Dell Latitude C400 can't install OS from USB?

I would have loved to send this you on your offer but honestly it belongs to a friend of mine who lives in NJ, I am in NY, this laptop belongs to his 10 year old son, I don't know if my friend would want to send to a stranger since these guys don't know about "forums" and how the net works but I will still ask him and if he doesn't want to ship then I will advise him to purchase the case and attempt to fix this myself, thanks, get back to you.

 

feel free to pm me if you want to send the drive.
That case and the instructions already posted will get you up and running.
Just make sure you format C: the larger partition as a system disk,
this will make it bootable.
The second D: partition only needs to hold the contents of the XP install CD.

then type D: "enter" @ C:\ prompt which will give you
D:\
Then type setup and you are good to go.

When done, you can HIDE D: drive partition if you want.

It would also be a good idea once the c400 drive is all setup the way they want it, clone image it with one of the many applications available, save that image file on spare media as an easy way to restore the drive with ANY other computer and that usb case if the c400 drive fails or os corruption.

 

Ok, thanks.

 

RE:cyber16

Great instructions for reformatting this Dell latitude c400 without CD/DVD rom drive.

I used this: Hard Disk Partitioning and Formatting Procedure

for FDISK & FORMAT C: /s

I managed to make 2 partitions C & D using old laptop.

Got to the point of replacing the hard drive back in the Dell & booted up.

C:> changed to D:>

When I entered D:>"setup" , the reply was cannot run this in DOS mode??

After some research I found another method:

"This Program Cannot Be Run in DOS Mode" Running Windows XP Setup

Which initiated install, however a blue screen appeared with instructions asking to define the exact location of the WINDOWS files D:\???

Upon this I clicked 'enter' twice & the 'windows XP pro set up' page appeared with 'please wait while setup copies files to your hard drive'

The hard drive has been busy doing something for at least 20 + mins, but no signs of installation?

How long should this take after your experience?

Did you do exactly as I did?

Did you 'run' smartdrv.exe first before i386\winnt.exe??

As I chose to install without using the smartdrv.exe, as I didn't know where it was, is it on the MSDOS boot disc?

Hence the reason, as I've read in another thread that it will take a very long time to install the operating files if you don't install smartdrv.exe 1st.

Finally after 45mins the files are copying.!

Use the Smartdrv.exe 1st definitely.

Thanks

 

Well with the hard drive back in the dell c400, with 2 partitions.
C and D.

C formatted with /s
D with the contents of the Win xp disc

It took 4 hours!!! For the win xp files to copy from D to C

When it finally finished and the c400 rebooted itself to start installation, the black screen appeared with - NTLDR missing!

So if anyone has successfully managed to reformat a dell C400 this way
I'd really like to know how they did it?


It seems the only sure way to reformat is to buy a dell dvd rom drive with 3G265 cable.

 

Tried again, with the Dell C400.

Tried a different method, just as good.

Used a Win 98 boot disc.

Freshly Fdisk 1 active partition only, that all you need really.
Format c: /s


Place the I386 folder from the raw XP disc as well as the contents of a Win 98Boot up disc, with Smartdrv,XMS & other dos commands, to root C.

Ran 1)XMMS,2)Smartdrv, 3)then C:i386\winnt.exe

Computer asked for location of Windows files = C:I386 - Enter

Copying commenced (a lot quicker this time!)

Successfull message at the end, saying the DOS partition procedure was complete & the computer would restart to Finalise Win Xp set up.

Computer rebooted, only to get the NTLDR is missing - press any key!!!

It seems to be the DELL cannot find the BOOT LOADER NTLDR file to install the Win xp files.

I replaced the NTLDR & NTDETECT files just to be sure.

I took out the hard drive & placed into another IDE laptop & straight away it found the BOOT loader files & completed the install, no problem!!

So there's no problem with the way I set up the partition & copied the files to the root of C.

It seems to be maybe the BOOT.INI file may need tweaking for the DELL to see the boot loader (ntldr files)??

The DELL has the latest bios A12.

It recognises the IDE drive in the bios & passes all the inboard diagnostic tests.

Any posotive suggestions from those that have achieved a successful reformat this way on this machine would be grateful.

 

not that this matters but here is how I got this POS to reinstall windows

used a ide to usb convertor hooked up to a laptop that had windows on it

formated it with windows to ntfs

used acronis disk director to spit into two partitions (partition 2 1.2gb) and convert to fat32

used the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool to install the windows 98 boot files to make drive bootable

then copied the windows 98 start up files to c:\

copied everything of the windows xp cd to the d:\ or second partition

booted came up the windows 98 splash screen then to a dos prompt

typed smartdrv.exe to load smartdrive to help cache the files

then d:\i386 then winnt.exe

that did it for me hope this helps...

 

Just an update from my point of view - I managed to re-install windows xp by taking out the hard drive and implanting the i386 folder onto it via another laptop then replace back into Dell.

On boot up opened up dos and ran the C: set up command

PAIN IN THE REAR !!

It took ages!

The best way is to pick up the correct external special USB type Dell cd/dvd drive and install that way.

I would never do it again or contemplate buying a dell c400 with out the cd/dvd drive.

As soon as I finished I got rid of the piece of s***

Never again.

End of my subscription on this topic.