How do I reinstall windows on this laptop..

[Aaron]

Ok, here's the problem..

I've been given a laptop to fix. I need to reinstall windows on it. I've got everything off the drive that needs to be saved, so everything is now expendable. The DVD drive doesnt work, and I dont have a USB one, or a USB floppy drive. The hard drive has 2 partitions, and i've managed to get the windows install files onto that partition, and was going to install it just through windows. However, the hard drive is so riddled with viruses (I did a scan and found 604 viruses on it!!) that it just wont run any programs any more - hence me having to fix it.

It does support booting from USB keys, so I've tried building a Live version of windows and booting into that, to try and run the setup files, but it didnt like it, and failed while booting up. The hard drive is NTFS, so I cant boot into normal dos, and NTFSDOS doesnt seem to want to boot either.

I'm a little stuck. I do have the facility to put the laptop HD into my main PC, but I'm only going to do that if A) something is definitely going to work and B) I'm able to format it first, as I dont want 604 viruses being transferred onto my desktop :lol:

If anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate it! :)

[Aaron]

And buying a new laptop (or parts) isnt an option :lol: it needs to be this one which gets fixed!

[Monkey]

Impossible unless you buy something... cd drive

[wonderlust]

connect it to your pc and delete the partitions from there.

The virii cannot attack your pc if you just connected it and boot from your normal drive.

[Aaron]

Yeah.. its just how do I then go about installing windows after that which is the problem.. :)

[jonwoad]

http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=1888

this may help?

[Aaron]

Hmm.. I've tried installing from a USB stick, but I havent tried building it using those programs, so I might give that way another go.. :)

[Aaron]

Except I dont have any computers running XP any more..

[jonwoad]

try downloading ubuntu on to pen drive and running as a live cd, then format the laptops hard drive, then put it into your machine?

[wonderlust]

use the hp usb key format software, works like a dream for setting up a bootable usb key

[coiler]

Buy one of these,

install it in normal pc and install windows as you normally would, deleting all partitions and doing a full format along the way


http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Peripherals/Cabling/ATA100%2F133/Laptop+HD+to+3.5%27%27+HD+IDE+Converter+?productId =8349


BINGO!

I accept paypal

[jonwoad]

thats alright if its IDE though :P

[coiler]

OP doesn't state which it is, but if its a repair good chance its an old IDE.

But if its SATA then he can install in pc with normal SATA cable?

[jonwoad]

yup laptop sata drives use the same cables as desktop sata

[wonderlust]

thats the nice thing about Sata, standardised connectors!

[Aaron]

Ok, the problem isnt that I cant get data on/off the drive.. It is an older IDE drive, and I have a SATA/PATA/Laptop to USB connector, so thats fine.. I've got all of the data I need off the HD. I literally just need to install windows.. :)

[wonderlust]

try this,
http://www.bay-wolf.com/usbmemstick.htm

let us know if it works

[coiler]

connect the drive via USB to your main pc, giving access to your usual dvd drive - and i'm when installing windows it should recognise it as a normal harddrive. Format and install.

[Aaron]

connect the drive via USB to your main pc, giving access to your usual dvd drive - and i'm when installing windows it should recognise it as a normal harddrive. Format and install.

Tried this yesterday, and it really didnt like it. But I figured this was the easiest way if it would work, so i've spent a bit of this morning trying to persuade it... And its currently going through the install process :)

Good call :)

[Aaron]

try this,
http://www.bay-wolf.com/usbmemstick.htm

let us know if it works
And i'm gonna bookmark this page too - I've been using the HP tool, but hadnt come across any win98 files that it liked.. So good site to use :) Thanks - appreciate the input everyone :)

[wonderlust]

And i'm gonna bookmark this page too - I've been using the HP tool, but hadnt come across any win98 files that it liked.. So good site to use :) Thanks - appreciate the input everyone :)


that mean you got it working?

[Aaron]

I thought I had, but its arguing with me.. I think this is probably the way to go tho!

[wonderlust]

lol, keep trying :)

[Aaron]

Tried it many times - it gets so far, and then fails after the first reboot, either unable to find the drive or just saying "there is a problem with the operating system".

Ive got another idea, but its too late to try now.

[Aaron]

Sorry, make that "Error loading Operating System"