I got an old laptop from work for a fiver and naturally everything had been removed from the system. It is an old laptop (dell latitude D266XT) with swappable floppy and CD drives- as in only one can be attached at a time. I got a win98 bootdisk, ran fdisk and formatted C:, then put in a windows 2000 disk expecting windows to install. I got a 'system disk error', so I then got an XP disk and tried that- it stared to install then errored (i386 I think). So after reformatting I used a set of 4 w2k bootdisks, but it couldn't complete as the CD drive was not attached so windows couldn't install. I got the same 'system disk' error if I boot from just the CD. I'm a little stuck now. I changed the bios boot sequence to the correct one everytime. It's as if the CD drive will not accept the bootable aspect of the disks (they are fine on my desktop by the way) any ideas? thanks in advance Thank you,

First "orf"... is this laptop OK for W2K? Wise to verify that aspect first; then if it is...go proceed with getting W2K onto it...? Providing it is OK for W2K; make the drive bootable to dos; copy the i386 to the drive; ensure that smartdrive.exe is installed/enabled; run setup (winnt) from the drive (from within the i386).

Thanks for the reply, the laptop is capable of running 2k and xp- although very much at the minimum spec. Not sure if I quite understood your reply however, I cannot have a floppy and a CD drive at the same time. Are you suggesting I copy over a folder called i386 to the HDD from a boot disk? Thank you,

mmm... Installing '98 with swappable drives is often a problem; and there is a way to achieve it. Essentially one makes the drive bootable to dos; installs (generic) cdrom drivers; swaps out the floppy unit for the cdrom and then one can access the contents of the cd...; at which one then installs '98. In the case of W2K one could follow that path; and ensure that smartdrv.exe (copied to the c: root) is enabled/executed at the time one runs winnt from the cd. Or one could copy the i386 to the drive and run winnt from there - again with smartdrv.exe enabled/executed. Rather than detail my own exact path to the above (i.e. making drive bootable and installing cdrom drivers)... I'll point you to the Krystyna's version. It's slightly different to how I do it; but it achieves the same end. Visit mesich.com; click on "how-to's" (left of screen); click on "Load Windows using swapable drives". That is a copy of Krystyna's method for using swapable drives (for '98) - carefully preserved by Mesich (to his credit and with Krystyna's blessing...). I suggest you configure the hard drive to have a Primary for OS/apps/utils; and an Extended for data - only. If you copy the i386 to the drive - to the Extended partition - (and I would regardless of how you actualy install W2K - as in run the winnt) you will have it there for future use, should you need to re-install W2K anon. If you do this you can also decline to copy the i386 the Primary partition - which is often/usually an option when installing NT/W2K. If the drive is not "that large"... at least create some semblance of an Extended partition; if only to have the i386 and any critical drivers stored therein?

Thanks for the prompt and frankly, excellent advice. Myself and a colleague came to a similar conclusion- I have got a load of floppys and intend to install DOS 6.2.2. Then download the relevant CD ROM driver disk from the dell website. So then hopefully I can run the win2k cd from DOS. This is all assuming that the problem lies with the CD Rom. Thank you,

http://www.mwpms.uklinux.net

I'd be inclined on this occasion to use a '98 boot disk and configure the drive along the lines I've outlined - and formatted as fat32. Make it bootable to the dos prompt; install the cdrom drivers etc... much as per Krystyna's route. Then proceed accordingly either to copy over the i386 (preferably to the Extended area) and install from the HD; or run the winnt from the CD - in both cases ensuring the smartdrv.exe is running of course. The reason I'd opt for '98 boot-disk and drive preconfigured/preformatted as fat32 on this occasion is that W2K will then have its partition(s) already formatted etc.. This will make setup that little bit simpler overall? If you use dos 6x... you are limited to Primary of 2Gig? However if you do use dos 6x, you could/would fully install dos6x - incl. the cdrom drivers; ensure you install smartdrv.exe as well; and - critically - make the Primary large enough to hold the i386 with a little space to spare. Balance of drive would be Extended, subdivided ideally into at least two logical-drives. The first for the OS etc, the second for data... Copy the i386 to the Primary and install from the Primary (again with smartdrv.exe enabled/active... Or make the dos Primary large enough for dos with a perhaps just "a little" space to spare; configure Extended partition with two (at least) logical-drives; allow W2K setup to format the first logical-drive; the second can be formattted later via W2K Disk Admin tools. Logically in this model one would install W2K from the CD - again with smartdrv.exe running... Without smartdrv.exe running W2K will take "for ever" to load - if it goes in at all... The variations are many; and I get the feeling you're well able to pick the one most suited to your tastes/need... You're in Hampshire I note.. whereabouts?