external cd-rom drive

Here's my problem: I have a HP cd writer 7500E (external) and I would like to use it as a cd-rom Read only drive, so I can reinstall windows on my new laptop hard drivehard drive.

My laptop's hard drive went dead and of course the it doesn't have a built in cd-rom drive.

After contacting HP for DOS drivers, there tech told me there are realmode DOS drivers in a MISC\REALMODE folder on the setup cd (yes I can not find my setup cd) and there is also a Readme.txt file that will instruct me on how to configure a boot disk to search the P. Port and load the drivers and give it a drive ID letter (example - D:, E: drive).

HP will not give me this info only stating that they will not support the cd writer in DOS. I have a good boot disk but it will only find a drive when attached to an IDE controller in a desktop system, it will not search anf find a drive at the P. Port.

I'm in need of anyone who who knows how to configure a boot disk to do this and the drivers.

Thanks and any help will be greatly appreaciated

 

Hi , Tricky problem !, as you say HP don't provide DOS drivers for download. Two other manufacturers , Freecom and Shuttle made external Parallel CD drives and there is a chance that the DOS drivers for either or both might work , Shuttle is the older of the two. I have both of these drivers and if you have problems locating them I cxould email you zips , in the first instance try this site for Freecom's DOS drivers for their older Parallel models.

http://www.freecom.com/ecSupportdetail.asp?PID=10851&type=CLASSIC&parent=OTHERS


A quick solution would be to link your laptop and desktop together by parallel cable and use a file transfer program such as Laplink or Tranxit and copy the Windows CD across onto the laptop hard drive , you could then install Windows directly from the laptop hard drive. Another possibility is to mount the laptop drive in your desktop using a 3.5" to 2.5" adaptor (just a few dollars on Ebay) and again transfer Windows onto the laptop drive. I appreciate that for a normal home user some of these solutions are a little technical !
Mike