Help: How to load hard drive to install Win2000 w/o CDrom or floppy

[Kwad Guy]

Here's the dilemma:

I have a computer that has neither CDrom nor floppy to
which I would like to install Win2000. My idea was to
simply copy the entire contents of the Win2000 CDrom
to a subdirectory of the hard drive, on a computer that
has normal features, copy system files to that hard drive,
set the partition active and primary, then move the drive
to the computer without CDrom and floppy, boot, then
run setup.exe.

Unfortunately, you can't run setup.exe from DOS. So this
doesn't work...WHat do I need to do to set up the hard
drive so that it will install the minimal necessary files
so that I can then issue the "install" command and have
Win2000 install on the no CD no floppy machine?

Thanks,

Kwad

 

[murdock2525]

You won !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thats the goofiest thing I've heard this month !
Take your drive out. Go to a machine that has 2000 installed ...set your drive as a slave and do a c: copy. You'll get all his goodies in the process too.But you can fool with that later.
Or ??? Cough up $25 for a cdrom and plug it in to the motherboard untill you're installed..
You do have a motherboard ??????

 

[Kwad Guy]

Hey...

I know all about cloning the drive, but this is for a computer
that is going to be used for a dedicated purpose and needs
to be up as close to 24/7 as possible. So I want as
little crap on there as possible. That's why I want/need to do
a clean install.

And I have TONS of CDroms and floppies lying about. The problem is,
this a Compaq IPAQ desktop computer, and the only CDrom/floppy
it takes is an Armada laptop bay. Those I don't have...

Hence the problem!

Kwad

 

[l0pher]

Maybe attach it to a computer Win95, clone it. Copy Win2k CD-ROM to drive and run setup to upgrade?

 

[fishingeek]

Take your harddrive and put it in the old computer. Take that computers harddrive and and do a clean install then change the harddrives back. Or just take the CD out of the old computer and put it in the new one just to install Windows.

 

[PELarson]

The only possibility I can think of is too remove the hard drive install win2000 on another machine, collect all the drivers, and the HAL, etc. and run SYSPREP 1.1. This will take some trial and error to perfect the install. Unless, you have access to another iPaq that either matches or closely matches the one you have.

 

[Kwad Guy]

The problem here is that the iPaq computer to which this is going
to be installed uses a non-standard IDE interface so I can't use
a CDrom on that machine, and I can't use a floppy drive on that
machine. Simple as that...I can ONLY install files on the hard
drive on another computer, put the hard drive back in the iPaq and
boot...If someone could point me in the direction of how to
make it possible to run the setup.exe file in the win2000 directory
under DOS, that would do it! (Basic DOS boot doesn't support running
setup.exe).

Kwad

 

[PELarson]

See my revised response. A lot more work but it might work.

 

[Shuja]

Hi
It is strange how could you be able to copy WIN2K files on your HDD without CDROM, still if any how you ahve copied the entire content of the WIN2K Installation CD, then you need not to worry about setup. Because you are absolutely able to install WIN 2K through DOS. In win2K directory go to i386 directory, type winnt /b, i.e C:\win2k\I386>winnt /b, and see the result. here remember the win2k is directory where you have copied all WIN2K setup files.

 

[Kwad Guy]

Hi Shuja:

Thanks...The the info I was looking for...I was able to copy
the install CD onto the hard drive by taking the hard drive out
of the iPaq and putting it in a normal computer...(This legacy
free stuff sounds all well and good, but what a friggin' pain
in reality...Oh well, at least the computer looks kinda cool...
Now if I could just figure out how to get access to the motherboard
to upgrade the processor...!)

Thanks again for all help,

Kwad

 

[ndee]

start instead of SETUP.exe, WINNT.exe

 

[Shuja]

Hi
Thanks for your rep. at present what processor you own, and what do you mean by upgrade explain first. whether you don not know the location of you processor or else??

 

[dowxp]

type winnt in the i386 folder

 

[Kwad Guy]

Howdy:

The machine came with a PIII 500Mhz chip. The 810e board supports
at least a 733Mhz chip with the Compaq BIOS (not telling if anything
better than that will be supported by the BIOS).

I know where the chip is and where the motherboard is. The problem
is that the machine is not constructed in a way that makes it
easy (or at least obvious) how to gain access to the motherboard.
There's a metal cage around the motherboard, and it seems
you need to remove most of the rest of the (plastic) case to get
to it, but I can't figure out how to get the plastic case off
without breaking it...This will all make sense if you have one of
these, and not otherwise!

Kwad

 

[dowxp]

um, did win2k install work at least?