Notebook booting problems

[thepeca]

Hi people! I will begin with the make and the state of the notebook before describing my problem (what i tried to resolve in the last few weeks, with countless google searches, reformats, type of operating systems, means of install, etc..)..
The system is a Toshiba Portege 3010ct notebook. Link below for the specs:
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The notebook is in perfect condition, with everything working, and the hard drive is also its original in very good condition (no bad sectors or flaws whatsoever).

So my problem is installing an operating system on it. It had a working Windows98 before i formatted the hard drive, and now it's empty. It was pointless to keep that OS, because it was very buggy and slow, so it clearly needed a reinstall, and what better to do than format, and do a clean install, right? I thought so, and i was wrong. Now i have found NO working solution to make an operating system work (boot) on the hard drive.. With WindowsXP i always get a blue screen when starting up, half seconds after the windows logo appears (a 0x000007b error, right after mup.sys loaded), what is usually a hard drive controller issue. So i sysprepped an XP installation (on a virtual machine on my other laptop) so it will rescan the hardware, and load the appropriate drivers for the current hardware (including the hard drive IDE drivers). That solution worked on a little newer laptop not so long ago (what had the same issue), so i thought it will be ok here too. I was wrong. I get the same error. Note that i dont have a floppy drive or CD-rom on this Toshiba, so my only tool is a 2,5" IDE to USB adapter, so every time i remove the hard drive from the notebook and copy the contents from the virtual image (what i prepare on my other machine) to the hard drive. That's my only choice to get files on to the hard disk. Clearly, this machine is weak for WinXP, so i stopped experimenting with it (as maybe thats the problem), and went back to Win98. Win98 can't be sysprepped like XP, so it needs to be installed on the machine what it will work on (there is clearly no way i can set it up in the virtual machine so that it will work on 10+ years older hardware then my machine whats running that virtual machine, but i tried). I tried a few different methods (like with WinXP), and none of it worked. I know there is a possibility that the MBR itself is corrupted, but that shouldnt matter at the point where i am setting up windows, right? If it matters, how the hell can i "edit" the master boot record on a USB device (wich is the only way i can access the hard drive at this point)?

Methods tried so far :
ALL TRIED WITH BOTH NTFS AND FAT32 filesystems, and checked the BIOS before if everything is fine. ALL HIDDEN AND SYSTEM FILES WERE COPIED, there were no exceptions. The systems clearly had everything they need to run properly.


Windows XP :

Made a new virtual machine > Started setup > waited for the files to copy, and the prompt for restart > Turned off virtual machine instead of restarting > Copied the virtual machines hard drive to the hard drive of the laptop via IDE to USB cable > Put it back to the laptop, and try to continue the setup there > FAIL (BSOD)

Made a new virtual machine > Installed windows > Sysprepped it (next startup will rescan all of the hardware and install the appropriate drivers) > Turned off virtual machine > Copied the virtual machines hard drive to the hard drive of the laptop via IDE to USB cable > Put it back to the laptop > FAIL (surprizingly.. i really had the faith in this, as it worked before on other machines) BSOD

Made a new virtual machine > Installed windows > ran windows > changed hard drive controllers to default IDE > Copied the virtual machines hard drive to the hard drive of the laptop via IDE to USB cable > Put it back to the laptop > FAIL

Windows 98 :

Made a new virtual machine > Started setup > waited for the files to copy, and the prompt for restart > Turned off virtual machine instead of restarting > Copied the virtual machines hard drive to the hard drive of the laptop via IDE to USB cable > Put it back to the laptop, and try to continue the setup there > FAIL (Errors changed a few times, but mainly they were the same in context : no bootable disk, invalid system disk, insert system disk then press enter)

Made a new virtual machine > Installed windows > Checked it the hard drive controllers are on IDE (they were) > Turned off virtual machine > Copied the virtual machines hard drive to the hard drive of the laptop via IDE to USB cable > Put it back to the laptop > FAIL



At some point i even tried DOS 7.10, but for some reason that also didnt run followed by a "no bootable system found" error.. There must be somekind of solution or operating system that can be installed from the hard drive only, or what can be copied directly to the hard drive and run like that. I remember it was so easy back then on my (then new) 486pc with only a floppy drive to isntall an OS, but as it turned out, its a hell without it. I also made the first partition slightly less than 1GB, and set it to active. I'm out of ideas, so if someone knows a good, working solution, please dont be shy 😀 It can be Windows, or anything else, i only need the machine for some basic stuff, so ANYTHING WORKING IS WELCOME Cheers, and hope a mastermind bothers to read this post 😀 Also, questions are welcome too, i will give the answer within a few hours

 

[drtweak]

Few things

1) I use to do the same as you. If a PC couldn't get back the Coping files stage i would do that part in another PC but you want to CLONE the hard drive not just copy it

2) You can use nLite and Slip Steam the needed drivers into the CD it self and then burn a new CD and install from that.

3) 7B is Sata drivers. How old is the PC? Maybe check to see if its set to AHCI or ATA in the bios? If you set it to ATA you shouldn't need any drivers. If it is AHCI and you want to keep it make sure you download the AHCI and not the regular drivers when you load the drivers.

This is why i still have a USB Floppy drive lol.

 

[thepeca]

Few things

1) I use to do the same as you. If a PC couldn't get back the Coping files stage i would do that part in another PC but you want to CLONE the hard drive not just copy it

2) You can use nLite and Slip Steam the needed drivers into the CD it self and then burn a new CD and install from that.

3) 7B is Sata drivers. How old is the PC? Maybe check to see if its set to AHCI or ATA in the bios? If you set it to ATA you shouldn't need any drivers. If it is AHCI and you want to keep it make sure you download the AHCI and not the regular drivers when you load the drivers.

This is why i still have a USB Floppy drive lol.

The PC is about 16 years old (a teenager 😀 ), and has only "IDE" or "Extended IDE" options in the BIOS. I have chosen the simple IDE because it's a standard (more common - less problematic), and i believe Extended IDE needs some drivers too (I have the drivers for it, but its unnecessary if there is the plain good old regular IDE 😀 ), and i also can't install any specific drivers at this stage. But if this is a hard disk driver issue, why the sysprepping didnt fix that?

How could i clone the virtual image to my "real" hard drive? Any preferred programs or apps what do the job good? (preferrably free, but i dont mind spending a few bucks )

I do have 2 compatible cd-rom drives with the machine, BUT they both connect via PCMCA (pc card), and they are unavailable at boot. So as USB. They all need specific drivers, and are not supported as boot devices by the BIOS. There is nothing besides the hard drive what can be booted at startup. So i have to find anything that can be booted from the hard disk. I have seen a much weaker, and a little older notebook run windowsXP, and it also didnt have any optical drives, so i know it's possible somehow.. i just can't figure how. I started experimenting with "Wary Puppy" (a linux distro) a few hours ago, as it can be installed by copying (also working on FAT32), but i still have an "insert system disk" error :\

 

[drtweak]

Wow 16 years old? HAHA whats it running? A Pentum or something? Probably like 200MHZish lol. Hope its maxed out on ram. If its less than 64 megs XP wil be soooooo sllllooowww and you'll probably be better off with 98 lol

You can use macrium reflect. Its free. and try cloing it that way. You will either have to do 1 of 2 things.

1) Have a working OS in VM and then make a second VHD to install it too then when it reboots boot to working OS, and then create an image or clone it to the attached hard drive though USB. Not sure what VM program you use but i use Vitural Box and since the Hard Drive is though a USB adapter i know you can attach the whole drive and then use it though the Vitrual machine. This way you can clone from a VHD to a Real HD though USB

2) Get a 44 Pin to 40 Pin adapter, plug it in directly to a PC, install windows to the point of first restart, then toss back into the laptop.

Let me know how it goes.

 

[thepeca]

Wow 16 years old? HAHA whats it running? A Pentum or something? Probably like 200MHZish lol. Hope its maxed out on ram. If its less than 64 megs XP wil be soooooo sllllooowww and you'll probably be better off with 98 lol

You can use macrium reflect. Its free. and try cloing it that way. You will either have to do 1 of 2 things.

1) Have a working OS in VM and then make a second VHD to install it too then when it reboots boot to working OS, and then create an image or clone it to the attached hard drive though USB. Not sure what VM program you use but i use Vitural Box and since the Hard Drive is though a USB adapter i know you can attach the whole drive and then use it though the Vitrual machine. This way you can clone from a VHD to a Real HD though USB

2) Get a 44 Pin to 40 Pin adapter, plug it in directly to a PC, install windows to the point of first restart, then toss back into the laptop.

Let me know how it goes.

Yup, it's running a pentium @ 233Mhz, and has a massive ammount of 32MB EDO RAM. Its horribly slow compared to anything these days, but it's plenty for any Windows until XP. Even XP can run pretty well, though it's the best to disable everything (every unnecessary service, every visual effect, and pretty much anything unnecessary to run the OS itself), since it's capable of running with a 28MB footprint in the RAM. Every other Windows older then XP (including Millennium) can run even on a machine with 80Mhz and 12MB RAM (been there, done that), though i always had either a CD-Rom or a floppy drive to install from... My main pc right now is a desktop replacement machine (also a notebook), so i really have only a USB connection for this. Yesterday (a few hours ago) i almost managed to get Wary Puppy running, but i got a missing file error, what at least confirmed that the MBR on the disk is fine, and it did boot up to a certain point without a flaw, and there shouldnt be any problems regarding booting into an OS. I don't know how demanding that linux distro actually is, but it should run at least slowly. I will try cloning later on today, i'm really looking forward to boot up my little vintage notebook with a Windows 😀 I will let you know if i made any progress, and i will also post the "winning" solution. I'm sure there are others out there like me, struggling to boot an OS on a machine without any inputs (No cd, no floppy, no USB). By the way, there is one thing i remember from the Win98 it had previously, and that is there were only a C drive (1 partition), and that partition had been named DOS, and if i remember correctly it was only 1,99GB. It's strange because it's a 4GB drive, but maybe they (whoever installed it) had no other option to make it work, and that is the "indicator" of a solution what can only work?

EDIT:

Wary Puppy (linux) managed to start after a day of tweaking, and messing around with "grub", though its immersing how slow it is due to the lack of at least another 32Megs of RAM. I'm returning to Windows troubleshooting later on today, though i have a feeling i would have to start from the ground up, and do a dos first, then a windows install from the second partition via command prompt. Does that makes sense, or there is some restriction i dont know about?