I need help using WIN 98 SE on laptop

1176 Views 8 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Terrister, Sep 22, 2005

black89vette

Discussion Starter · Sep 20, 2005 (Edited)

I have an old laptop that I use strictly for datalogging my car's computer with.

It's a Compaq LTE 5380, 133 mHz, 32 MB Ram, 2.1 GB HD.

I took the HD out of my laptop and hooked it to my desktop computer using a 2.5 " to 3.5 " HDD adapter kit. I fdisked the drive and removed the partition. I then created a partition and then reformatted. Upon reboot I had the Win 98 SE CD in the drive and installed Win 98 SE on the 2.1 GB HD.

I verified that it worked and no errors present by rebooting my desktop pc a few times in a row after verifying everything was OK.

I removed power from desktop and removed the 2.1 GB from the adapter and re-installed it into my laptop. In the BIOS, my laptop sees a 2.1 GB HD present. I changed the boot order to allow it to boot from HD first, then A: second and have tried it the other way around as well. Now, my laptop gives me Disk I/O Error. I can start my laptop up using a boot disk and get to the A: prompt. I ran fdisk again but chose to just look at partitions. I see my 2.1 GB HD as file system unknown.

I can pull the HD from the laptop and re-install it into my desktop and Win 98 SE works fine again.

<b> What would cause my laptop to not recognize the file system and / or how do I get my HD to be useful again in my laptop? </b>

Thanks in advance,

Jerry

***EDIT***
Desktop pc is running XP Pro but file system on 2.1 GB HD is Fat32 as verified during use in desktop pc.

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johnwill

· #2 · Sep 20, 2005

You need to setup the Windows on the machine it's going to run on. You also probably don't have any of the drivers for the devices on the laptop, like the video, any USB ports, sound card, or any other laptop specific hardware.

I'd go download any/all of the drivers you can find for your laptop and try again using the laptop to install the system.

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linderman

· #3 · Sep 20, 2005

Welcome to TSF:

You can not install a windows OS on a hard drive from one computer and move to another unless they are exactly the same motherboard model and all hardware is identical. What is happening to you is an OS crash when it tries to boot up and the hardware is all different and the drivers dont mesh with the devices

just install the hard drive back into your laptop / and install the OS from there / if you have no CD-rom drive on the laptop then I suggest you get a portable external cd-rom drive (USB version) But win 98SE can be a booger to boot from a USB drive

I think your best bet would be to look on ebay for the old WIN 98 that has floppies for install / then after the install is accomplished with floppies / get an old win 98SE upgrade version / wow talk about the long way around the barn !!
regards

joe

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black89vette

Discussion Starter · #4 · Sep 20, 2005

I tried

I tried installing the OS directly onto the laptop but it doesn't have any cd rom drivers installed. It has a floppy or if i switch it a cd rom drive. Only one can be installed at a time, if I soft boot it I can switch it over.

This was why I bought the 2.5 " to 3.5 " HDD apdapter kit. I have done this previously once and it worked. This is the second time I have tried it and it's not working this time.

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linderman

· #5 · Sep 21, 2005

BLK vette:

You were lucky the first time !! the hard drive swap booted

what happens when you try a clean install with the cd-rom drive ??????

you will need to modify your boot order in the bios / to cd-rom drive 1st boot device / then hard drive / floppy disabled or third device

choose boot with cd-rom support when set-up cd starts

cheers / joe

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black89vette

Discussion Starter · #6 · Sep 21, 2005 (Edited)

I try with cd rom but it mustn't have any cd rom drivers on it because it doesn't access or even see it.

My buddy was tinkering around with it and it now sees a fat 32 file system. It sees the cd rom in the bios and upon startup with cd rom support it shows the win 98 splash screen briefly. Then, it says it cannot find command.com and some other files and asks for win 98 start up disk 2?

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linderman

· #7 · Sep 21, 2005

Blkvette:

Did you modify your bios boot order prior to tring the win 98 se install ??????

because when you set your boot order to boot from cd-rom drive as first device / then when it boots into the set-up disk / it askys you "boot with cd-rom support" you need to click that option ~~ by doing so ~~ the cd install disk loads the dos drivers you need for your cd-rom drive (aspi drivers)

give this and try and let us know ?????

joe

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Volt-Schwibe

· #8 · Sep 22, 2005

are you booting from a floppy?

also, i want to add,

black89vette said:
I have done this previously once and it worked. This is the second time I have tried it and it's not working this time.

i've done this many many times, and although it's problemactic, it always worked.

it's also the same reason i bought my 2.5 to 3.5 adapter, and the way i installed windows onto my laptop while it still had a broken cd-rom.

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Terrister

· #9 · Sep 22, 2005

Another way to do this is put the drive in the desktop and copy the win98 folder from the cd to the hard drive. Now put it back in the laptop. If you can boot to a dos prompt on the laptop, type cd\win98 and enter. Now type setup and enter.

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