my removable 2GB PCMCIA HDD, but if I try to boot from that I get the classic "Insert System Disk, Press Any Key" message. The one thing I haven't tried yet is to boot this CD-ROM from one of the two USB ports, which I'm going to attempt in a few hours once I get off work (I'm not counting on that working though.) I booted the Windows XP Startup Disks from a Floppy Drive in one of those ports, but it always gets stuck since it can't see the CD-ROM. As I see it, I have two options:

1. Get the removable PCMCIA HDD to become bootable and attempt an XP Installation from it.

2. Make some sort of boot disk that will let the computer see that CD-ROM at startup.

Neither of these options are ones I really know how to make work, and that's why I'm coming to you guys. I have been told that is possible to work both of these scenarios, but no one I know seems to have a deinitive idea of how to do it. I'm hoping somewhere on here someone has soe experience with trying either of these methods. If anyone has any ideas how else to do a clean re-install on this hard drive, please let me know and I will try them. All help is greatly appreciated!
Liquid

 

Forgot to add: This is on a Toshiba Libretto L5 Lapotp. It has one PCMCIA slot and two USB ports. This system is designed for XP.

 

Bootdisk.com has boot disks you can use for booting to dos with cdrom support.

Once you do that, put that XP CD in the drive..
change to the cd drive and type WINNT and hit enter and off you go.

 

Thanks Kodo,

Dp you think it will matter whether I run the CD-ROM off of the PCMCIA port or would it better through the USB? I'm not worried about speed, just a smooth install. Thanks again for the help.

Liquid

 

It won't matter which one you run it off of so long as the CD-ROM is detected. I don't know for sure what the boot disk will find so you'll have to test it out.

 

Hey hey,

Well, after several attempts with several different boot disks, the CD-ROM is simply not being detected at all. I think my only real shot at getting this laptop fixed is to try to install XP off the renmovable PCMCIA 2GB HDD. I am able to get the laptop to boot to this drive, but I keep getting the "Insert System Disk" message. Someone at my job told me that all this means is that I need to put a few key files (boot.ini, himem.sys, etc.) onto the drive and it will become an installer, as I have the entire Windows XP Install disk imaged onto it. Is this the case? If so, what files are the ones that will let me install from this drive? Is it simply a matter of making an MS-DOS boot disk and copying that onto the drive? I have read of a few cases where people hace supposedly gotten this method to work, but no one has really laid down the procedure needed to do it. All help and suggestions, as always, are very much appreciated.