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Old sony relic, IN A BIND!

post #1 of 23
11/16/05 at 10:20pm
Thread Starter 
Okay, so i've got a SUPER old sony ultra-portable that I want to play around with. It has NO OS!

It has a USB port, and i've got a external floppy and CD drive. It won't boot from a CD, nor matter WHAT I do.

Any suggestions?

My goal is to install a OS via CD.
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post #2 of 23
11/16/05 at 10:24pm
I've done this before, its fun.
First, remove the hard drive from the lappy.
Then get a 44 to 40 pin IDE Adaptor. Plug the lappy HDD into the adaptor, and the adaptor into your main desktop computer. Load up windows 98 on the desktop (remove your primary OS drive for saftey). Once you get WIN98 loaded on the desktop, running off the laptop drive, load all the drivers for your external drives to work.

Then take the HDD out, put it back in the ultra-portable. The Ultra portable will boot WIN98. 98 will take its time figuring out what the hell it has gotten itself into, and will prolly miss like 3/4 of its targeted drivers.

Try to actually get into Windows 98 somehow( i usually just press cancel when it wantes drivers), and promptly boot off your OS CD in the External CD-ROM(XP for example). Bam. Done.
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post #3 of 23
11/16/05 at 10:29pm
Thread Starter 
That seems a little complicated.

All I want to do is just boot from the CD.
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post #4 of 23
11/16/05 at 10:38pm
If you are trying to install windows xp and you can boot from your floppy drive, try using the xp boot floppies(6 disks)
download a set of floppies appropriate for your version from this link
http://support.microsoft.com/default...22120121120120

edit:
if you are trying to install windows 9x, ME, or 2k you can get a boot floppy from this site:
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

hopefully you can use your external floppy drive and cd drive at the same time
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post #5 of 23
11/16/05 at 11:25pm
Thread Starter 
I can't actually, do I need to buy a external USB hub?
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post #6 of 23
11/16/05 at 11:29pm
what model sony is this?
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post #7 of 23
11/16/05 at 11:43pm
Thread Starter 
Psg-c1xs
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post #8 of 23
11/17/05 at 12:56am
Thread Starter 
Can anyone help me?
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post #9 of 23
11/17/05 at 1:19am
i know this may sound stupid but worth a try.

check your bios. make sure that the CD is your 1st boot device.
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post #10 of 23
11/17/05 at 1:39am
Thread Starter 
Yeah, it is.

Always has been, still, nothing.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks for the suggestions so far BTW.
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post #11 of 23
11/17/05 at 1:43am
Yeah... I WANT IT!!! lol if you get fed up let me know I will honestly try to help but I think the way mentioned above would be how I would play with it. Or try to anyway.

Either way I would love to try out a sony picturebook lol, If you need a digital camera, u have a 9300 so u will not want my 6100 averatec or a thinkpad t30.... I don't know anything I have lol I want it.

Anyway back to the topic since I am sure you want to play with it to.

I would think that removing the HD would be the only way since getting it to recognize the USB drive seems to be the problem.... maybe a BIOS update would correct the problem if there is one?

But if you do a base load of 98 like he said and then run XP setup you should be fine.... or maybe you could try a network install?
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post #12 of 23
11/17/05 at 2:49am
Thread Starter 
Should I give up?
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post #13 of 23
11/17/05 at 12:54pm
boot off a thumb drive?
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post #14 of 23
11/17/05 at 6:10pm
Go into the BIOS and switch the boot sequence to do CD-ROM before HD.

M.
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post #15 of 23
11/17/05 at 6:41pm
Thread Starter 
I already told to boot off a cdrom.

Any ideas on how to install a bootloader off a floppy and onto the harddrive without using a command prompt?
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post #16 of 23
11/18/05 at 5:57am
install some linux OS that boots of a floppy and check if your CD-drive works, there's a lot of one floppy linux OS so it shouldnt be too hard
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post #17 of 23
11/18/05 at 6:00pm
Quote:
That seems a little complicated.

All I want to do is just boot from the CD.
Well that seems to be the only choice u have, and frankly its not that hard, and wont take much longer than a normal OS install.

So if u do want this so badly, which sounds like u do, then just stop being lazy and do what has been proven to work, or just stop wasting the forums bandwith with stupid questions and then ignoring what pple say to help u just cuz ur lazy.
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post #18 of 23
11/18/05 at 8:45pm
i am still watching one of these on ebay with the transmetta (sp?) I think I will pick it up.
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post #19 of 23
11/18/05 at 9:17pm
Thread Starter 
Go Cross!

I know how badly you want one of those!
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post #20 of 23
11/18/05 at 9:51pm
it went way to high nm... *sigh* I will find one eventually. I just want it for a temp car comp and something to do basic NES/SNES EMU's on and music videos, pictures, etc.

So I thought the P2 would be great but the prices never vary for power they just see oh picture book and price them like all the others. *sigh* anyway I found another to watch I guess I will see where it goes. Maybe I will find one to trade for or one for sale that I can make happen.
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