nixCraft

Hello everyone. How's everyone doing today? All good??

I have an issue with my old old old machine. The machine is Pentium II, 350MHZ processor. 128MB of RAM. I was loaded with windows 2000 Professional. Now my machine got cooked, and I need to reistall the operation system for it. The problem is that it doesn't have CD rom, no floppy drive, no usb port, and bios doesn't have network installation. Oh, it has other regular ports like ps/2 for mouse and keyboard, RJ-45 NIC, LPT for paralell port.

My question is how can I re-install the operation system for it without CD rom and no floppy drive available? I tried both linux and windows 2000 but I can't make it to work. What I already did is pulling the hard drive out and plugged it into my working machine. Then, I copied the whole content, included I386 directory to this disk from the Win2K installation CD. After that, I put it back to my old machine, and it still doesn't boot. I did the same way with linux and it's not working either. I really need to install the operation system(prefer windows 2000) back to this machine. I have a reason that I need this machine back. I know it only cost $300 to buy a whole better machine, but I really need this old machine for a personal reason.

Can anyone give me any ideas or suggestions that help make this happen? I really appreciate that. I know this forum is mainly for linux, but I'm still crossing my fingers for help with this issue. Thank you very much and have a great day.

You can perform network boot installation. Another option is as follows

Attach hard disk to computer with CDROM with Windows 98 or W2k
Copy Windows 2000 cd to this hard disk
Boot from Win98 or Win2k CD
Run fdisk /mbr to install MBR on this hard disk
also run sys c: command to install boot
Now attach hard disk to old computer
and you should able to boot
Now install from i386 by typing setup.exe or install.exe

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Vivek | My personal blog
Linux Evangelist
Play hard stay cool

Thanks a lot for your help. When you say "Boot from Win2K CD", do you mean install windows 2k on that new hard drive? I am not sure what you mean for this. When I boot to windows 2k, should I go to the console menu and then run the fdisk? Can you please tell me a little bit more details about this? I really appreciate that. Thank you.

Hi,
I figured out how to do the fdisk /rbm and sys c: commands. After that, I put the hard disk back to my broken machine and run c:\win2k\i386\winnt.exe

Everything looks like it works fine. It's copying installation files just like from cd drive. However, after copying all installation window file, it's saying Please hit enter to restart windows 2000. I hit the eneter key and my machine reboots. After that, it's saying missing ntldr.

I think I got half of the way done. Now, I am stuck. Do you have any ideas how to fix it? I really appreciate your help.

hello
You can go for network installtions such as RIS or unattended.

Hi,
As I said above, this old machine doesn't have cabability to boot using PXE for network isntallation. That's very old machine, bro.

hi,
The best way is to connect the systems hard disk to a computer where there is CDROM complete the installation and use it in ur old system.Better for it go for Windows, dont go for linux.

Thank you, but I don't think you have any clue what I am trying to work out. Anyway, thank you. If you have time, please read the first message I posted earlier of what the deal is.

hi,
sorry i dont have nay other clue for it.Plz write me back after u have done it.

Yes boot from Win2k / 98 CD run fdisk /mbr to install mbr on this old hard drive.
Next copy i386 folder to c:\i386
Attach hard drive to old system
now you will be able to boot
Goto i386 and run setup.exe or install.exe

If you don't have boot disk get it here -> Bootdisk.Com - Free Windows Bootdisks, Free DOS boot disk

I've done this kind of work in late 90s. You can also use knoppix Linux cd but it will be a more work for you

Hope this helps!

__________________
Vivek | My personal blog
Linux Evangelist
Play hard stay cool