Installing DOS 7.10 to Hard drive?

mfield

I am trying to install XP onto a Dell C400. The only way to do it is to boot up to DOS and install DOS onto the hard drive of the Dell C400, which I have connected to my laptop using a USB to IDE cable.

The problem I am having is that when I boot up to DOS on my laptop so that I can install it on the Dell C400 hard drive is that it gives me an error saying that it cannot find a FAT32 drive.

Any help would be great. I am using this guide http://www.overclock.net/faqs/101421-how-install-windows-xp-hard-drive.html

Thanks,

m.

Capt'n Midnight

Does the C400 have an XP license ?
Or do you have an non-OEM XP license that isn't in use on another PC ?

Otherwise you will need to buy a license first.

If you can't get a trial version of Windows 7 you may still get a trial version of windows server 2003/2008 or any number of free OS's that you could use instead,

TBH unless the C400 has more than 256MB of ram you might want to leave it as windows 2000 if it had that originally

you would need to use disk manager on the other PC to makesure the partition is formatted to FAT32 and also check it is set active.

mfield

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Does the C400 have an XP license ?
Or do you have an non-OEM XP license that isn't in use on another PC ?


Otherwise you will need to buy a license first.

If you can't get a trial version of Windows 7 you may still get a trial version of windows server 2003/2008 or any number of free OS's that you could use instead,

TBH unless the C400 has more than 256MB of ram you might want to leave it as windows 2000 if it had that originally

you would need to use disk manager on the other PC to makesure the partition is formatted to FAT32 and also check it is set active.

Many thanks for the help CM!

The machine had XP running on it before without any problems so I presume it should be ok.

If the FAT32 partition is set to active should DOS be able to recognise the drive?

mfield

Just to recap, the HD I want to install DOS onto is connected to my Laptop using a USB to IDE converter.

I created a 3gb FAT32 partition and set it to active using SwissKnife.

I then reboot into the DOS CD but still it won't find the HD. It does however come up as C: drive after it tells me that there is no FAT drive found.

I'm stumped

glimmerman123

I don't know if this is the right thread to ask this question. Can any one help me please. I have an acer laptop computer with windows vista. I turned it on today and windows would not open in normal mode. The message i keep getting is windows had to close to protect your computer. I started it on safe mode but some of my programmes won't work. Can you tell me what i have to do to get windows to start in normal mode. I only have the computer 2 weeks.

uch

mfield wrote: »

Just to recap, the HD I want to install DOS onto is connected to my Laptop using a USB to IDE converter.

I created a 3gb FAT32 partition and set it to active using SwissKnife.

I then reboot into the DOS CD but still it won't find the HD. It does however come up as C: drive after it tells me that there is no FAT drive found.

I'm stumped

Use fdisk to enable large devices, then you should be able to see it

mfield

uch wrote: »

Use fdisk to enable large devices, then you should be able to see it

How do I use fdisk uch? I have not used that before. Any help would be great as this is driving me around the twist!

uch

Have a look here

http://www.compu-docs.com/Fdisk.htm

Naikon

As MS-DOS is depreciated, you could try this modern version of DOS: FreeDOS?

I know it's not exactly the same, but it should allow you to run
legacy applications in a currently maintained enviroment.

mfield

Naikon wrote: »

As MS-DOS is depreciated, you could try this modern version of DOS: FreeDOS?

I know it's not exactly the same, but it should allow you to run
legacy applications in a currently maintained enviroment.

Can I access an external hardrive thorugh my USB to IDE converter using this method?

Naikon

It should work fine, but don't take my word as 100%.
DOS 8.0 was released nearly 10 years ago, so it's worth a shot.