Is there a way to boot from another computer?

[sj022698]

My laptop does not have usb, floppy, cd-rom, or an operating system anymore.

I need to find a way to boot it. It is old. Can I boot it by connecting it to another one of my computers?

I have 2 other laptops (new)

Please let me know.

Thanks,
Justin

 

[Tyler1989]

your PC does have a CD. It will just not detect it. Give us some more time do you know the manufacturer so we can get that driver?

 

[sj022698]

The old crappy laptop is a DFI 8120 series I think.
It has a removable cd-rom and a pc slot. No USB. It was working yesterday but I decided to zero out the hard drive. Now, what I figure happened was that removable cd-rom was not originally on there. It was probably a floppy since their isn't one on there. It also erased the OS so I can't do anything. Even if you go into BIOS your only options are A: only, C: only, or A:then C: but they don't recognize anything!

I also have a HP Pavilion L2000 and a HP ZT1175 that I can use to use if I can boot from them. Neither have a floppy drive though

 

[Death Row]

Maybe you could try using a linux boot disk

 

[sj022698]

Maybe you could try using a linux boot disk

I dont' have a working drive on the computer?

I can't connect a newer floppy drive because they are USB and I don't have port and plus I'd have to load software.
I don't even know how I would be able to install any drivers onto the computer since I don't have a working CD-ROM on it and no operating system.

What about connecting the computer to one of my other computers which are HP Pavilion L2000 or HP Pavilion ZT1175? I could get an external floppy drive for it and a cable???? IS this possible? If so, how would I boot it and if I could what would I do then?

I can't tell you how much I appreciate all your help!!

I hope this information is what you needed. Please let me know if you need any other information

Thanks again!

 

[sj022698]

Are all "hard drives" the same size? Not memory, but physical size? What are the odds that another hard drive will fit into that one.

Even if I got that to work I wouldn't be able to use it till the driver was installed. So, I couldn't put the drive on a cd-r because it wouldn't be able to read it, correct? Also, I couldn't get on the internet to download it because I'd have to install the modem driver?

 

[Inaris]

What I would recommend doing is the following... Take the HDD out of your DFI laptop. Put it in the Other Laptop you have and boot it up. If your CD(Win95) is bootable, then place that in the CDrom of the working machine. If it's not, you will need either an internal or external Floppy drive you can use to build a bootable floppy. The early 95 versions were not bootable, so you might have to use a floppy. External USB is prefered... you can use something like this to make a win95 bootable floppy: http://www.putergeek.com/downloads/ go down about half way, find "win95b_boot_disk.exe" then click on the image of the floppy to download. Run that From your working OS, with a floppy attached and it will create a bootable disk for you. Then you can do the following.
Boot the machine with the non working HDD in it, to the floppy on the working machine, and type the following:

format C: \s
This will add the system files to the C drive and allow you to boot to it.
Once you have finished the format, you will want to copy over all the remaining files to the C drive from the Floppy. Then edit the autoexec.bat file and take off the last line, menu and put C:\ in it's place.
Then you can access the X drive (cdrom) when you boot the disk. So, take the drive back over to your other machine, and boot it up with the CD in it. See if that works...
I'm getting more info for you too... so I'll be editing this post...

 

[Tyler1989]

regardless there is another thread for this problem "oh no" and he just needs a driver simple as that.

 

[sj022698]

So far, if I understand correctly.

Take the HD out of the crappy computer and put it into the working one. Put in a bootable OS disc such as win 2000. Install the OS and then just switch the hard drives back? So, once I switch them back, will the good computer be the same as it has always been?

Also, once there is an OS on the crappy computer, how do I get the CD-ROM on that one to work because I'll need a driver, correct? I can't get the usb card loaded because it needs the cd (driver) and I can't get on the internet because I need the modem driver (on cd)?

Or do I load the drivers onto it while the HD is still in the good computer? That makes sense!

Thanks again!

 

[Inaris]

sj022698,
please follow the instructions I left you above. if they don't work, let me know.

Tyler1989,

What you are missing is that without a floppy, he has nothing. The drive is wiped and so there is no way for it to boot without the floppy. it's old hardware, and requires old technology. the Bios doesn't support the bootable CDrom due to it coming out before the inturupt 19 (allowing CD rom boot) protocol was built in. There may be a Bios update, but again we come to the floppy problem.

Anyway, what I posted above, is the way to get the system to a usable state so he can install. Anyone that was doing win95 support should remember this as it was standard practice back in the day...

Good luck
Inaris.