Loading an OS on a CF-28

Does anyone have sometime to type me through a "No operating system" load up on a toughbook cf-28? I have an internal floppy, and an external dvd drive along with a Win xp pro disc with my coa. So far, I have plugged in the external drive...Nothing. I have inserted a disc into the floppy and it tells me to remove all disc and hit any key to move forward. Thanks...

 

What port is the external DVD driving running through? USB, PCMCIA?

 

Set floppy first and then cd on boot menu in the bios.

If still nothing check your harddrive and also the connection bet. mbo. and cable.

 

I have the external dvd hooked up to the usb. A friend mentioned I might need to upgrade the bios. It currently has V2.00L10b. This is a CF-28PBJAAQM. I also went into the bios and set the floopy first then the cd. It still comes up with No Operating System???

 

I would strongly recommend just getting the proper bootable CD drive, it would make your life so much simpler. But if you absolutely must do it this way then follow these instructions:

Create boot disks
A boot disk is a floppy disk or set of disks that lets you start the computer without using Windows. It can be useful to have this when doing certain types of troubleshooting and when performing a new installation of Windows.

You can download a program to create the six Windows XP Setup boot floppy disks that contain the files and drivers required to access the CD-ROM drive and begin the Setup process. To do this, go to Obtaining Windows XP Setup Boot Disks ( http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/q310/9/94.asp).

However, rather than creating boot disks, we recommend that you boot your computer from the Windows XP CD to start Setup. If your computer is not already able to do this (most newer computers are), refer to the section titled "Configure a computer to boot from CD" for more information. If your computer does not support booting from CD, you can download a file that will help you create boot disks. See the list at the end of this section for download locations.

Creating the Setup boot disks
When you download the Setup disks, the download contains only one large program file. When you run the downloaded file, it extracts the files to individual floppy disks. You receive the following prompt:
This program creates the Setup boot disks for Microsoft Windows XP.

To create these disks, you need to provide 6 blank, formatted, high-density disks.

Please specify the floppy drive to copy the images to.

Type the drive letter for the floppy disk drive (this is typically drive A). After you type the floppy disk drive letter, you see the following prompt:
Insert one of these disks into drive <drive letter>:. This disk will become the Windows XP Setup Boot Disk.

Press any key when you are ready.

When you press a key, the downloaded file starts extracting and copying the files. Continue inserting the blank disks as you are prompted to do so until all six disks are created. If the process is interrupted, you must run the downloaded program file again to create all six disks.
Label each disk with the number that is specified by the program. You must use the disks in the correct order during the Setup process.
After you create all six disks, insert the first disk in the floppy disk drive, and then restart the computer. Note that the computer must be configured to boot from the floppy disk drive. Most computers will do this automatically, but in some cases, you might need to modify your computer's BIOS settings to do this. For information about modifying your computer's BIOS settings, refer to the section titled "Configure a computer to boot from CD."
When you restart the computer, the Setup process begins. Insert each floppy disk as you are prompted to do so. You will then be prompted for the Windows XP CD to finish Setup.

The above information was taken from the Windows XP setup disk.

 

tough-2-go.... Wow! Thank you so much for all the detailed help. Wow! My friend is in the computer business full time,(so is the reason he has no time to tackle my computer now) and mentioned how helpfull everyone was on the site.
I did download the floppy disc's and ran through the whole 6. It then asks me to continue to load the win xp pro os. I try to proceed and it wont recognise my external cd drive hooked up through the usb. I did change the boot order to cd floppy then hard drive, still nothing? Anyone have any ideas? Also, I do have an internal dvd drive on order from the partstore.com. It is of course on backorder.

 

John,
if all else fails. go to bootdisk.com and download the appropriate boot disk.

 

Ok! read instruction on this link. It will help you load your OS:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=183726&page=3

 

I may be way off here, because I did it a bit different.

I believe that after you use the six XP boot diskettes you need to boot from the hard drive first, then the computer will allow you to run the setup from the CD.

The way I did it is:
1. make a windows 98 boot disk, boot the lappy with it,
2. run fdisk and create 2 partitoins on the harddrive. both of them primary, one about 3/4 the size of the whole drive, the other about 1/4 the size.
3. format the small partition.
4. Remove the hard drive from the laptop, remove the drive itself from the caddy, attach it to a 2.5' to usb adapter, attach the whole mess to another computer with a cdrom, and usb.
5. copy the "i386" folder from the xP CD, as many drivers (I mostly stuck with the latest, and the user manuals from Modly's ftp) as you can find to the newly created small partition. Along with the contents of any other cd installable software that you need access to. ( you have a usb cdrom that windows wll find, I didn't)
6. Re install the drive into the caddy, reinstall the caddy to the laptop , and boot from the Win 98 floppy again.
7. after the computer is booted navigate to the smaller partition within dos (change drive letters like c: enter, or d: enter (key, not word) list directory contents with "dir" You want to be in the 1386 folder and you want to run the winnt.exe file. this will launch Windows xp setup from the harddrive and allow you to pick the large partition to install it to. when it is done and needs drivers they can be found in my computer on the D: drive, or whatever the drive letter ends up being.

Or, drop the cash on the right cd drive.

 

In the end, the last option is probably the best. It's most convenient during the use of the laptop, and when you go to sell it, it'll be worth more with a CD drive.

Plus, with as often as I switch Linux Distros on the Toughbook to try them out, I'm way farther ahead just using an internal drive. There was on on eBay last night that didn't get too high.

 

Different, but IMHO, easier than tough-2-go's method. That was how I installed the OS into my CF-M34 400mhz since it doesn't have a CD drive built in.

john496200,
Alternatively, get a 2.5" HDD 44pin to a USB adapter or use an external USB 2.5" HDD enclosure. Connect that to a system running Win2k or XP Pro. Once the harddisk is recognized and ready for use, create the necessary partitions, create logical drive and format (Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management). Opt to format the logical drive in FAT32 or DOS will not recognize it. Copy the i386 folder and proceed as described by "tb4me".

Hope this helps.

 

I just ran through this process, and after beating my head against a wall trying to figure out how I did it last time, I ended up doing this (not what I did last time - which was a pxe boot):

What I had to do to install XP without having a CD-ROM

1. Create WIN98 boot disk [ floppy ] from bootdisk.com
use win98se boot disk with RAMDRIVE
2. use it to run fdisk on the HDD to create the primary C:\ partition
3. use it to format c: /S (bootable with system files)
4. Create Barts Boot Disk with Network support
5. Use Barts network boot disk to mount a share
configure your network as per Barts instructions (good idea to simply use existing u/p for your share)
when you get to the cmd prompt, type msnet to launch the network util
select map
choose a drive to map it to (z for example)
type your server+sharename \\servername\sharename
say ok, and you are in business.
check by cd'ing to the dir from the cmd prompt
5. Connect to a share where the XP CD I386 dir is stored
6. on the share place smartdrv.exe and run from the share
7. from Barts at the cmd cd to your drive which has the share mounted, and run winnt.exe from the share

This worked for me very well, and the only issue may be finding a good floppy lying about somewhere