Replacing hard drive on a laptop

bennyineire

Hey guys and gals here's the dealio, I bought a dell Inspirion 2200 laptop from some dude with no hard drive in it, its just for the missus see so she can browse tinternet and the like. Anywho I'm having a bit of bother installing an os on the thing, I nabbed an old hard drive from an mp3 and stuck it in, when I'm in the bios everything seems hunky dory hardware wish.
The machine orginally had xp installed, I've tried installing xp and linux trought the dvd drive by using the ios image files but no go, It just says no bootable drive ,I'm a bit of a noob at this, was I bit made thinking it would be that easy

HelpWithIT

Nabbed an old drive from an mp3 player??? What kind of drive? This is max size your laptop bios will support:
120G EIDE (NOT SATA) drive. Larger drives will show 137 G ie 2.5" IDE internal Drive

bennyineire

Its a 40gb ide hard drive

HelpWithIT

Depending on what type of mp3 player it came from, the drive maybe formatted with a file system not recognisable by Windows? Can you try format it in a caddy or another machine?

quaidox

i don't think you can install an operating system from an image file by trying to boot from it...........

riclad

You,d need to format it ,in windows format, fat32,or ntfs,
ntfs is more effecient ,re using space,and faster to load.
YOU could put it in a caddy, ide, 2.5inch,cost 12 euro approx.

http://www.peats.com/cgi-bin/catalog_v2.cgi?id=30569&type=product
pc parts,shops in moore st are cheaper.
take out drive,do not touch,pcb, circuit board underneath drive.

or download gparted livecd, burn to cdr,
use gparted to make a new partition, and format it.
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/display-doc.php?name=help-manualhttp://gparted.sourceforge.net/display-doc.php?name=help-manual#gparted-format-partition

make 1 large partition ,
then use format command,
format in ntfs file format,
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/display-doc.php?name=help-manual#gparted-format-partition

you ,ll have 1 partition, primary type ,

or just buy an ide 2.5inch caddy,put drive in caddy,plug into a windows pc,
wait till drive is detected,
format in ntfs file mode.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windowsxp/ht/format-hard-drive-xp.htm

set partition size,to 39.8 gig,
leave a small bit of space empty.
format partition, primary,
39.8 gig, ie best to leave a little bit of free space .

RodgersLFC

When you say "image file", are you trying to put a system image from another machine onto the drive? Or are you trying to install from a Windows CD?

If the drive was previously in an mp3 player its probably formatted with a strange format that Windows doesnt support.

Torqay

You'll need to create a bootable disk from the CD image, not just burn it onto a CD (as a data CD).

riclad wrote: »

You,d need to format it ,in windows format, fat32

Why would you format the disk in FAT 32? That makes no sense.

riclad wrote: »

YOU could put it in a caddy, ide, 2.5inch,cost 12 euro approx.

Why would you want to put it into a caddy? That makes no sense.

riclad wrote: »

use gparted to make a new partition, and format it.

Why would you use gparted? That makes no sense, since Windows Setup has a partitioning tool on board?

riclad wrote: »

leave a small bit of space empty.

And why would you do this? That makes no sense. 40 GB is a small enough drive as it is, why waste disk space by leaving disk space unused.

Riesen_Meal

Another option is to download hirens boot cd and use dban boot and nuke to brute wipe the hd - you can either burn it to a cd or I think it can run off usb these days from that you can do a proper wipe of the hardrive...

riclad

YOU should always format drives in ntfs,
i,m just saying its still technically possible to use fat32 file format.
i CAN,T think of a reason to use fat32 ,though.
When ntfs is much more effecient.in terms of saving space on a drive.
IF you have a windows xp os install disk use that ,
presuming it can read,or format the ide drive ,
eg the drive could be formatted in a different fileformat,
eg not msdos ntfs,or fat32 file format.

IT may be necessary to use gparted or some other program, to format it in ntfs,
but you should try just using a standard install setup ,
from a windows xp cd first.
IF YOU have one.
you,ll need to enter a windows xp license key,to complete the os installation process.
say cd is winxp home,
a windows xp professional license key will not work.

You may need a genuine dell windows os cd to install windows
on that laptop,
use the license key written on the laptop label.
if key is for xp home, you may need a dell xp home cd,
if you wanna use the license key thats on the label.

I,m following the rules of this forum,
i,m not gonna suggest other methods of installing ,windows .
I think you could get a windows cd from dell,support ,ireland..

SEE here ,

http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=38
32bit version.
you could install mint os,comes with browser, music player,
runs faster than windows.
burn image to cd,
use imgburn,burn iso file to cd,
burn image, speed,burn options,2x.
FITS on 1cdr, iso file 660meg approx.


http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download

I suggested gparted,for formatting the drive,
cos i thought someone who,se taking a drive fro an mp3 player,
Probably does not a dell windows xp,for inspiron laptop,
at hand.

IF you install mint,linux OS.takes about,20 minutes.
GO to menu,software centre,
download, music player, vlc, media video ,dvdplayer ,VLC media player.
I think i have dell genuine cdrom, windows xp, os
when i tried to install windows on my dell laptop,in 2010,
it said ,media error, cannot read disk,theres 1 or 2 scratches on the cd.

try and Install from the windows xp cdrom if you have one there.
see
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=uoREUcvPF4iohAf7wIGgBw&ved=0CEsQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=537&q=mint%20screenshots%207

mint has firefox,WEB browser,
and music player ,as part of the install iso file.
Its ABOUT Twice as fast as windows on a dell laptop,
doesnt need any antivrus program installed,
I,VE never had a virus ,using mint linux for the past 7 years.
Even for a non techie,mint is fairly ,easy to use,
it,ll install all devices,sound,grahics card s, etc as part of the install process.