Laptop, no floppy drive, needs reinstall

[Nichabod]

Hi all, I have a Sony Vaio laptop that I'm trying to reformat. I've deleted the existing partitions and now I can't install either windows 98 or windows XP. The laptop doesn't have a floppy drive so I can't use a boot disk. the other problem is that the Cdrom drive is connected through a pcmcia card, I'm unsure if the BIOS auto-detects the drivers. When I boot up with my win98 disk in the drive, I can try installing from the cdrom drive, but it gives me the error message saying it can't find the files. I can go to a command prompt and it starts me with the A: drive, with very few usable files. about all I can do is run fdisk. I can't switch drives, getting an AbortRetryFail error when I try.

I've tried running mscdex, with the command line
mscdex.exe /L:A:\mscd0001 /D
Doing that gives me more progress, but it gives me the error of "can't find mccd0001" I can't edit the config.sys or the autoexec.bat, nor can I copy any files to the c: drive.

Also, while I'm on the topic, There is a 300meg extended dos partition that I can't remove, and it still has linux on it. I run fdisk, try to delete it, it says I have logical drives. I try to delete the logical drives, and it tells me that logical drives haven't been set. This makes me uber-confused.

I've also tried burning the win98 and dos system disks to Cds on my other computer and booting up with those, but they aren't being seen.

Any help at all would be super cool.
Thanks in advance.

[sechs]

Have you tried using a USB floppy?

Until you can use either a floppy or a bootable CD, the partition issue is pretty moot.

To make a bootable CD, you need to make sure that you give the CD a boot image.

[radio1_mike]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sechs

Have you tried using a USB floppy?

Until you can use either a floppy or a bootable CD, the partition issue is pretty moot.

To make a bootable CD, you need to make sure that you give the CD a boot image.

Right!

Though I'd pickup a USB key drive ($30-$50 for 64-128MB) put both boot up disks on the key drive, then you can decide which OS you want-- even Linux!

A bootable CD is also a great way to clear up pesky problems.

Look here: http://www.911cd.net/

[filipino]

ahhh easy as abc.
first of you need to make partation of you C: Drive using paration magic or any similar software. just need to partation to have D: drive after successfully created paration (Drive D insert your win98 Disc onto you cdrom drive and copy win98 Directory/Folder onto your Drive. (make sure all files under win98 directory has been copied)

then next step is to format your C: Drive by going to command promp. then type in format c:/s then hit enter .. then after sucessfully formated the C: Drive press Ctrl+Del

(format c:/s makes the drive a bootable drive by copying the file command.com
to C: at the end of the procedure.)

so you have your C: Drive bootable now type in d: then hit enter, then type in cd win98 then hit enter, then type in cd win98 then hit enter, then type in setup.exe

and y our set to setup.

[Nichabod]

Alrighty. I've gotten a USB floppy drive and I have a system disk (made with the format util in XP) and a win98 boot disk. I pulg in the drive, throw in the win98 disk. nothing. I try the system disk, again nothing. I tried messing with the boot order in the bios, and each time it did nothing.

I think one of the main problems is that There is about a 300 meg extended dos partition with a linux dual boot on it. When I start up the computer the logo screen comes up, and then it flashes to a linux dual boot sceen, choosing either redhat linux or dos. I try dos, and it tries to load but doesn't find anything. If I try lunux, it goes through the loading rigamarole and freezes.

My partitions are currently set up as C: with 97% of the drive. it has no files system, as I just created the partition. therefore, I can't copy any files to the c drive. none of the disks that are usable have the format prog on them so that's out.

The only disc I can use is the win98 install cd, that way I can get to a command prompt. it starts at the A: drive, which has cdrom stuff and command.com, autoexec.bat and config.sys. I can;t edit the confg.sys as I dont; have a, edit prog.

I need to get rid of the extended dos partition, but it's stuck st saying there are logical drives. There's no drive letter to that one. I think that partition is my main problem. Anyone with an idea of how I can get rid of it?

[sechs]

As I said before, until you can use either a floppy or a bootable CD, the partition issue is pretty moot. The reason that you're getting a Linux boot menu is because you haven't rewritten the master boot record yet because you can't boot to a floppy or CD to install Windows.

[Nichabod]

Ok, now by selecting the DOS option under the choice of linux or DOS, I can get to a usable C: prompt. I have command.com and other files there so I can format the drive and edit the config.sys and the autoexec.bat files. I used the single boot DOS boot disc found here: http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/#cdromsi

I tried the 911cd.net links, but that didn't work. I'll try it again.

[Nichabod]

I tried a few other configurations of the 911 boot disc (for win xp pro) and still nothing. When I get home from work I'll try a 911 disk for win98. Although I still just get a blank screen for each of the two I tried.

Is partition magic usable in a cdrom from dos? If so I'll try getting a copy of that.

[LeftCoast]

It may just be simpler to hit up Fleabay