Installation of Windows 2000 on a computer with no floppy drive support

[tomtomberry]

Recently, I believe that the floppy drive controller on my dad's computer went and I have to install an o/s to the new harddrive for it. I was wondering if it was possible to install the o/s while having the hd as a slave in another comp. If this is a plausable solution, how would I go about doing such a thing? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Joemonkey]

is there a reason i'm not understanding that keeps you from booting to the OS cd and installing directly from there?

 

[tomtomberry]

How would I go about doing that? I changed the boot order in the BIOS to start with the cd drive already. Note that this is a new HD.

 

[spyordie007]

Originally posted by: tomtomberry
How would I go about doing that? I changed the boot order in the BIOS to start with the cd drive already. Note that this is a new HD.

That should be it, the computer should be able to boot off the CD and you should be able to partition/format and install windows to that new HD.

 

[tomtomberry]

When I try to do this, It says "NTLDR is missing Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart".
so yeah.... Any help pleeeeassseeee?

 

[tomtomberry]

??

 

[BigFatCow]

Originally posted by: tomtomberry
When I try to do this, It says "NTLDR is missing Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart".
so yeah.... Any help pleeeeassseeee?

what OS are you trying to install?

try booting up with the HD manufacturers floppy/cdrom and format your new drive, then restart and try to boot off the cd.

 

[Abzstrak]

Originally posted by: BigFatCow

Originally posted by: tomtomberry
When I try to do this, It says "NTLDR is missing Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart".
so yeah.... Any help pleeeeassseeee?

what OS are you trying to install?

try booting up with the HD manufacturers floppy/cdrom and format your new drive, then restart and try to boot off the cd.

Y? don't bother with this....

if its saying that it probably booting off the HDD, not the CD... you have a legal copy right? cause they're all bootable...

anyway, it could be the bios acting weird, so download smart boot disk manager from sourceforge and install it on the harddrive mbr from another system... then it will boot up into it and from there you can boot off the CDROM.

 

[kamper]

not all windows cd's are bootable are they?
if nothing else works could you buy a card to replace the floppy controller?

 

[spyordie007]

Originally posted by: kamper
not all windows cd's are bootable are they?
if nothing else works could you buy a card to replace the floppy controller?

All legit copies of Windows are bootable CDs, that is the reccomended way of installing windows after all.

 

[Nothinman]

Everything since Win98SE (possibly earlier) is distributed on bootable CDs.

 

[kamper]

oh, I've done a bunch of installs at work starting from floppies (and then inserting cd at appropriate time...) and those were definitely legit copies. I was told to do it that way, and I don't remember clearly but I'm sure I would have asked if I couldn't just do it from the cd. Oh well. I just thought something like that might be the reason he couldn't boot from cd.

tomtom: another thought on why you can't boot from cd. what's on the hd right now? what happens if you try to boot to it? just curious because I saw another thread today (and have experienced this myself) about a computer that boots to the hard drive no matter what. erasing the entire drive (particularly the mbr) fixed this for me.

 

[Marine]

Are you sure you're booting from the CD and not the floppy? If you have a floppy in the drive and the machine is trying to boot from it, you may get that message. Do you get the "BOOTABLE CD" message while the machine is running through setup? Usually there's a line that says to boot from the CD hit any key....

 

[Marine]

In fact a better idea would be to spend $12 for a floppy and make the install disks as recommended. Then you won't have to deal with slave to master settings.

 

[jhites]

tomtom

When you set the boot order, set first boot device to cd and disable (second, third, other) boot devices. This will force the boot from cd. If the drive is recognized in the bios, it will format and install even on a new drive.

 

[jhu]

why don't you just take the harddrive to another computer and install from there? afterwards you can make whatever changes you need when the harddrive is back in the original computer.

 

[kamper]

Originally posted by: Marine
In fact a better idea would be to spend $12 for a floppy and make the install disks as recommended. Then you won't have to deal with slave to master settings.

he said the floppy controller was shot (very first sentence), otherwise I'm sure he would have borrowed a drive from another box a long time ago

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: jhu
why don't you just take the harddrive to another computer and install from there? afterwards you can make whatever changes you need when the harddrive is back in the original computer.

Installing the OS onto the hard drive while it's in another computer is a bad idea - it'll be configured to work with that computer's hardware then. It might freak out when it is booted up back in its own PC and sees all new hardware.

 

[kamper]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: jhu
why don't you just take the harddrive to another computer and install from there? afterwards you can make whatever changes you need when the harddrive is back in the original computer.

Installing the OS onto the hard drive while it's in another computer is a bad idea - it'll be configured to work with that computer's hardware then. It might freak out when it is booted up back in its own PC and sees all new hardware.

Although if he doesn't have other options, it couldn't hurt to try could it?

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: jhu
why don't you just take the harddrive to another computer and install from there? afterwards you can make whatever changes you need when the harddrive is back in the original computer.

*cough* bullsh1t *cough*

Just hope you don't switch HALs.

If you don't see a "press any key to bood from cd..." message then you either have the boot sequence wrong or your CD isn't bootable (Pie-rats?)

 

[OffTopic1]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: jhu
why don't you just take the harddrive to another computer and install from there? afterwards you can make whatever changes you need when the harddrive is back in the original computer.

Installing the OS onto the hard drive while it's in another computer is a bad idea - it'll be configured to work with that computer's hardware then. It might freak out when it is booted up back in its own PC and sees all new hardware.

It is alright to start the install on one computer then move the hdd to another computer As long as the IDE/SCSI controler is the same on both conputers.

Compleate install Windows on the host computer till the first boot, then move the hdd to the second computer & finish the install.

 

[jhu]

It is alright to start the install on one computer then move the hdd to another computer As long as the IDE/SCSI controler is the same on both conputers.
exactly. it's easier if the harddrive is ide since the software interface is generic.

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Everything since Win98SE (possibly earlier) is distributed on bootable CDs.

Odd...Neither of my Win98SE or WinME cd's are bootable and they are full retail editions.