How to install TinyXp on a laptop without a CD-ROM? Running into problems

Hi,

I have a toughbook CF-28 that only has a floppy disk drive. I have downloaded the MS Windows XP Floppy disk set (6 floppies), but could not install TinyXP rev.05 using an external USB and PCMCIA CD-ROM.

I then found a website that shows how to install USB DOS drivers onto a Win98 boot disk, and allows me to copy the entire TinyXP CD-ROM contents on to my hard drive, but I have run into one little glitch.

The last step is to run WINNT.EXE for a normal Windows XP install, but TinyXP is lacking the WINNT.EXE file in the \I386 directory.

I have also installed the hard drive in another laptop that has an internal CD-ROM, and installed TinyXP on to it, but when I transfer it back over to the CF-28 I get either the "NTLDR not found" message, or "An error has occured, press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart". I removed the drive, and popped it into the IBM laptop I was using and it boots fine, so the hard drive is okay.

I have installed another hard drive clone into the original CF-28 and it works fine... so I must be missing something.

Now, does anyone have any suggestions as to what I could possibly try?

Thank you, and if I posted this in the wrong forum, I apologize and ask that it be moved to the proper forum.

Thank you :peace:

Unless the laptops have the EXACT same hard drive controller, you have to install all NT based OSes on that system, or you get those errors. What about when setup starts and its says "Press F6 to install 3rd Party SCSI or RAID drivers". Could you use that to load the driver for the PCMCIA cdrom?

Wsurritte

Perhaps try to copy the winnt.exe file from a normal XP disc to your HDD as well when you copy your TinyXP install files. Then try and run it, see what happens. I'm gonna guess it's not gonna work, but worth a shot.

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Originally Posted by wsurritte

Unless the laptops have the EXACT same hard drive controller, you have to install all NT based OSes on that system, or you get those errors. What about when setup starts and its says "Press F6 to install 3rd Party SCSI or RAID drivers". Could you use that to load the driver for the PCMCIA cdrom?

Wsurritte

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I bought the Targus Slimline PCMCIA DVD/CD-ROM but ran into one little problem. The stupid cable that came with it is the 32-bit pcmcia cable and not the 16-bit cable. I emailed Targus, and for the pcmcia to be bootable I need the 16-bit cable, which is impossible to find now because the dvd/cd-rom is no longer being made :( I did try the F6 function, but it does not work with the 32-bit cable.

I may just have to buck up and shell out $150 for the CF-28 CD-RW/DVD-ROM which is an outrageous price on eBay, but that is the only place to find the internal CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drives.

Tidder, I will give that a shot and see what happens... who knows, it may work ;)

Thanks for the help and suggestions :)

What if I took the HD, put it into an external USB enclosure and copied everything over including the "boot.bin" file that is used to make the CD bootable. If I then removed the hard drive and then re-installed it into the CF-28, and tried to boot from the hard drive...

Could that possibly get the install to begin, or is that "boot.bin" file only meant for booting from a CD-ROM?

I know what your going through I went through that a while ago with a older toughbook. I would suggest partion the hard drive, copy over regular xp install on to (or use nlite to make your own tiny xp) the small partition, boot up to dos and install using the winnt. I have a newer one cf-18 thank goodness for usb booting although I am sad to sell it. Good luck.