Newbie TB owner! External CDROM questions

Hi all.

Am proud owner of a TB CF-27LBAGHDM PIII 10GB!

http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/panasonictoughbookcf-27

eBay "Buy Now" for $100. Has AC adaptor, HDD/caddy/gel, flaps good and battery seems to charge! It'll be good for "grubby" use working on the van or to use when camping. It looks like a fully rawking LT!

I know very little about Windows but have played around with tower type PC's. The TB boots in DOS to C prompt and will read a 98SE boot floppy.

Good news: it c/w a product code for Windows 2000 Pro stuck to the bottom. If I understand correctly, I can get a Windows 2K Pro install CD and enter the product code. But..... I don't have an internal CDROM

If I correctly make boot floppies (3?) on my PII tower (98SE) and put a CDROM drive in my external drive enclosure, could I load up the boot floppies and do the OS install from this external CDROM via the TB's USB port?

Sorry for such newb questions, but searching archives didn't yielded what I need to know. One of these days I'll break down and get an internal CDROM for it!

TIA,

Neil.

 

A parallel port CDROM is perfect for a job like this. Is there any chance of you getting your hands on one? all you would need is the driver disk for the CDROm and you would be good to go. The problem with USB is (AFAIK) there aren't any DOS drivers.

 

Panasonic makes a DOS driver, but it's more than a pain to setup, and it was slow.

 

Cool. Thanks!

For some reason I thought the Win2K install disk would make boot floppies containing some kind of generic USB drivers. But then I'm fond of saying "I know enough to get in trouble" --- ;^)

Never had my hands on a parallel port CDROM.

I have spare CDROM's with IDE interfaces.

I just got a network card for it. Maybe there's a way to network it to my PC....

I'll search around.

Thanks.

Neil.

 

a really low-dough solution would be to get an adapter that allows you to plug your notebook HD into a desktop 40-pin IDE harness. You can get those for under $10. I've got one and would hate to be without it

 

Hi. Thanks. That is a good idea. And as you say useful to have around. I had read of installing the OS using that method.

BTW, I found out how to do it. I thought I posted the results here but can't see it. Anyhow....

I made boot floppies from the Win2K Pro install CD on my PII tower, loaded those up on my TB, and after a few reboots/loading floppies, my TB "saw" my external CDROM (USB). I don't remember if the CDROM was on during the process of loading the boot floppies, but once the CDROM was seen, it all worked w/o a hitch!

Regards,

Neil.

 

Another option is to use a USB external enclosure to hold the HDD. That way you wouldn't need to open the desktop case.

There are also 3-way adaptors that can connect a 3.5"/2.5"/ or SATA drive to USB to access them. I picked up one of those at a computer show for about $15.00

As described elsewhere in the forum in more detail ( or GOOGLE for even more detail), format the drive, copy the \i386 folder from a setup cd (or another W2K pc) to the drive, and run \i386\winnt or \i386\winnt32 to install.

 

Too true. USB case would be less hassle.

I read of the \i386 option in this forum. I saw that folder while browsing for BOOTDISK.

Really glad I kept that old PII ........ It worked great. But I have no sound! (more reading to do)

Neil.