I got a thinkpad 365xd with only command.com file on the c drive..Machine doesn't have floppy drive so I can't install anything...Can't setup CD drive to boot from there..I tried everythimg to connect laptop with other machine (with serial and paralel cables and 2.5 to 3.5 adapter for HDs)..Nothing! Any smart idea that won't cost me to much? thanks

Hi, didn't you ask a question about this before? I'm not familiar with this exact laptop, and I can't IMAGINE haveing one without a floppy drive, but here are a few things. Does it have a small connector, probably on the side, that looks sorta like a serial port? If so, you might search on ebay for an external floppy kit. I don't understand, are you saying you HAVE the ide adaptor cable, and can't get the laptop hd to work in your pc? Are you trying to use it with your existing hd? You probably cannot do that--probably need to install it as the only hd. Other than that, maybe find someone with a similar machine, and swap the hd into it and copy the setup files from there. (What part of the world are you in?) Have you been to ibm.com? I took a quick look,a and found a lot of downloadable info for this machine, looks like some models were built for a floppy. Can you get one to replace the cd? I've seen various floppies for thinkpads on ebay, and some were not that expensive. I also found out, by the way, that the floppy for my old thinkpad 360x (486-33) would fit into my newer 380xd (P233) which went bad. This was a delicate operation, though, and required removing the old and the new from their brackets and so on. The other thing is, there is a lot of utilites and drivers and so on for these at ibm.com,and I can't imagine how to deal with these without a floppy, unless you can get laplink to work. Speaking of which, have you tried "remote installing" laplink? I have been able to get this to work on some machines. AND, if it will boot from the cd, I saw a couple of recovery cd's for the 365 series on ebay the other day, one was "buy it now" for 25.00 US.

Machine boots the hard drive, right? Only gots command.com, right? Probably a fat16? Gots a serial port? ctty is an internal command. A long shot: get another dos machine; connect the two with a null modem cable; run interlnk /rcopy on the host; type ctty com1 on your machine; if you're lucky...it's worth a try, I think!