Problem installing on old Compaq

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq (More info?)

Hi,

I have an *old* Compaq LTE 5280 that I'm trying to set up for a friend.
Nothing fancy...load up 95 or 98 and get it on the net. (preferably 98
so I don't have to worry about partition size issues)

This laptop has interchangeable floppy and CD-ROM drives. I can only
have one in at a time. Booting to the 98 floppy, MSCDEX.EXE won't load
because it doesn't see the CD-ROM drive. Also, no matter how I set up
the BIOS (and I've checked and double-checked it several times), it
simply refuses to boot from CD. When I swap the drives out after
booting with the floppy, I get an error since (of course) no CD driver
was loaded. I've created my partitions with fdisk on the 98 floppy, but
can't format them because I can't get to the CD.

One other thing: This box apparently has a Quantum Dynamic Drive
Overlay. Could this have any effect, and do I still need it?

Does anyone have any advice as to how I can get this box working?
Or...is there any way I can run both drives at once?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq (More info?)

Use the boot disk to make the hard-drive bootable and copy over the relevant
drivers.
Swap to CD-ROM and reboot.
Now install from CD.

Be warned that I found that the Win98 CD was not readable from straight DOS
as it uses some slightly odd format. I ended up creating a CD-ROM copy
using a straight DOS format on another Windows machine!

Alternatively, if you have access to one, use a parallel port ZIP drive with
Win98 on the ZIP disk.

Paul DS.

"Mike T." <lock_and_load62@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1107853487.268421.257670@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
> Hi,
>
> I have an *old* Compaq LTE 5280 that I'm trying to set up for a friend.
> Nothing fancy...load up 95 or 98 and get it on the net. (preferably 98
> so I don't have to worry about partition size issues)
>
> This laptop has interchangeable floppy and CD-ROM drives. I can only
> have one in at a time. Booting to the 98 floppy, MSCDEX.EXE won't load
> because it doesn't see the CD-ROM drive. Also, no matter how I set up
> the BIOS (and I've checked and double-checked it several times), it
> simply refuses to boot from CD. When I swap the drives out after
> booting with the floppy, I get an error since (of course) no CD driver
> was loaded. I've created my partitions with fdisk on the 98 floppy, but
> can't format them because I can't get to the CD.
>
> One other thing: This box apparently has a Quantum Dynamic Drive
> Overlay. Could this have any effect, and do I still need it?
>
> Does anyone have any advice as to how I can get this box working?
> Or...is there any way I can run both drives at once?
>
> Thanks,
> Mike
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq (More info?)

1. The Quantum Dynamic Drive Overlay may be there because the hard drive
capacity exceeds the BIOS limitation on the size of drive it can autodetect.
What is the capacity of the drive? The original hard disk in the LTE5280 was
either 810MB or 1.35GB, according to the HPaq web site. Systems from the early-
to mid-Pentium epoch often had built-in hard disk limitations in the BIOS. I
suspect that the LTE5280 BIOS limit is 2.1GB, but it might also be 8.4GB.
2. Does the system support booting from CD-ROM? Probably not. It is too old.
Otherwise, installing Windows 98 would be a no-brainer.
3. If the hard drive presently in the system is not more than 2.1GB in capacity,
get rid of the Quantum Dynamic Drive Overlay, which can only complicate matters.
Do so by booting from floppy, running FDISK, deleting all non-DOS partitions,
then running the command FDISK /MBR to create a standard master boot record.
Then start fresh by creating a single primary partition and formatting it. If
you have not already done so, go to www.bootdisk.com , download the Windows 98SE
boot disk image, and make yourself a boot floppy disk.
4. If the drive is more than 2.1GB, live with Quantum Dynamic Drive Overlay as a
necessary evil.
5. Once the hard drive is set up the way it should be, do a SYS C: command to
make the hard drive bootable to the DOS C: prompt. Then copy the entire
contents of the WIndows 98 boot disk to the C: drive, including all files and
folders.
6. Once you've done all this, insert the CD-ROM drive in place of the floppy
diskette drive, and reboot the system to the C: prompt. Pay attention to the
drive letter assigned to the CD-ROM drive. For example, if the assigned drive
letter is R:, then enter R: at the C: prompt, followed by the command SETUP.

As for the claim by another posting that the Windows 98 CD format is a little
strange and cannot be read by DOS, I cannot accept the claim based on many years
of setting up computer systems. When a computer boots up to install Windows 98,
whether from CD-ROM, floppy, or another device, it IS running DOS.

.... Ben Myers

On 8 Feb 2005 01:04:47 -0800, "Mike T." <lock_and_load62@hotmail.com> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I have an *old* Compaq LTE 5280 that I'm trying to set up for a friend.
>Nothing fancy...load up 95 or 98 and get it on the net. (preferably 98
>so I don't have to worry about partition size issues)
>
>This laptop has interchangeable floppy and CD-ROM drives. I can only
>have one in at a time. Booting to the 98 floppy, MSCDEX.EXE won't load
>because it doesn't see the CD-ROM drive. Also, no matter how I set up
>the BIOS (and I've checked and double-checked it several times), it
>simply refuses to boot from CD. When I swap the drives out after
>booting with the floppy, I get an error since (of course) no CD driver
>was loaded. I've created my partitions with fdisk on the 98 floppy, but
>can't format them because I can't get to the CD.
>
>One other thing: This box apparently has a Quantum Dynamic Drive
>Overlay. Could this have any effect, and do I still need it?
>
>Does anyone have any advice as to how I can get this box working?
>Or...is there any way I can run both drives at once?
>
>Thanks,
>Mike
>