Just Dug up my CF-27 from store, what next>? Help!

i've just dug up my CF27 from the old laptop store, and i was just looking at it, and i have to say, it just looked frigging' awesome, even if it is stuck with a Pentium II and 256MB of ram. i just have a few questions about it that i'v been thinking about for a while, and a few problems.

1) when i bought it for a amazing £40, it was reasonably OK, After all, i was impressed by just the build standard. it has WinXP installed, i was surprised considering it's Mhz, and RAM . However i am sorta stuck as the HDD Promptly failed shortly after i had bought it . i think it was still a standard one as it was like 6GB or something and therefor well after it's time.

2) this left me with a rather useless computer as it did not come with a CD/DVD Drive or anything. i Have found a few solutions, i took it to my School,( yes, i don't' work there, I'm a pupil.) anyways they were stunned that i'd bought such a dinosaur, but they managed to stick DSL Linux onto it. It's good but i really would like to get back to some edition of windows, either 2000 or Xp would be nice. any suggestions as to how without a CD Drive? i have tried Plop boot and USB Support but no joy there.

3) WIFI - is it possible to set it up for WiFi without one of those annoying dongles hanging out the back of it? i don't mind having to mount something on the back of screen, but it's just having it plugged into the only USB Socket.

4) Old Mobile Data antenna thingy on the case. My classmates were fascinated at it and were very satisfied flicking it about, but i was hoping that it might be more usefull later on somehow. an idea was that mobile phone frequency are mostly within tight sets of frequencies maybe it could be used as a 3g dongle antenna? probs a longshot. but you never know. Does anyone have any idea how that original modem works anyway? and what was it used for? i guess i was connected via serial, and guessing by the fact that it probs doesn't work anymore is there a chance of recycling the port or something? Possibly GPS or WIFI? having GPS on it would be amazing however i'm just going to settle for windows on it.

5) Battery. It was shot when i bought it, and i attempted to recell it,but that was an epic fail. Lucky nothing exploded. anyone know of any batteries lurking around the internet? i know with their age they are all likely shot, but it can't help looking!

Everyone thanks for your help so far!

It's S/N is CF-27EJ6KREE - Non touchscreen

i believe it is a ex BT Laptop.

 

My first toughbook is a CF-27 aswell. Pentium 2 - 300Mhz, 320MB ram (64+256), 40 gig harddrive installed. I installed windows xp on it, by swapping the harddrive to another laptop. Best thing to do is format the drive into MS-DOS 6.22 or so. Then copy the whole Windows XP cd on a directory such as WinXP or so. make the harddrive bootable to MS-DOS. then re-insert the harddrive into the Cf-27. Install Win XP then. I posted this a while ago on this forum, so look for that post. Dont have the time now to do it myselve. Then it works. Concering the antenna, it works with an old CDMCA system or so. GSM network. Very slow and expensive to use. With the correct software and an ordinary sim-card you might get the modem to work. Batteries for this machine can be bought by a german company. Alles4PC.de for 29 euros. I bought some, and they work 120 minutes or more. AKKU ACCU PANASONIC CF-27 CF27 CFVZSU04 10,8V 3,75Ah OK | eBay

Wifi can be built in very easy. You can also remove the old antenna and replace it with a better one.

 

You might also contact this US seller that specializes in cf-27 using Win 98 & XP :
soulvow | eBay
I'm sure the extra shipping would not be much on such a small item as a caddy with working hard drive...

 

Where would you suggest that the wifi is pluged into? USB? or serial?? or something else? and how would you go about modding the existing antenna?