Laptop with swappable CD / Floppy drives

Post by **The Robman** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 9:33 pm

Hey if Liz can go OT, so can I !

I've just bought a Compaq Armada M700 laptop on ebay where the seller has wiped the HD clean, so I need to install a new OS.

The problem is that this unit has a single drive bay where you can install EITHER the floppy drive or the CD-ROM drive.

So, how do you install a new OS on a system like this?

Normally, I would boot to a floppy and select CD-ROM support, then put in the Windows CD and be on my way, but with this puppy, when you boot to the floppy and select CD ROM support, it fails because it can't find the CD drive (yet). I've also tried booting to the Windows CD directly, but it doesn't take. I suspect that you might need to do a BIOS edit or something, but there's no manual or anything so I'm not positive.

Anyone else messed around with this type of laptop before?

Post by **ElizabethD** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 10:12 pm

Hope you didn't pay more than 14$ for it.
At the office I have a retired Armada 300 in the cabinet and I'm pretty sure 700 is what I use daily. Has no floppy but removable CD or DVD. I'll look into it. But then what. Send you the drive for a bit? It doesn't boot off the CD but the hard drive. I'm clueless with hardware, the techs do it for us

I think I have the manuals. Never read'm.

greenough1 · Post by **greenough1** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 10:36 pm

Rob,
Found this link:
http://www.cyberwalker.net/faqs/how-tos ... ormat.html

Let us know how you make out. ain't the internet great

jeff

gfb107 · Post by **gfb107** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 10:51 pm

I found a manual

This looks like it might help:

Selecting a MultiBoot Utility
You can enable MultiBoot and change the sequence of the
computer drive bay locations that the computer searches during
startup by using Compaq Computer Security or Computer Setup.

Computer Setup can be used even when your operating
system is not working or will not load.

In Computer Setup the list of bootable devices includes only
the bootable devices currently in the computer or an optional
docking base. The external diskette drive bay does not list in
the boot order field, but is always searched first for a bootable
diskette.

In Compaq Computer Security the list of bootable devices
includes all bootable devices supported by the BIOS. If you
set a boot sequence for a bootable device that is not currently
in the system, the device will be included in the boot sequence
when it is present and ignored when it is not present.

Changing the Startup Sequence in Computer Setup

1. Restart the computer, then press F10 when the blinking cursor
appears upper-right on the screen.
To change the language, press F2.
For navigation instructions, press F1.
2. Select Advanced->Boot Options, then press Enter.
3. Toggle the MultiBoot field to Enable.
4. Toggle the Boot Order fields to the boot sequence you prefer.
5. To save your preferences and exit Boot Options, press F10.
6. To confirm saving your changes, close Computer Setup, and
restart the computer, select File!Save Changes and Exit,
then press F10.
Using Drives 5-19
Changing the Startup Sequence in Compaq
Computer Security
1. Access the Compaq Computer Security window:
Select Start!Settings!Control Panel. Select the Compaq
Computer Security icon.
or
Right-click the Compaq Computer Security icon in the
Windows taskbar, then select Security Properties.
2. Select the Boot Security tab.
3. Select the Enable Multi-Boot checkbox.
4. Use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to display your
preferences in the Boot Order list.
NOTE: Both buttons are inactive until the Enable MultiBoot
box is selected. The Move Up button is inactive if the
selected item is at the top of the Boot Order List. The Move
Down button is inactive if the selected item is at the bottom
of the Boot Order List.
5. Select the OK button.

Post by **ElizabethD** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 9:20 am

I can confirm that Greg's instructions apply here. I see all that when F10 is pushed ,but didn't go as far as booting (no WindowsCD on hand). I'm told that ANY Windows CD higher than '97 can be booted from. But NOT ANY recovery CDs.

underquark · Post by **underquark** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 9:59 am

ElizabethD wrote:I'm told that ANY Windows CD higher than '97 can be booted from. But NOT ANY recovery CDs.

Windows 97

Is that the version that came out immediately after Windows 96? Not according to this site.

I'm sure the above instructions will work in enabling boot from CD (although it depends which version of Windows you're installing). If all else fails then someone who's used to taking electronic gear apart should have no problem in removing the hard drive, inserting it into a caddy and copying an OS over to it.

Nils_Ekberg · Post by **Nils_Ekberg** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 11:01 am

Rob, if it wasn't clear in any of the above, you can boot to bios setup with either f2 or f10 or f12 (not sure on this PC) as soon as the first screen shows up.

Then select "boot from CD" while the OS CD is in the drive

Post by **The Robman** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 3:51 pm

I did discover that F10 gets you into the BIOS yesterday. The laptop itself is able to boot from the CD, I verified this using one of my Norton CDs, but I wasn't able to boot from either of the two Win98 CDs that I tried. I will try doing a search through my CDs to see if I have any other Windows CDs so I can see if they are bootable.

In the meantime, I have installed DOS 6.0 so I can at least boot from the HD, but I now need to find a driver for the CD-ROM in order to be able to access it.

Nils_Ekberg · Post by **Nils_Ekberg** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 4:08 pm

This site has just about every CD driver available, give it a try http://www.cdrom-drivers.com/

greenough1 · Post by **greenough1** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 5:02 pm

Rob,
Look here:
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~jarvislb/utils/boot_cd.html

there are boot disk images with cd support built in.

I think you boot from the floppy. this creates a ramdisk and copies some part of the system stuff to memory. you can then swap the drives to cd and access the cd by cd d: (assuming d: is the cd. it might be some other letter. a, b are floppies, c is a hard drive, etc.) then looking for the setup.exe on the cd.

jeff

Post by **The Robman** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 5:11 pm

Thanks Nils, I found a file there that looks like it has potential.

whompus · Post by **whompus** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 5:55 pm

I am sure you already know this.
When you get 98 setup you will most likely still need many drivers now for download through hp.

zaphod7501 · Post by **zaphod7501** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 6:35 pm

A Win98 recovery disk (the one you are prompted to create during an installation) has a number of generic CDRom driver files on it that you could try (if you still have an old one around).

Post by **The Robman** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 7:35 pm

zaphod7501 wrote:A Win98 recovery disk (the one you are prompted to create during an installation) has a number of generic CDRom driver files on it that you could try (if you still have an old one around).

And that would be fine for a laptop that lets you have both the floppy and the CD drives connected at the same time. If you try to select CD rom support when the CD drive isn't connected, it fails.

whompus · Post by **whompus** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 9:18 pm

Robman, If you have not got it sorted yet. I just made a boot cd that works for my older presario.
Give this image a go
Let me know when you get it downloaded. So I can remove it from my server.