Portege 2010 Help Please

Hey All,
The laptop i am having problems with is a Portege 2010, it has not built in CD or Floppy Drive. I need to install Win-XP-Pro and make two partitions. The problem is that when i use a PCMICA CD Drive to boot the CD it boots no problems, then it does all the things the BLUE windows XP install screen does. You get to step one that asks you to press enter to continue, then step two, install, recover, etc and then it goes to a screen that says CD Drive cant be found.

I would like to install Mandrake when i have XP running, but i have no idea how to make the system detect the PCMICA CD Drive after the initial boot. I have no floppy drive either.

So any one recomend a fix to this, how i can clean boot XP with no problems?

Thanks alot in advance

 

Its a Targus CD/DVD Drive. How do i create a partition then from windows XP? As you would have to do it from the OS its self as you cant get into dos, and the XP disk doesnt go far enough. Its a brilliant and wicked looking laptop, but its one heck of a pain to do much with =( wish i went for the Sharp AV18 now,

 

A lot of users with the Portege series has the problem of OS installs because of a lack of an optical drive. The drive that you have, is it a Noteworthy? This is the brand that Toshiba recommends for their notebooks. You can try copying the files into a seperate partition and install from that partition when you get to that error message. Does the system reboot before you get the error message? If so, it's possible XP doesn't enable the PCMCIA ports or have drivers for the PCMCIA drive/port after reboot, this could be causing the problem. If this is the case, copying the files over could bypass this problem. Just point to the different partition when it can't find the CD.

-Vb-

 

Since this is a Targus drive, it's not the Noteworthy that Toshiba sells and completely supports. This could be one of the issues causing this problem. Did this system come with Toshiba XP Pro recovery CD's or is this a standalone XP CD you're trying to install? What Recovery CD's did this unit come with? Try restoring the original OS with the original Toshiba OS Recovery CD's. To create partitions you could use Partition Magic, this is probably the best program to create/manage partitions. You can then partition the drive and copy the files over.

-Vb-

 

I had the same problem with Portege 2000 which is similar to 2010. Only two optical drivers are bootable on these laptops; Port Noteworthy NW24xCD and NWDVDPR, if you have original Toshiba recovery CD, there is no problem with installation, even when HD is formatted to C: Place the CD into CD drive, power up the computer while holding down the C key, release key when Toshiba appears, the computer will format HD and install factory image, easy and no hassle.

 

I had a similar headache with a friends Portege 2010. I did not have a working PCMCIA CD drive so I was with quite the disadvantage... I finally got it though.
How I Installed Windows XP on one incredibly stubborn Toshiba Protégé 2010

How I Installed Windows XP on one incredibly stubborn Toshiba Protégé 2010
[/p]

I am writing this "How-To" mainly because when I needed help installing Windows
XP on a Protégé 2010 with absolutely nothing on the hard drive, I found nothing
really helpful, I did find many half-tips and almost how-to's.
So here goes my whack @ it...

A few facts -&- how to work around them

If you partition your hard drive as FAT32 you will be able to see
your C:\ drive from the DOS prompt.

If you partition your hard drive as NTFS you will NOT be able to
see your C:\ drive from the DOS prompt.

You CANNOT install Windows XP on a FAT32 partition (however, XP
can operate on a FAT32 partition).

You CANNOT install Windows XP directly on a NTFS because you
CANNOT see the C:\ drive from the DOS prompt.

You can install Windows 2000 on a FAT32 partition - then convert
it NTFS before or after installing XP

Download Free Software (to download the versions I used, click below):

Windows
ME Boot Disk (click here)

USBboot (click
here)

WinRAR (available from www.download.com)

Operating System Installation Discs:

Windows 2000 w/ key code(I used Professional)

Windows XP w/ key code(I used Professional)

Successful Hardware:

External USB Floppy Drive (SmartDisk FDUSB-TM2)

External USB DVD Burner (Digital Pacific USB Dual DVD 1854-4x-01-1)

I realize everyone probably will not have all of the above accessible to them...
I borrowed the DVD drive from my neighbor and bought the floppy drive for $15
from someone on Craig's List. I am almost certain that any external USB CD/DVD
drive and/or USB Floppy drive would have worked.

Note: It does matter which USB port you plug the drives into... assuming you're
looking at the laptop from the useable position, open with the screen facing
you...

The floppy drive goes on the far right.

The DVD drive goes on the left

(the DVD drive will be plugged into the USB port in between the AC Power Adapter
and the USB floppy).

Prep Work - You need 2 formatted 1.44MB floppy disks (I used
another laptop for the prep work)

1. Use
WinRAR to extract the file USBboot.rar file to your hard drive

2. Open the
folder name USBboot and execute the rawrite2.exe

3. When
prompted for the image name, enter dosboot.img

4. Enter the
floppy drive as your destination drive, which in general is A:\

5. Place a
disk into the floppy drive and press enter

6. When
finished remove the floppy and label it e.g. USB Boot

1. Again, use
WinRAR this time to extract the file winME boot disk.rar file to
your hard drive

2. Open the
folder name winME boot disk and execute the winME boot disk.exe

3. Enter the
floppy drive as your destination drive, which in general is A:\

4. Place a
disk into the floppy drive and press enter

5. When
finished remove the floppy and label it e.g. winME boot disk

Set up the USB DVD drive under DOS mode and copying the I386 folder from the
Windows 2000 installation CD to the hard drive

Step One

1. Plug in the
USB floppy and USB DVD drive to the back of the Toshiba Protégé 2010

2. Insert the
floppy labeled winME boot disk, Turn the laptop ON

3. Use the
arrow keys to select the floppy icon to boot from the floppy drive

4. While
holding down the Shift key, press F5 (this jumps to A:\ prompt)

5. At the A:\
prompt, type fdisk and press enter

6. Enter Y
when asked about large disk support

7. Select
choice #1 to create DOS partition

8. Follow the
on-screen instructions

9. When
completed you'll be instructed to shut-down the computer. Do this by holding
down the power button til the laptop shuts off.

Step Two

1. Insert the
floppy labeled winME boot disk, Turn the laptop ON

2. Use the
arrow keys to select the floppy icon to boot from the floppy drive

3. While
holding down the Shift key, press F5 (this jumps to A:\ prompt)

4. At the A:\
prompt, type C: and press enter

5. At the C:\
prompt, type dir and press enter (to make sure we are able to access the
C:\ drive)

6. At the C:\
prompt, type A:\ and press enter

7. At the A:\
prompt, type copy A:\command.com C:\command.com and press enter

8. At the A:\
prompt, type C: and press enter

9. At the C:\
prompt, type dir and press enter (to make sure we copied command.com to
the C:\ drive)

10. At the C:\
prompt, type B:\ and press enter

11. Remove the
floppy labeled winME boot disk

12. Insert the
floppy labeled USB Boot and press enter

13. At the B:\
prompt, type copy B:\*.*** C:\*.*** and press enter (9 files will be
copied)

14. When
completed, shut-down the computer by holding down the power button til the
laptop shuts off.

Step Three - part 1 of 2

1. Insert the
floppy labeled USB Boot, Turn the laptop ON

2. Use the
arrow keys to select the floppy icon to boot from the floppy drive

3. Watch and
follow the on-screen instructions as your USB DVD drive is detected and
installed

4. A error
message will appear asking you for the path to command.com... type
C:\command.com and press enter

5. Now you'll
see an error message reading "General failure reading drive A" "Abort?
Retry? Fail?" type A for Abort and press enter (If
necessary, repeat until...)

6. You see a
message saying something like "Current drive is no longer valid >" at this
prompt, type C:\ and press enter

7. At the C:\
prompt, type autoexec.bat and press enter

8. Drive
letter R:\ is assigned to your USB Drive and it is fully accessible from DOS -

9.

Do NOT turn off the laptop between part 1 and part 2 of Step Three
(if you do, you'll have to start Step Three over again...)

Step Three - part 2 of 2

10. If everything
went well, you should have drive letter R:\ for the USB DVD drive. You are now
ready to copy the I386 folder from the Windows 2000 installation CD to the hard
drive.

11. Insert the
Windows 2000 installation CD in the USB DVD Drive

12. At the C:\
prompt, type MD 2k and press enter (creates a folder named "2k" on your
hard drive)

13. At the C:\
prompt, type


R:\ and press enter

14. At the R:\
prompt, type

Path=C:\ and press enter

15. Now type


Xcopy .<nobr> <wbr></nobr>/s C:\2k and press enter (there is a space between Xcopy and
the dot, the dot and the slash, the "/s" and the "C:\2k") copying the files will
take some time, please be patient

16. Once the copy
process has completed, at the R:\ prompt, type C:\ and press enter

17. At the C:\
prompt, type

CD 2k and press enter (this will change directory to C:\2k)

18. At the C:\2k
prompt, type

CD I386 and press enter

19. At the
C:\2k\I386 prompt, type


Winnt and press enter

20. Installation
will start. Follow the on-screen instructions (have your Windows 2000 Key Code
available) installation will take some time, please be patient

Congratulations!

You're done with the hard
part. Installing XP from here is a cinch. Just insert the XP installation disc
and the XP install wizard will walk you through the rest...

Select UPGRADE operating
system

After you're done installing
XP, If you want to convert the C:\ drive to NTFS

Open the Command Prompt

Start Menu &gt; All Programs &gt;
Accessories &gt; Command Prompt

At the command prompt, type

convert c:<nobr> <wbr></nobr>/fs:ntfs

and press enter,
the process will begin when the system is restarted

JM

[email protected]

How I Installed Windows XP on one incredibly stubborn Toshiba Protégé 2010.pdf