WindowsXP guru needed *Urgent*

[ToiletDucky]

First time to post on anandtech so hello to all. Let me now tell you my story.

I have an older but very nice laptop. An IBM 570E to be exact. Nice and slim yet has no eternal bays. I bought the laptop used with win98 on it. overtime the 98 install went to junk. So I decided to install windows XP on it. The system is 500mhz pIII and 192mb memory. The ONLY purpose of this unit is to keep track of my flight logs (i'm a pilot) and Quicken.

I find on-line how to install on this machine that has no CD-drive. I had bought an Ultrabay but the cd that I got for it is busted and the company still won't return my emails.

I take the instructions that I find on-line and follow them to the "T". Windows is finally installing which is more than it has done in a llllloooonnnnnngggggg time on this machine. During the install, past the blue screen part at the initial and into the graphical part where you read all about it while it installs, it says "error cannot find file XXXXXX". Now the whole i386folder is on my laptops HD as the instructions said. So if it isn't there then it just wasn't there to start with or my XP disk has gone bad. I'm forced to click ignore and to keep installing. Several more messages kept popping up. I was forced to keep ignoring them. Probably about 50 of them total. None of them HUGE file names that I would remember or see and freak out because they weren't there.

So the system keeps installing windowsXP and then finishes. When it goes to boot it brings up the splash screen and then on the third time around it freezes. So I reboot it into "Safe Mode" which aparently sucks a fat one.

In safe mode I really don't accomplish anything. I can't get the MN-110 microsoft USB networking software to install because I"m in safemode so I can't get on-line with it.

I've tried to run the sfc /scannow command but end up with

Windows File Protection could not initiate a scan of protected system files. The specific error code is 0x000006ba [The RPC server is unavailable.]

I've then gone and followed the instructions found here for the possible fix to this but in the end it says "if your certificate is missing" but mine isn't.

I don't know what to do to get the sfc /scannow to work. I've tried it in dos and using the run command. My disk for windowsXP is going bad. I get the same errors when I try and do it again.

So my IBM 570E is stuck in safemode where I can't get it online and can't get anyhting to run because it is in safemode. If I try safemode with networking it locks up on loading again.

So my questions are:
Is there anyprogram or anyway for me to find out what files are missing so that I may go and manually pull each one off the internet and just put them on my external HD then plug that into my laptop and put them in their proper places?

What other possibilities could there be that I haven't thought of. I find it hard that I can't just have windows do a quick run to make sure all of the system files ect. it needs ot run are/aren't there. If I can find the files I need to get I can download them and fix this so I'm open to any suggestions.

Thank you guys a buch.
TD

 

[unfalliblekrutch]

have you tried a network install? Pop the disk in on another computer and share the cd drive, it will basically do the same thing you are doing now (copying all the files to C:\i386), except it will be automated

 

[ToiletDucky]

No I have not that is not an option because this is an older laptop. The only way that I can network it is via a USB adapter. It does not allow booting from USB. I don't have the drivers for the adapter and I can't get online with it now. Any "Fix its" have to be downloaded on my desktop, moved via USB exteral HD to my laptop then ran there. I don't know how to find the files that I need to replace.

 

[ForumMaster]

get a new laptop? they r pretty cheap. and a laptop with no built in ethernet that can't boot from USB is worth nothing.

 

[ToiletDucky]

True there might be a new cheap laptop but it won't have the quality of this machine. It's light, nice screen, quiet, and I already own it. Once XP is on it I'll never have to worry about it again. I've got a broken OS on here now. Pretty soon I might be able to fix that.

 

[daniel49]

If the company will not return your emails how about finding a phone numer or purchasing another ultrabay?

ps: I read all these horror stories about laptops makes me never want to own one

 

[boomerang]

Just for grins, run memtest on it. I'm assuming there's a floppy drive.

 

[gsellis]

Originally posted by: boomerang
Just for grins, run memtest on it. I'm assuming there's a floppy drive.

Huh? Memetest will do absolutely nothing here as this is a storage problem.

ToiletDucky -

It sounds like there is a couple of bad blocks on the HDD (I am guessing you did not format or used Quick Format - the long format usually fixed them.) You might be able to fix it with CHKDSK C: /R from safe mode. I use a CD to do it, so can do it on the fly. Chkdsk from safemode may ask you to schedule it on the next restart, so answer yes and do a restart.

You can probably get a cheap USB CD or even DVD drive to use. I cannot swear that your laptop will allow USB booting, but if so, it may be called "USB Legacy Support" or such. And it will be cheaper than a mini-format for most docks.

You are also going to find that this thing is a dog with XP. I have a Toshiba with similar specs and it takes about a minute just to start or exit Word. If you work for a major carrier, check employee discounts. Mine has discounts with Dell and HP. But then again, Fry's and WalMart have inexpensive stuff too.