Re install software from external cd drive

Hi

I have an old travelmate c300 and the internal cd drive (code DVR-K12RA) has stopped working.

I needed to do a re installation from the backup discs so I purchased an external cd drive and connected to the c300. The laptop recognises the external drive and tries to boot from it but the message comes up saying cannot find drive z. I get abort | retry | ignore. any option i choose sends it into a loop.

Any help with this would be great because I need this for work.


Regards


Robert

 

Welcome to NBR.

The problem is most likely in your partitions. What is the size of your hdd? What is your hdd state? I mean - does it have partitions set? Are they empty?


I had to deal with similar problem before with C110. You'll need to repartition and reformat the hard drive. Delete all the partitions, then create C:\ 10gb and with the rest of the space create D:\. Don't forget to format the drives. Then run the recovery.
Note: You'll need a linux Live CD or windows 95/98 startup cd to do all this..

I'm not sure if this will work for you, but I'd give it a shot..

 

Hi Thank you for your reply.

I am not sure about your anwer. I am thinking the problem lies in the fact that I am trying to run the recovery software from an external cd rom. I have run the recovery software in the past from the internal cd rom, when it was working, with no problems at all with formating.

Would the recovery cd installation file be looking to install from an internal drive or does that not matter?

robert

 

from your initial post i think your problem most likely is related to the fact that the quick restore disks were created to be ran from an INTERNAL CDROM, and since the external CD-ROM doesn't use the same hard-drive controller as an internal CD-drive would... i think that is where your problem comes from.
the external CD is using a USB interface, and is not ATAPI and MICROSOFT CD EXTENTIONS compatible (atleast that is my guess)

((when you get the cannot find DRIVE Z:,, that is because the RESTORE CD is designed to communicate with an internal CD that is physically attached to an IDE controller))

basically the CDROM DRIVER or the MSCDEX.exe cannot load because the DOS STARTUP FILES CANNOT LOCATE THE CD-ROM since the drivers on the restore cds are looking for a CD drive attached to the IDE controller.

i hope that is not too confusing for you.... but that is what is happening i'm pretty sure... you might consider buying a USED internal CD drive..

try posting a WANT TO BUY thread in the BUY SELL TRADE forum.
or check EBAY for a used drive.

maybe ATTHEGATES can confirm or dispell my theory?

 

Thank you, that all makes complete sense to me. I was hoping I could do something to change it without the added expence of an internal ccd rom.

I was thinking along the lines of

1. Changing the batch / installation file to reflect the new drive letter. Or

2. Rediesignate the external drive as the drive letter the internal would have been ie. D:

3. Some other option I have not thought of.

regards

robert

 

you may be able to modify the AUTOEXEC.BAT and the CONFIG.SYS files on the recovery CD to replace the standard drivers with the DRIVERS that came with your EXTERNAL CD drive...

changing the drive letter desigination is also possible... but the letter is not your problem... the problem is that the after the BOOT hands off control to DOS... dos is not communicating with the EXPECTED cd-rom drive

it's been a few years since i've done anything this intense involving DOS,,, it takes me back to the days of installing my first CD-drive,,, and learning to modify the config.sys and autoexec.bat,,,, learning about the driver.sys and MSCDEX.exe and all the little swithces of each command...

do you have an EXTERNAL USB HDD?? if so,, does your BIOS support booting from USB HDD??

if yes to both of those you may be able to FORMAT the USB HDD with system files (using WIN98) and then copy the restore CDs to the newly formatted USB HDD,,,, then boot the PC from the USB DRIVE... that might work...

but i think your idea of modifying the quick restore CD's boot files is more likely to work

 

You are right I think this is the problem too, I forgot about the USB CD-ROM...

In my opinion you have 2 options.

1. Modify the recovery CD.
You have to insert the usb driver then modify autoexec.bat and config.sys(if exists, i don't know how the recovery cds are build). Anyway this is not easy...you'll need UltraISO and a lot of time

2. Use my modified NAPP CD.
It's for C110 but it might work with C300 as well. NAPP CD prepare the tablet for the recovery process. It installs the CD-ROM, check the hdd etc. I had to modified it to work with external CD-ROM and I succeeded. It took my only a week
The whole process is easy if you want to give it a shot.
You'll need to:
1. Download the NAPP CD(it's a 8mb iso) and burn it.
2. Enable D2D in BIOS.
3. Boot the tablet with NAPP.
4. When asked "Preload the system Y/N) answer Y of course
5. NAPP should ask you for the Recovery CD and open the lid of the CD-ROM. The lid will open if the drivers are loaded properly.

If you want to follow option 2, please tell me and I'll give you my NAPP CD.