Resolved Compaq nx5000 - "Multibay" question

Got a tricky one. A customer's Compaq nx5000 laptop has crashed and he wants me to reinstall his OS.

But this model Compaq doesn't have an optical drive - it has a gadget called a "Multibay" which seems to be a kind of hardware platform for several different devices, ie, floppy, CD, DVD or even an additional battery.

I haven't tried to remove it, but it seems to be fitted into the side of the laptop just like any other optical drive, and probably slides out after a couple of locking screws are removed.

This particular "Multibay" contains a floppy. So there's no way of reinstalling an OS that doesn't come on 500 or so floppies.

My question:
Does anyone know if any old laptop optical drive (I've got a few spares here) will fit into one of these "Multibay" devices? Or will they only accommodate a certain range of optical drives?

PS: I think this model laptop is also designed for Docking Station compatibility. But no help there - we don't have a Docking Station.

Thanks for any ideas

 

Can it boot from USB DVD Drive ? If yes, the most cost effective way would be to plug in an USB DVD & reinstall OS.

 

Thanks but I'm not sure if the USB (one-only) port is 100%. Plus I've never had much luck with booting a system from USB. Do you know of a reliable way to set up an OS to boot from a USB stick?

 

Boot Windows XP from USB flash drive.

Hope it helps as I don't have a clue to the OS you are planning to install.

 

Thanks rsinfo. Unfortunately I haven't been able to get a USB bootable XP to work. I've tried three different methods without success. It seems to be much more difficult than people make out.

 

Failing the network install you could always try rsinfo's idea of an external USB drive and a set of XP boot floppys to initiate the install...

see How to obtain Windows XP Setup disks for a floppy boot installation

 

I dunno Wildfire. There's no OS on the target end - just a formatted 60G 2.5" drive. I'll read the links tho, you never know.

Here's what I thought I'd try. It's much the same system I used years ago when I was building W98 systems. I'd format the new, empty disk with FDisk and create a partition. Then I'd copy the W98 CD to a folder on the drive. Then run setup.exe. It worked well.

I thought I'd try that now. Slave the 2.5" drive to another machine, format the drive, create a folder on it and copy the contents of an XP CD.

My only question is, what do I use for a boot disk to access the laptop? Is there a Linux disk that would work? I know a W98 boot disk running FDisk can be seen but I wonder if it has the flexibility to see the setup.exe file and run it?

Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks

 

Erm, perhaps you should read my post again

 

Sorry about that, Wildfire. The first part of the post was supposed to be addressed to PeteC.

Re his suggestion about a networked install, it's all a bit confusing. Same with the various boot disks on offer. There's just too much information available, and a lot of it is conflicting. Here's something I found online. It's simple and if it works it'll be ideal.

----------------------------
Project: Install XP onto a laptop that lacks a CD but has a floppy drive.

Slave the HDD into an XP desktop system, format the drive as FAT32 then copy the Windows XP folder named I386 onto the HDD.

Now whilst you are there, make sure that you also format a floppy disk, making it a System Disk.

Copy all the files from the floppy onto the HDD. Find the application named SMARTDRV.exe. This ensures significantly faster disk copying and overall installation. Copy it to the floppy disk.

You now have:
C:\I386 [folder containing all the XP files]
C:\command.com
C:\smartdrv.exe
etc...
etc...

Place the HDD back into the laptop and boot up.

After the boot up process is complete, at the command prompt:
c:>
type in SMARTDRV.exe and press the ENTER key

then:
at the command prompt:
c:>
type in CD I386 and press the ENTER key


then:
at the command prompt:
c:>
type in WINNT.exe and press the ENTER key

Windows XP should start to install!
----------------------------
Does this sound like it might work?

 

Sounds promising, let us know how it goes.

 

Tried the method I noted above and it almost worked
Followed the how-to then booted from the laptop hdd but it came up with the message 'Non-system disk or disk error. Remove and strike any key'.

So I dropped in the same floppy mentioned in the instructions and booted up to an 'A' prompt, then switched to C then Smartdrv then i386 then Winnts etc, as it says.

This got a 'Copying Windows files' sequence. After it finished, it said 'Remove the floppy disk and hit Enter to reboot'.

But on reboot it just reverted to the 'Non-system disk' message.

Interesting....

Any ideas?

 

I'd try the boot disk set from microsoft (instructions posted earlier) and see what happens.

 

Thanks Wildfire.

But if you take a look at the Microsoft site indicated in the earlier post, it says in the '..these conditions are true' area, near the top:
"You have a working CD drive, but you cannot start your computer from your CD-ROM "

Further down, after the create-floppy process completes and runs, it says: "The Setup process starts. Insert the other floppy disks when you are prompted. You must use the Windows XP CD-ROM to finish the Setup process ".

Unless I'm much mistaken, these instructions don't apply to my case.

 

Ok just to verify what OS are you trying to install (I assumed it was XP as when RSInfo and PeteC mentioned it you didn't contradict them). And if XP what media is it on if not CD?

Bear in mind post #7

 

The system is XP Pro and the media is on CD. Re the external USB CD drive, that's obviously an option. But new, they're around NZ$80.

I've been involved with computer hardware for over 20 years and never needed an external USB CD drive before. I doubt that I'll ever need one again. It's an option, certainly, but I can't help thinking there's an easier way.

(BTW, I have an external USB floppy and I've used that several times in the past)

Re the network suggestion, I did follow the links but the process seemed very complicated with many conflicting views on how it should be done. Besides, I can't see how you could have a live OS on one end of the link and get any response from the 'dead' DOS end.

Yesterday I mounted the laptop drive back into a workshop machine and removed its partition. I created a new partition and formatted it (FAT32) then copied the entire contents of a different XPP system CD onto it.

Replaced the drive into the laptop and booted with the floppy I'd created for the earlier process. From the A prompt went to C then typed 'setup.exe' (this file came from the new XP CD) and the message came '..can't run this program (setup.exe) in DOS'. (Which is odd because I've run the same process many times on new system-less computers with bare, 'unallocated' hard drives.

So I ran smartdrv.exe from the floppy then went into C:\i386 and ran WINNT as noted above and again the file copy process ran. The eventual reboot got the same result as before, "No system disk or disk error.. "

If setup.exe is just calling the C:\i386\WINNT file (which seems likely because a file copy process begins when I go there manually), I'm wondering if there's a temp folder created during the file copying which is supposed to kick in on the reboot, but doesn't, and might be manually operable if I knew here to go.

I think this is a matter for a DOS expert. However I'm not one and I don't think there are too many about these days.

It's really no BFD - If I can get the laptop running it'll be a useful loaner or temp machine but it's not crucial. It's just bugging me that the answer seems so close yet remains elusive.

Thanks for your help on this, everyone

 

OK, try this Install Windows XP without floppy or cd drives

It's similar to what you've already done but you install DOS on the HD as well (that should stop the non system disk errors), still no guarantee it'll work but maybe worth a shot.

 

Wildfire, thanks for your suggestions about this irritating little problem. As I said, although it isn't serious, I'd like to sort it, because it's "there"

I'll check out your link and report back.

Later: Took a look at the site you linked to and it seems like the guy is promoting a very similar solution to what I've been doing, except that he suggests adding DOS 7.10 to the laptop hard drive while it's slaved into another XP system.

Having DOS on the HDD would obviate the need for a DOS floppy to be partnered into the mix and might keep it more centralized. I'll give it a go and report back.

Cheers

 

Unfortunately - another failure. I was pretty much expecting it as the method wasn't much different from what I'd been doing. Main difference was, with DOS 7.1 on the hard drive, there was no need for a floppy boot disk.

After the install process and the first reboot, the onscreen message was:
'NTLDR missing'
This in spite of the fact that NTLDR was definitely there at the root of C, along with all the other files.

A second boot brought: 'Missing system disk or disk error', same as before.

It seems like the only way I'll be able to do it is with a USB CD drive, so it's a toss-up as to whether I want to spend the $$.

BTW, I pulled out the 'Multibay' device that holds the floppy drive to see if the connector is anything like a regular laptop optical drive. But it's not - quite different, probable a proprietary HP connector. We don't want to make it too easy for the punters, do we?

The only other possibility is contacting some DOS experts. Maybe there's a forum somewhere...

Thanks again Wildfire, RSInfo and PeteC