VOGONS

Search

Common searches

Installing Windows 98SE on Thinkpad 380XD with upgraded harddrive

Topic actions

First post, by dinth

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hey. Ive got a weird problem with my Thinkpad 380XD. I bought it equipped with 5GB harddrive, which unfortunately has a lot of bad sectors. The laptop also has a faulty floppy drive.
The computer can boot perfectly fine from the 5GB or i can use my (original) Windows 98SE bootable installation disk to reinstall Windows on it.
The problem is only when i replace the disk for a larger one. I can still boot from the harddrive (if there's an OS already installed on it) and it works fine, but i cannot boot from the CD anymore.
The BIOS tries to boot from CD, Windows 98 CD shows the menu to confirm if i want to boot from CD and then the computer freezes with a blinking cursor.
Did anyone had a similar problem? How can i install Windows 98SE on that computer without being able to boot it from floppy and Win98SE boot cd being fussy?

Reply 1 of 3, by dinth

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

OK i have managed to boot my laptop from PCMCIA card (PCMCIA to CF converter with a CF card) with FreeDOS installed on it.
After several attempts i found that only the FULL freedos image works and only if its using the whole card (dd'ed onto the /dev/sdf not /dev/sdf1 if you know what i mean.
Then Windows 98SE installer doesnt work with FreeDOS CDROM drivers loaded, but i have managed to install FreeDOS to C: partition, using the boot CD copy the contents of Windows install CD to C: and then rebooted without CD drivers (f5 key during boot)

Reply 2 of 3, by bZbZbZ

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Back in the day I routinely had reliability issues with optical drives (particularly read errors occurring midway through Windows installation), so I got into the habit of copying the Windows installation files (the 'Win98' folder) to the hard drive first.

Then I'd boot into DOS (using a floppy, but in your case I guess you can use your PCMCIA card), navigate to C:\Win98\ and run setup.exe.

As a bonus... if you leave the Win98 folder alone (don't delete it after the OS finishes installing) you'll never get asked for your Windows Install CD every time you change device drivers for your hardware.

Reply 3 of 3, by Deksor

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

What is the card currently formatted with ? The fact it shows the menu seems to mean the computer is starting off of the CD but perhaps DOS doesn't like what it's seeing on the HDD ? Try to format it with freedos' fdisk and then try to boot the windows 98 cd.

Also yes putting the files on the HDD and installing win98 from there works 😀

Trying to identify old hardware ? Visit The retro web - Project's thread The Retro Web project - a stason.org/TH99 alternative

Go to top of page Go to top of page
Back to Software
Close window
Close window