Installing XP Tablet on HD w/o built-in USB's or CD-ROM

My Tablet's USB ports don't work But an aftermarket PCMCIA USB hub did. The
Tablet does not have a CD-ROM. The original HD crashed. Now I don't know
how to install XP Tablet. If I take the HD out and make it an temp. external
drive on my Desktop, can I copy certain files onto the HD to get started?
Any Suggestions, or should I just toss it?
Norm

Norm wrote:
> My Tablet's USB ports don't work But an aftermarket PCMCIA USB hub
> did. The Tablet does not have a CD-ROM. The original HD crashed.
> Now I don't know how to install XP Tablet.

Try it with an external CD-ROM drive. I can not say, however, if the
BIOS will support booting from a drive connected with your PCMCIA card.

In case not you have to work around:
1.) Connect the new HDD to your desktop computer.
There are cheap adaptors for connecting a notebook-drive to the IDE of a
desktop.
2.) Create the necessary partitions. I would suggest two: one for the
system, the other for your data.
3.) Make the drive bootable with DOS. This can be done using a bootdisk,
f.e."Windows 98 SE Custom, No Ramdrive"
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm.
4.) Copy the whole of the i386 directory if your XP-CD on the second
partition. Copy the SP2 and SP3 files also.
Collect all of the manufacturer's drivers and software add-ons and add
them too.
5.) Put the HDD into the TabletPC, let it boot.
6.) Thereafter you can call the install from your drive D:

Caveat: It could be that the recipe might have to be slightly modified
in order to make the TabletPC parts of the OS available. It works fie
fro normal notebooks without CD-drives. But I did not yet try it in my
TabletPC.
It would be good if you could use an XP-CD with SP2 integrated. Then the
install could be done in one run.

> If I take the HD out and
> make it an temp. external drive on my Desktop, can I copy certain
> files onto the HD to get started?

You should least try to get hold if the data on the broken HDD.
Could be that the drive is not totally defective.

But you can not copy the IS and programs.
You have to make a fresh install from scratch.

Good luck
Rainald

"Rainald Taesler" wrote:

> Norm wrote:
> > My Tablet's USB ports don't work But an aftermarket PCMCIA USB hub
> > did. The Tablet does not have a CD-ROM. The original HD crashed.
> > Now I don't know how to install XP Tablet.
>
> Try it with an external CD-ROM drive. I can not say, however, if the
> BIOS will support booting from a drive connected with your PCMCIA card.
>
> In case not you have to work around:
> 1.) Connect the new HDD to your desktop computer.
> There are cheap adaptors for connecting a notebook-drive to the IDE of a
> desktop.
> 2.) Create the necessary partitions. I would suggest two: one for the
> system, the other for your data.
> 3.) Make the drive bootable with DOS. This can be done using a bootdisk,
> f.e."Windows 98 SE Custom, No Ramdrive"
> http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm.
> 4.) Copy the whole of the i386 directory if your XP-CD on the second
> partition. Copy the SP2 and SP3 files also.
> Collect all of the manufacturer's drivers and software add-ons and add
> them too.
> 5.) Put the HDD into the TabletPC, let it boot.
> 6.) Thereafter you can call the install from your drive D:
>
> Caveat: It could be that the recipe might have to be slightly modified
> in order to make the TabletPC parts of the OS available. It works fie
> fro normal notebooks without CD-drives. But I did not yet try it in my
> TabletPC.
> It would be good if you could use an XP-CD with SP2 integrated. Then the
> install could be done in one run.
>
> > If I take the HD out and
> > make it an temp. external drive on my Desktop, can I copy certain
> > files onto the HD to get started?
>
> You should least try to get hold if the data on the broken HDD.
> Could be that the drive is not totally defective.
>
> But you can not copy the IS and programs.
> You have to make a fresh install from scratch.
>
> Good luck
> Rainald
>
>

Thank you Rainald for the help. I have partitioned the tablets HD using a
eide to usb adaptor. Loaded i386 on "Data" partition, and put all the
drivers I could find on the "system" partition.
I have the Operating Sustem Recovery CD, but the Tablet won't boot from it.
Yes, I reconfigured Bios and put CD-Rom first in boot order.
The problem I have now is making the HD bootable. I went to the bootdisk
site and downloaded your recommendation, but it wants a floppy drive, which I
don't have. Happy to make a donatiion on the site but what should I use now??

Norm wrote:
> "Rainald Taesler" wrote:

[recipe]
> Thank you Rainald for the help. I have partitioned the tablets HD
> using a eide to usb adaptor. Loaded i386 on "Data" partition, and
> put all the drivers I could find on the "system" partition.

The latter was not wise at all. You'll need them later and when
formatting
the partition during the install the are gee.
Move everything to the data partition.

> I have the Operating System Recovery CD, but the Tablet won't boot
> from it. Yes, I reconfigured Bios and put CD-Rom first in boot order.

OK (or better: not good)
So we will work with booting from the HDD with DOS.

Which kind of Recover CD do you gave?
Is the OS (Win XP) integrated or is the OS separately in CD(s)? If the
latter: how many?
BTW: Which brand if TabletPC?

> The problem I have now is making the HD bootable. I went to the
> bootdisk site and downloaded your recommendation, but it wants a
> floppy drive, which I don't have. Happy to make a donatiion on the
> site but what should I use now??

Bo problem. I created an ISO-image of the boot disk (app. 3MB) Collect
it from my FTP-site:
ftp://ftp.hs-heilbronn.de/vdb/compaq...otdisk98se.iso .
Then burn a CD from it.
Then open a DOS-B (CMD = commandline prompt), navigate to the CD-drive.
Use FORMAT to format the HDD ad transfer the DOS system:

format <drive-letter> /s

where <drive letter> means the system partition of the notebook HDD.
Enter this without the brackets, f.e.:

format g: /s

So far steps.
The rest will depend on the type if your OS/Recovery CDs.

I'll be away (abroad) until next Friday. I might be able to check the
news but I'll mist probably it be able to reply.

Rainald

OK, every thing moved to data partition.

>
I have a Motion Computing M1400. The recovery disk starts up just like a
WinXP installation disk. When I put the disk in the cd-rom the Menu comes up.

Tried format g: /s but it would not accept the /s

Downloaded all the files available on BootDisk web site (Paid the $4
w/paypal) But could not get the HD to boot in the tablet.

Question: When the HD is able to boot, will I be able to plug the eide/usb
cable into my laptop and it would boot up? Not sure I said that right.

Thanks again for your help


Norm


> So far steps.
> The rest will depend on the type if your OS/Recovery CDs.
>
> I'll be away (abroad) until next Friday. I might be able to check the
> news but I'll mist probably it be able to reply.
>
> Rainald

Rainald, I hope you have not given up on me?

Norman

"Norm" wrote:

>
> OK, every thing moved to data partition.
>
> >
> I have a Motion Computing M1400. The recovery disk starts up just like a
> WinXP installation disk. When I put the disk in the cd-rom the Menu comes up.
>
> Tried format g: /s but it would not accept the /s
>
> Downloaded all the files available on BootDisk web site (Paid the $4
> w/paypal) But could not get the HD to boot in the tablet.
>
> Question: When the HD is able to boot, will I be able to plug the eide/usb
> cable into my laptop and it would boot up? Not sure I said that right.
>
> Thanks again for your help
>
>
> Norm
>
>
> > So far steps.
> > The rest will depend on the type if your OS/Recovery CDs.
> >
> > I'll be away (abroad) until next Friday. I might be able to check the
> > news but I'll mist probably it be able to reply.
> >
> > Rainald
>

Norm wrote:
> Rainald, I hope you have not given up on me?

For sure not.
Things are a bit complicated. So I need some tome.

Rainald


> "Norm" wrote:
>
>>
>> OK, every thing moved to data partition.
>>
>>>
>> I have a Motion Computing M1400. The recovery disk starts up just
>> like a WinXP installation disk. When I put the disk in the cd-rom
>> the Menu comes up.
>>
>> Tried format g: /s but it would not accept the /s
>>
>> Downloaded all the files available on BootDisk web site (Paid the $4
>> w/paypal) But could not get the HD to boot in the tablet.
>>
>> Question: When the HD is able to boot, will I be able to plug the
>> eide/usb cable into my laptop and it would boot up? Not sure I said
>> that right.
>>
>> Thanks again for your help
>>
>>
>> Norm
>>
>>
>>> So far steps.
>>> The rest will depend on the type if your OS/Recovery CDs.
>>>
>>> I'll be away (abroad) until next Friday. I might be able to check
>>> the news but I'll mist probably it be able to reply.
>>>
>>> Rainald

> My Tablet's USB ports don't work But an aftermarket PCMCIA USB hub did. The
> Tablet does not have a CD-ROM. The original HD crashed. Now I don't know
> how to install XP Tablet. If I take the HD out and make it an temp. external
> drive on my Desktop, can I copy certain files onto the HD to get started?
> Any Suggestions, or should I just toss it?
> Norm

Norm, do you have the docking station for the M1400? I had a similar issue
with my M1400 and I found that I could plug an IDE cd-rom drive into the usb
port on the docking station using a usb adapter, and then just do the reload
with the tablet sitting in the docking station using the Motion Computing
reload disc

word of warning, for whatever reason, SP3 causes severe issues on the m1400
tablet.

This might be a good excuse to load windows 7 (which has tablet extensions)

since your pcmcia usb hub works that might be the basis of running an
install off of a usb memory key containing windows 7... high capacity
usb memory keys are pretty cheap, but, be aware, may not offer boot
options, especially via the pcmcia hub.

How hard is it to remove the hard drive? There are $20 usb hd adapters
that will allow you to fully set up a bootable drive using a different pc.

Spend some time on the internet to find a good win7 help forum... things
to ask;

which version (the skinny is not ultimate unless it has something
specific you need)

Get tips on memory key installs... the good news is that with the advent
of netbooks, this is a common need nowadays.

You have 120 days to run _with no product key_ nice amount of time to
decide if you want to stay... if you use a product key before the 120
day limit that will demand one, the money's been spent.

Disclaimer... I'm an observer... collecting facts and impressions of
win7 but have not gone there (yet)

Beverly Howard

Beverly Howard wrote:

> Disclaimer... I'm an observer... collecting facts and impressions of
> win7 but have not gone there (yet)

Sorry to say this:
You are talking like the blind one on colours!

IMHO your posting is good for nothing but spreading confusion.
Are you following the device: "The situation has been complicated
enough. Why not stir up things a bit more"?

Sadly Yours
Rainald