Install DOS - attatch the drive to IDE 1, channel 2 and start up your computer.

- format the drive to FAT32 (you can always switch it to ntfs later, with a prog such as partition magic) - shutdown the computer *With the DOS cd in the drive - switch the laptop drive to IDE 1 channel 1 for best chance of detection, DOS is not the smartest OS ever made - power up and install DOS 7.10 when prompted. IT is your choice to add or not add all the extras with DOS, these will not affect your installation either way! - shutdown the computer and rearrange the laptop drive such that it is on IDE1, channel 2 again. so that you can boot into the OS (psobably XP) on your desktop. - remove DOS 7.10 cd - replace with Windows XP cd after system has booted. - Copy I386 folder from WinXP cd onto the laptop harddrive *probably place this directly on the root of the drive to prevent confusion later. - find and download smartdrv.exe and copy it to the root directory as well (speeds up dos transfers) *IF you cannot find this file, it is also found on win98 boot disks

- put the harddrive back in the laptop, reversing all the steps you did in the first part. Be Careful here as well, i have seen many pins bent due to carelessness on connecting the laptop/pin converter. -When you turn on the laptop DOS should load, otherwise select it from the list - run smartdrv.exe (type C:\smartdrv.exe at command prompt) - run 16bit Windows XP installer (type C:\I386\winnt.exe) - now let the laptop sit! Even if it appears to stall, it will continue, some older harddrives do not spin very fast and need time to load (5-10min is not an unreasonable wait *with smartdrv.exe installed, expect MUCH longer without it! - follow the Windows installer directions! (Total time, depending on computer speeds: 1-2hrs - though most of this is waiting for

Windows XP to install) *you will now have dos and windows on the drive, you can remove dos, or leave it, it is up to you!! PM if you need help removing your dual boot screen or uninstalling DOS safely. **The best part about this installation method is it is much cheaper than buying an external drive, as long as you have access to a desktop computer. *NOTE most external drives will use a USB connection which cannot be accesed on an installation.

This is a bit long-winded but I had the same problem and managed to solve it. How you obtain the "tools" is up to you You need: (1) a copy of windows 98 or ME (either one needs to be upgradeable if you wish to install XP) (2) Copy of windows XP (3) a spare Desktop hard-drive. It needn't be big. Any size will do. And a working desktop pc to work with (4) Windows 98 boot disk (5) Hard drive caddy for laptop hard drive (6) Hard drive ghosting software (I recommend Norton Ghost but there are plenty free ghosting software available). (7) Partition Wizard (http://www.partitionwizard.com/) (8) A USB memory stick (optional) Firstly, install the hard drive ghosting software and Partition Wizard software on a working PC Next, we are going to make a bootable DOS drive Place the spare desktop hard drive into a working PC as the master drive, boot with the windows 98 boot disk and then format using the command 'format c: /s'. If the drive is NTFS, then you will need to go into 'fdisk' to make it into FAT32 otherwise it will not format. After it has formatted, switch off your pc and then on. You should see the following DOS bootscreen: Microsoft (R) Windows 98

(C) Copyright Microsoft Corp 1981-1998 c:\>_ Now that this drive is formatted, install this drive as a slave drive on the working PC and switch on Plug in your laptop hard drive via the USB caddy With the partition wizard software , create an extra partition on your laptop hard drive. The size should be enough to contain the contents of Windows 98 or ME OS disk. Create a folder in this second partition (we'll call in 'WIN' for future reference). Copy the contents of the 98 or ME OS disk into the WIN folder. Using the ghosting software, copy the spare drive to the first partition on your laptop drive. If the ghosting software of your choice has the option to save the image, then I recommend you save the image of the spare hard drive - just in case (so you don't have the hassle of putting in & taking out hard drives in future) Your laptop hard drive should now contain two partitions. One should be a bootable DOS partition, the other should contain ME or 98 OS disk contents. Remove Laptop drive from desktop PC and place into your laptop. Boot up laptop - it should come up with the DOS bootscreen Type 'd:' without quotation marks and hit return. Type 'cd win' without quotation marks and hit return Type 'setup' without quotation marks and hit return You should now be on your way to installing windows 98/ME onto your laptop Goes without saying that if you require XP onto your laptop, place contents of XP OS disc onto a USB key and upgrade once you have completed installing 98/ME Note: Because of the time this consumes, It might be worth using windows 95 as opposed to 98 or ME as thats relatively quick to install but I have never tried this method with windows 95 (and using a USB stick to upgrade may be a problem) Another note: You cannot install XP direct from a windows 98 startup disk hence the reason of using ME/98 initially. It may be worth saving the laptop hard drive image using the ghosting/cloning software

once you have completed installing windows. I know this way seems long but I've gone through the net and had answers of "it can't be done" or "boot from USB (which is not an option anyway!)", but this is something I've learned by experience, not assumption.

this will fix the problem . first you must install the hard drive in a laptop that supports cd boot , and then install windows 2000 boot windows 2000 then copy the windows xp installation files to a flash drive then run installation from the flash drive when prompt select new installation . wait until it copies the files and is about to restart then take the hard drive out and put it in the laptop without the cd drives to boot n.b make sure flash drive is installed in the laptop that you want to program THATS HOW WE DO IT IN JAMAICA A YAWDY TING