I would like to hear anyone's advice on the most efficient way to do a
clean Windows install on an old laptop. I'm installing an old hard drive
from one laptop into another old laptop (in this case it's an IBM
Thinkpad 570, but generic advice is also appreciated). I have the 2.5"
to 3.5" adapter to access the laptop HD in my desktop system, if that is
useful to this task. I expect to install W98SE on this system, but
installs of W2K would also be possible on other systems in future.

Is this typically as simple as "boot from the CD and follow the prompts"
or is there more I should know?

a@a.com (Ron S) wrote in news:12nqu0kd0pq1ua8@corp.supernews.com:

> Is this typically as simple as "boot from the CD and follow the
> prompts" or is there more I should know?

It will probably work, more or less, but every laptop I've ever run
across had a boatload of tweaked drivers and utilities from the
vendor that were needed to fully utilize the non-standard
peripherals. Most of them are just of the "nice to have" category
though.

IBM (now Lenovo) may have an archive of drivers and utilities for
your laptop/OS combination on their Web site somewhere.

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN | bert@iphouse.com

It's best to copy the installation files (the Win9x or I386 folders)
from the CD to the hard drive and do the entire installation from the
hard drive, if you can afford the disk space (100 to 400 megabytes).

Other than that, that's how you install Windows, but on a laptop expect
to have to install about a half dozen to a dozen drivers after the
actual Windows install is done before everything is working "right".
The drivers should be available from the manufacturer's web site.


Ron S wrote:
> I would like to hear anyone's advice on the most efficient way to do a
> clean Windows install on an old laptop. I'm installing an old hard drive
> from one laptop into another old laptop (in this case it's an IBM
> Thinkpad 570, but generic advice is also appreciated). I have the 2.5"
> to 3.5" adapter to access the laptop HD in my desktop system, if that is
> useful to this task. I expect to install W98SE on this system, but
> installs of W2K would also be possible on other systems in future.
>
> Is this typically as simple as "boot from the CD and follow the prompts"
> or is there more I should know?

"Ron S" <a@a.com> wrote in message
news:12nqu0kd0pq1ua8@corp.supernews.com...
> I would like to hear anyone's advice on the most efficient way to do a
> clean Windows install on an old laptop. I'm installing an old hard drive
> from one laptop into another old laptop (in this case it's an IBM
> Thinkpad 570, but generic advice is also appreciated). I have the 2.5"
> to 3.5" adapter to access the laptop HD in my desktop system, if that is
> useful to this task. I expect to install W98SE on this system, but
> installs of W2K would also be possible on other systems in future.
>
> Is this typically as simple as "boot from the CD and follow the prompts"
> or is there more I should know?

Since you didn't list the FRU number I am assuming 2643-3AA which
means P2-366, 64M of ram and a 6.4G hd in stock condition. If the
laptop can boot to the cd (probably) that's the easiest way to do it. The
laptop can also be upgraded to 192M of ram for pretty cheap. I would
do that. If you want to install W98SE then I would do the following:
1. make/get a floppy boot disk made from a W98SE computer with
fdisk and format on it and the cd drivers so it can see the cd and
boot to it.
2. partition the hd with 2 partitions, make the D drive at least 100M.
3. format the partitions with fat32.
4. copy all of the WIN98 directory to the D drive from the cd.
5. run the setup program from the D:\WIN98 subdirectory to install.
6. defrag
7. get all the aditional drivers from Lenovo's website, defrag after each
driver install.
8. remove all the "extra" files you don't need and defrag.

You should be good to go.

later,
charles.....

It's not necessary to put the install files in a separate partition. I
copy the \Win98 folder from the CD to C:\Win98


***** charles wrote:
> "Ron S" <a@a.com> wrote in message
> news:12nqu0kd0pq1ua8@corp.supernews.com...
>> I would like to hear anyone's advice on the most efficient way to do a
>> clean Windows install on an old laptop. I'm installing an old hard drive
>> from one laptop into another old laptop (in this case it's an IBM
>> Thinkpad 570, but generic advice is also appreciated). I have the 2.5"
>> to 3.5" adapter to access the laptop HD in my desktop system, if that is
>> useful to this task. I expect to install W98SE on this system, but
>> installs of W2K would also be possible on other systems in future.
>>
>> Is this typically as simple as "boot from the CD and follow the prompts"
>> or is there more I should know?
>
> Since you didn't list the FRU number I am assuming 2643-3AA which
> means P2-366, 64M of ram and a 6.4G hd in stock condition. If the
> laptop can boot to the cd (probably) that's the easiest way to do it. The
> laptop can also be upgraded to 192M of ram for pretty cheap. I would
> do that. If you want to install W98SE then I would do the following:
> 1. make/get a floppy boot disk made from a W98SE computer with
> fdisk and format on it and the cd drivers so it can see the cd and
> boot to it.
> 2. partition the hd with 2 partitions, make the D drive at least 100M.
> 3. format the partitions with fat32.
> 4. copy all of the WIN98 directory to the D drive from the cd.
> 5. run the setup program from the D:\WIN98 subdirectory to install.
> 6. defrag
> 7. get all the aditional drivers from Lenovo's website, defrag after each
> driver install.
> 8. remove all the "extra" files you don't need and defrag.
>
> You should be good to go.
>
> later,
> charles.....
>
>
>

Barry,

You and Charles both recommended copying the installation files from the
CD to the hard drive first. Why is this recommended rather than just
installing directly from the CD?

Ron


Barry Watzman wrote:
> It's best to copy the installation files (the Win9x or I386 folders)
> from the CD to the hard drive and do the entire installation from the
> hard drive, if you can afford the disk space (100 to 400 megabytes).
>
> Other than that, that's how you install Windows, but on a laptop expect
> to have to install about a half dozen to a dozen drivers after the
> actual Windows install is done before everything is working "right". The
> drivers should be available from the manufacturer's web site.
>
>
> Ron S wrote:
>> I would like to hear anyone's advice on the most efficient way to do a
>> clean Windows install on an old laptop. I'm installing an old hard
>> drive from one laptop into another old laptop (in this case it's an
>> IBM Thinkpad 570, but generic advice is also appreciated). I have the
>> 2.5" to 3.5" adapter to access the laptop HD in my desktop system, if
>> that is useful to this task. I expect to install W98SE on this system,
>> but installs of W2K would also be possible on other systems in future.
>>
>> Is this typically as simple as "boot from the CD and follow the
>> prompts" or is there more I should know?

First, it's faster.

Second, the location from which the install is done is registered with
Windows in the registry. If you do the install from a CD, it's going to
want you to insert that CD every time you make any minor change to the
system (add a printer, change any network setting, add Windows
components that are not installed by default, etc.). If you install
from the hard drive, it knows were to get those files and it won't ask
you for the Windows CD. [This presumes, however, that you LEAVE the
installation files on the hard drive.]


Ron S wrote:
> Barry,
>
> You and Charles both recommended copying the installation files from the
> CD to the hard drive first. Why is this recommended rather than just
> installing directly from the CD?
>
> Ron
>
>
> Barry Watzman wrote:
>> It's best to copy the installation files (the Win9x or I386 folders)
>> from the CD to the hard drive and do the entire installation from the
>> hard drive, if you can afford the disk space (100 to 400 megabytes).
>>
>> Other than that, that's how you install Windows, but on a laptop
>> expect to have to install about a half dozen to a dozen drivers after
>> the actual Windows install is done before everything is working
>> "right". The drivers should be available from the manufacturer's web
>> site.
>>
>>
>> Ron S wrote:
>>> I would like to hear anyone's advice on the most efficient way to do
>>> a clean Windows install on an old laptop. I'm installing an old hard
>>> drive from one laptop into another old laptop (in this case it's an
>>> IBM Thinkpad 570, but generic advice is also appreciated). I have the
>>> 2.5" to 3.5" adapter to access the laptop HD in my desktop system, if
>>> that is useful to this task. I expect to install W98SE on this
>>> system, but installs of W2K would also be possible on other systems
>>> in future.
>>>
>>> Is this typically as simple as "boot from the CD and follow the
>>> prompts" or is there more I should know?