Help with Windows 2000 installation

[mendhak]

This laptop has Windows XP currently. I finally got the Win2K Pro CD, popped it in, restarted the computer, and I made sure that the boot order was CD-ROM, followed by Floppy, followed by Hard Drive.

However, it never booted off the CD. And needless to say, it couldn't run from WinXP itself, because it was belonging to an older version of Windows.

Is there anything I can do about this? Can I somehow force the laptop to boot off the CD?

[Kasracer]

Read your laptop's manual or quickly read the first screen when you turn it on.

With mine, it won't boot off anything bu the hard drive unless you hit F12 as it's booting and then you can choose CD-ROM

[papacorn]

Try this if you still cant boot from CD..

Put a boot disk with the oak generic drivers for your CDROM, once booted from floppy

A:/>R: [for your CDROM drive]

R:/>dir [just to check if the CDROM is reading the CD]

R:/>cd i386 [once in the i386 directory run the winnt command]

R:/>winnt [you can use the /b switch if you do not want to make the start boot floppys, there are 4 of them in sequence]

This will start the install.

Good luck

[mendhak]

Hi,

Thanks for the little tips there. It gave me an idea to look into the "boot" folder (something like that) and I created 4 boot floppies.

The setup then ran fine!

BUT, after the entire installation, some of the drivers are missing.

My Ethernet driver, Display driver, Sound driver and a "PCI Device"

As a result, I'm stuck in that ugly 16 color, 640*480 resolution, and the screen is half the size of my laptop screen.

I realized that the drivers that were working with WinXP eariler were made specifically for Windows XP. I even checked out the laptop configuration page:

http://h20015.www2.hp.com/en/softwar...etype=software


So here's what I want to do: Do a search for the Windows 2000 drivers corresponding to the ones specified in the link, and take them home, and install them. Is my approach to this problem correct? I would like your opinions before I continue with this.

TIA

[papacorn]

Should work....Sounds like its too late to turn back now. Unless you are dual booting.

I think the video drivers might be the ***** to find. run this at the prompt:

debug [enter]
DC000:0040 [enter]

This should give you the core specs on your video card and maybe easier to find a driver so you can see again.

driverguide.com

[mendhak]

Originally posted by papacorn

debug [enter]
DC000:0040 [enter]

Interesting. I didn't know this. I'll try this out at home tonight.

Is there any way I can use that above to determine the Make of my LAN card?

[papacorn]

The debug command is cool but sometimes all you get from the readout is garbage so don't get too excited about it....

If you have some graphic ability, go get this- AIDA32pe- here: http://www.aida32.hu/aida-download.php?bit=32

It will tell you exactlly whats in your computer by brand, make & all that good stuff you need while looking for drivers.

I am not aware of a nic finding command for your network card. These integrated hardware drivers are best found on the MOBO CD.

Check out that AIDA program, it will make the driver search go alot easier.

[numtel]

winxp drivers are the same as windows 2000 drivers so there should be no problem installing the newer drivers.

[mendhak]

If it weren't for the little check that it does.

I searched and searched, and searched some more and finally got everything except for the graphics card drivers. (ATI RADEOM IGP 320M). As a result, everything's working now (sound, network, touchpad, buttons, etc), but every driver I found for the above mentioned card always had the same situation:

I'd run it, and it would crap out in the middle telling me "INF File Not Found". And I had no idea what INF file to specify from the Device Manager.

If not that, then it would simply tell me "This is for windows xp"... blah blah.

Else I'd arrive at a page carrying the exact driver need, and there would be no link there!!!! (driverforums.com, for example)

Sometimes the link would be there, but would be dead.

I must say though, some people have employed some pretty nasty techniques to get ranked on the search engines, because when I clicked on their links, it would get redirected to their home page. Sort of like a google-ranking technique, with lots of dishonesty.



This is sad.

I'm still going to wait and watch... always hoping. In case any of you have any solutions or even suggestions for me, please, tell me.

Meanwhile, I'll sit here and hope for the laptop to magically fix itself.

[papacorn]

Poke around here http://www2.ati.com/drivers/catalyst...es.html#168982

and see if you cant get your laptop off of the healing table...

[mendhak]

*conclusion*

Well, after scouring the Internet, literally more than virtually, I restored the factory image of the laptop and installed WinXP Professional, no hassles.

So although I'm satisfied, I'm not happy.


Oh well, I'll learn to live with this. Time to install...

*cd cd cd cd*

Thanks for all the help. I appreciate it.