I have three handicapped kids. I purchased old thinkpad laptops for my kids to use in school off of ebay. I also purchased win 98 to install on them. Unfortunately two of the laptops don't have cd-roms. Is there a way I can connect the thinkpads to another laptop with a cd-rom drive to load the operating system? or could I convert the 98 system disk to 3.5s ( I know it will take a lot of disks, but if it works it will be worth it.) Any help would be appreciated. Thanks! Cvianna

Couple of suggestions:- Presuming floppy drives from comment. Do the laptops have network cards/connectors? If so, you could network the non CD ones to CD one - and using a network bootdisk (www.bootdisk.com has a number of sites you can download one), you could copy the 98 install folder from the PC to the Hard drive, then boot from a 98 boot floppy and start install from hard drive (if space on hard drive of course). Otherwise you could try a network install directly from the CD drive on other machine (you may have some problems with this - but it should be possible to do). If no network cards - do they have parallel ports? If so, you can connect them with null modem parallel cable - and you'll need something like laplink software to be able to communicate between the PCs (don't know if any older versions of this available as freeware - or alternative freeware exist - its a long time since I've done anything like this - Google might help). Seen a number of 'how to copy cab files to floppies' posts - you need a special floppy format program I think (as all but first cab - which is normal 1.4MB - are 1.68MB) - again Google should find you this. Don't know how successful anybody has been - and I think the network or parallel cable approach is better if you can.

I had the same problem, and the only viable solution I found was buying a second hand Microsolutions Backpack CDRom Drive from Ebay. Examples are ... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=166&item=5103972942&rd=1 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33870&item=5103901479&rd=1 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=166&item=5103673682&rd=1 Make sure it includes the parallel cable and power supply. The driver disks can be downloaded from .. http://www.micro-solutions.com/ in case you can't get them from vendor. Good luck, Sandor

Copying the Win95 folder to floppies is a lot of work...Copying the Win98 folder is impractical. Check this post for some other ideas. HTH Dave If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?

There are several ways around this, none of which envolve floppies, which is VERY time consuming and would take a LOT of floppies. Some answers above are a good start. First WHAT IS THE MODEL and TYPE no. of the Thinkpads? Will the model(s) you bought actually RUN Winedox98? Know that IBM has some of the very best online support there is, period. """If so, you could network the non CD ones to CD one - and using a network bootdisk (www.bootdisk.com has a number of sites you can download one)""" This answer will work, but could be a lot of work, especially if you aren't too computer savvy. A Backpack CDROM will work, and so will a PCMCIA card drive, but MAKE SURE if you buy one, that it has DOS drivers. Many newer drives do NOT. """do they have parallel ports? If so, you can connect them with null modem parallel cable - and you'll need something like laplink software to be able to communicate between the PCs (don't know if any older versions of this available as freeware""" The above is usually what I do. However, you can USUALLY use EITHER a parallel port data cable OR a serial port null modem cable, and you CAN indeed download old DOS versions of LAPLINK3 (ll3.exe) or laplink 4 from Mick's powerloads. Another file that will "link" computers is the old xtlink.com out of Xtree Gold. You can download this file, too. Either of these linking programs can be loaded from a floppy. What you will need, for your desktop (the one with the CDROM) is a bootable floppy that will also load the CDROM drivers, in DOS, and also has the laplink, or xtlink program on there. An identical bootdisk will be used, also, in the Thinkpad, although you won't need the CDROM drivers. Another way to do this is to obtain a hard drive CABLE adaptor, and temporarily plug the hdd out of the thinkpad directly into one of the IDE ports on your desktop When you do this sort of thing, all the setup files on the Whenodx98 CD are in the /Win98 folder, and they are all "dos" files--in other words, no Windows long file names. You will want to go to IBM support and look for the "driver matrix" and other helpful files. You can still download the manuals and drivers for most Thinkpads. WHAT MODEL and TYPE are they? Here, just for reference, is a drive adaptor: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33870&item=5103902927&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW Here, just for reference, is an old 4x Panasonic CDROM like the one I have. It will operate from a bootable floppy, as long as you load the proper drivers. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=42180&item=3488231478&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW If you buy one of these, as off ebay, MAKE SURE you get the drive, the cable, the pc card, and the AC adaptor. The connector on the AC adaptor for this thing is not easily duplicated. See? easy.

Here's a solution. Take hard drive OUT of laptop, and put them in a desktop, transfer the Windows files to the drive, put the drive back in the laptop then run setup from the hard drive itself. This is what you need. If you're in the USA..... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=31541&item=3488475436&rd=1 If you're in the UK..... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=31534&item=3487777919&rd=1

Oops. Missed the post above mine. Well, still, useful links even if repeated information!