installing an OS on a laptop with no cd rom

[scroce]

I have an old toshiba 610 ct pentium (90 mhz? 800mb hard drive) that someone gave me from a coroporate liquidation.

Currently it's running DOS but i think it could probably handle windows95. If not, then maybe win3x The only problem is that it doesn't have a cdrom.

It does have an external floppy drive, however, which seems to work.

The only file on the hard drive is command.com

How could i install a windows o/s on this machine - I'm thinking I could use some type of cable to hook up to a machine that does have a cdrom and install it from there, but I'm not sure how.

Anyone have any experience with this? How much more water would there be in the ocean if it weren't for sponges?

 

[paparazi]

You could try getting hold of windows 95 on floppy.
It was quite common to buy it on floppy like 4 years ago.
Think it was around 10 disc's
Then all you need is a boot floppy which anyone running win 95 can make you. Martin Vote if you found this post helpful please!!

 

[bgauntt]

We use what is called a Backpack for instances like this. It is an external CD that uses the parallel printer port, but using something like this will take a long time, it is very slo

http://wwwww.

The exact name and model # is Backpack CD-ROM drive, model #164550.

 

[scroce]

sounds like windows 95 on a floppy might be an answer - do you know where I could possible procure a copy of these? Can you make the 10 floppies from the cd rom by any chance? How much more water would there be in the ocean if it weren't for sponges?

 

[MISAdmin]

Originally, Toshiba shipped the 610 with a Recovery CD containing all that software. Yes... I know there is no CDRom on that unit. For some of their older units they used to come with a "Master Disk Creator" utility that you could use to make floppy diskettes of all the software that came on the unit. (This, of course, was meant for you to have in case you ever needed to reinstall your system in event of a crash.)

I acquired a 610 a couple tears ago with only DOS on it. I happened to be working for a Toshiba repair site at the time and hooked it up to a Backpack CD Drive and used the System Recovery CD... Obviously that won't help you in this instance.

I'd say your best bet for finding Win95 on floppy would be ebay??? Depending on how much you want to invest, contact an authorized Toshiba repair shop and have them use the recovery CD to reinstall all the original stuff for you... From that point you should be able to setup a network card in the PCMCIA port and share a CD for future needs with another PC if you have that option.

 

[paparazi]

I have never done it! but I can't see any reason why you couldn't copy a 95rom onto floppy,you have to set up your floppy drive to follow on disc copy (thats not the technical words for it) but where it names discs 1-10 etc and asks you for another disc untill all is copied.
Might be worth having a go? Martin Vote if you found this post helpful please!!

 

[edfair]

Win95 on disks. Try e-bay. They can't be copied to floppies from the cd because of file sizes.
Alternate is to use laplink between machines to copy across the install stuff to an install directory. Another alternate is lantasticz networking through the serial or parallel ports and another is to use the dos provided interlnk/intersrv utilities.
I use the networking method on all machines I have, but with a dos/win networking product.
Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[vbMax]

Here is a procedure you can use to upgrade a PC's O/S
to Windows 95 if it does not have a CD-ROM drive.

1. Install "Lap Link" on the PC. Lap Link is a program
which will allow you to transfer files between two
PCs. I use version 3 of Lap Link because it can run
in DOS and it requires only one executable file
which is small enough to fit on a single diskette.
2. Install Lap Link on a second PC which has a CD-ROM
drive.
3. Connect the two PCs with a Lap Link cable. A
specific cable is needed from Lap Link to connect
the two PCs. Or, you can make your own cable using
a normal 25-pin serial cable and wiring diagrams
available on the Internet.
4. Use Lap Link to transfer the Windows95 folder from
the Windows 95 installation CD to the PC which does
not have a CD-ROM drive. This folder is
approximately 95 MB.
5. You can then install Windows 95 directly from the
folder on your hard drive.
6. After the installation is completed, you can delete
the Windows95 folder if you need the space on your
hard drive.

 

[scroce]

I want to thank you all for your input here - In addition, I'd like to post an alternative way on how I solved the problem for anyone else in the future who might be trying this.

I know the laplink cable solution would have worked. That is a common solution to this problem - but if you have a zip drive, you could be in luck as well. I chose this route b/c I had a zip drive, but no laplink cable.

1. If you have an Iomega zip drive, you should be able to use a utility that ships with the cdrom that allows the zip to work with DOS.

2. From the CDRom I copied 6 files onto a floppy:

aspippm1.sys
aspippm2.sys
guest.exe
guest.ini
nibble.ilm
nibble2.ilm

3. I copied them onto the hard drive of the DOS computer using it's floppy drive in a directory called iomega.

4. I shut down the DOS computer

5. I plugged in the iomega zip drive, plugged the parallel cable into the parallel port on the DOS computer (NOTE it's possible to use the SCSI version of the Zip drive, but the procedure is different) and turned it on. Then I rebooted the DOS computer

6. Once the DOS computer rebooted, I went to the Iomega directory and ran Guest.exe - which recognized my zip drive.

7. (I should have mentioned this previously) I then copied the Win95 directory (which I had previously copied off of the Win95 cdRom from another computer) from the Zip Drive to the hard drive of the DOS computer.

8. I ran setup from the hard drive of the DOS computer, and VIOLA. It worked.


Thanks for everyone who contributed. I hope this may help someone else.
How much more water would there be in the ocean if it weren't for sponges?

 

[edfair]

This must have been 95 original or upgrade since you mention only a single zip disk. Same works with B&C, except it takes 2 Zip disks to store it all. (110 & 130 mb).
Would have mentioned it if you had listed it as an option. I carry zip disks with all versions in the car. Sure makes it easier when I need to reload and the other options are not available. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.