[Protege]

I was running windows 2000 on it, and tried to reformat.

I went on MS DOS and typed in format C:

Now, the CD drive that i have no longer gets read now. I think that must have delted the drivers for it... so i'm stuck in MS DOS with no exit .

The CD flap won't open. I do however have a 3.5 floppy drive, if that helps?

Edited by Protege, 05 February 2006 - 05:08 PM.

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The flap opening should be hardware based...meaning press the button, hold it for a second. Release, it should pop

What is your goal here now that you wiped out the drive?

[gerryf]

The flap opening should be hardware based...meaning press the button, hold it for a second. Release, it should pop

What is your goal here now that you wiped out the drive?

[SRX660]

Now that you have a completely blank hard drive you no longer have any drivers for the hardware. If you formatted the drive as ntfs i would download the microsoft program to make a set of XP boot floppies. This should give you access to the cdrom drive so you can reload a operating system to the HD. You can also use a windows 98 boot floppy but it will make you fdisk and format the HD as fat32. If you install windows XP you can convert the drive back to ntfs when installing the OS. you will probably have to find drivers for the laptops hardware to install.

A side note on making XP boot floppies is to make sure they all work. When i made my first set of 6 floppies the number 3 floppy failed so it would not finish loading. I had to make a second set of floppies that finally worked.

SRX660

[Protege]

Now that you have a completely blank hard drive you no longer have any drivers for the hardware. If you formatted the drive as ntfs i would download the microsoft program to make a set of XP boot floppies. This should give you access to the cdrom drive so you can reload a operating system to the HD. You can also use a windows 98 boot floppy but it will make you fdisk and format the HD as fat32. If you install windows XP you can convert the drive back to ntfs when installing the OS. you will probably have to find drivers for the laptops hardware to install.

A side note on making XP boot floppies is to make sure they all work. When i made my first set of 6 floppies the number 3 floppy failed so it would not finish loading. I had to make a second set of floppies that finally worked.

SRX660

Lol. I did this whole process, lol til it said that i needed 64MB of ram. lmao maybe i should have mentioned i only had 32 MB of ram. PII. lol lame laptop. Sorry

I did open the CD drive using a pin in the hole, but it wouldn't read the CD inside. It says drivers not found : aborted. and it says BANANA in MS DOS for some reason .

Any help lol

[dsenette]

http://www.microsoft...on/sysreqs.mspx
http://www.microsoft...on/sysreqs.mspx

for both home and pro versions of xp the suggested minimum ram is 128mb the absolute minimum ram required is 64 mb...and on 64mb....you might as well just use the machine as a doorstop cuz it's not gonna work well....you say you've only got 32 mb of ram on the laptop? if youve only got 32mb...then...that's a very good reason why you can't install xp on the machine

[Protege]

http://www.microsoft...on/sysreqs.mspx
http://www.microsoft...on/sysreqs.mspx

for both home and pro versions of xp the suggested minimum ram is 128mb the absolute minimum ram required is 64 mb...and on 64mb....you might as well just use the machine as a doorstop cuz it's not gonna work well....you say you've only got 32 mb of ram on the laptop? if youve only got 32mb...then...that's a very good reason why you can't install xp on the machine

I don't want to install XP. I was hoping it would get my CD drive working again if i did?

[dsenette]

what os are you wanting to install now that you formatted the drive?