I have a rather unusual problem which I have seen other posts on part of the problem but I have a bit more of an issue. The lap top in question the dvd drive is not working it has no floppy drive and it started running very slow. So in my wisdom i looked on the internet and seen that i could reinstall xp on the hard drive from a home pc. So i formated the hard drive from the lap top useing the home pc. then put lap top h,drive as master on pc put DOS 7.10 in the drive and booted up pc installed DOS on h,drive. then put file 1386 onto h,drive put it back in to the lap top power up and nothink . I can't get to a DOS prompt. the lap top is a toshiba. help help help i have spent 4 day's an night's on this laptop i can't see were i an going wrong i am very close to putting it in the bin

This is the tutorial for installing xp with no cd/dvd or floppy drive!

http://www.syschat.com/install-windo...py-cd-463.html

It should be followed exactly as written.

I am not sure exactly what you did but I think that you failed to install the DOS system properly.

Hi, mate thank's for the fast reply that was the step by step gide i used but i must be doing somethink wrong i will go an try this again. I will let you no. Thank's again, i need to get this sorted need my laptop back ...Colin

right now i have dun it all again and when i boot the lap top hard drive i get to a bit were it says. Press <ESC> to switch to post or f2 to run CMOS setup. I have tried to press lot's of f buttons on start up HOW do i run DOS mode to get to the prompt, so i can run C:\1386\winnt.exe

Just a thought
You did not mention how you formated the hard drive
Is it NTFS or FAT32 ?
I think if you are running xp on the home pc the default would be NTFS so you
should format with FAT32 otherwise your ms dos will not work with NTFS partition
You can change the partition later after windows xp is installed if you want to

Hi, there i did infact format in fat32 i used "EASEUS PARTITION MANAGER" formated all the drive (as in 1 partition) then in stalled DOS it siad install compleat when i boot up to try and get to DOS prompt it just dus as i siad B4. i think i may have just lost a laptop as i don't have the money to get a new dvd drive 4 the laptop .....Colin,

Do you get any errors ?
Sounds to me like you are either not detecting the hard drive or dos
You said
"Press <ESC> to switch to post or f2 to run CMOS setup"
Maybe my toshiba is different but when I press <esc> I get into bios and f2 is for selecting the boot device
You also said you pressed a lot of buttons
I understand it can be frustrating but perhaps you pressed a button that affects the way your laptop boots.
I would double check the bios or f2 to select the internal hard drive
either way you should get some errors and that will give you some clue as to where the problem is

Hi, status1,
wright i dun it all again, formated the hard drive with EASEUS PARTITION MANAGER. Then put the DOS 7.10 boot cd (boot disk.com) shutdown pc.
Changed hard drive over to slot 1 master reboot pc. Press f2 on start up to get to BIOS setup. Auto detect hard drive (pressed enter) changed boot order IDE-0 1st then hit f10 to save and exit. pc restarts DOS install starts i install full installation & add-ons (MBR) set up yes get to the end of install and it says CONGRULATIONS! YOU HAVE COMPLETED MS-DOS 7.10 INSTALLATION to use DOS 7.10 you must restart your system please remove this disk before reboot witch i did but before it reboots i turn it off and change hard drive back to slot 2. boot up pc. Auto deteced hard drive in BIOS set it to boot from hard drive f10 save and exit
xp starts. Go to my computer right click open D disk drive, drag and drop 1386 from desk top to local disk D. Shut down pc. Put hard drive back in lap top hit the power. Get to the page it say's toshiba in big letters at the bottom it says press <ESC> to post or f2 to CMOS setup. I do not press anythink then i get a screen that is as follows

cpu=intel(R) m processor
495m system RAM passed
1024K cache SRAM passted
system BIOS shadowed
vidio BIOS shadowed
fixed disk toshiba MK4025gas
mouse initialized
ERROR
0271 check date and time settings
WARRING
0271: system CMOS checksum bad-DEfault coniguration used


press <F1> to resume, <F2> to setup

can anybody see where i am going wrong please

Can you type anything and show up on the screen ?
Because it's looking for the date and time I am thinking the cmos battery may be low or bad
It can also explain the second error since it cannot hold the settings
What happens when you press f2?
Can you set the date and time ?
If you can try to reboot (without turning the computer off) to see if it holds the time
If you have the same error you may need to replace the cmos battery
If it was just the date I think it's just a Dos thing
You can try to do this and see what happens
1. Type: date and press return.
2. If the correct date is displayed, simply press return. If the date is incorrect, type the correct date and press return.
3. Type: time and press return.
4. If the correct time is displayed, simply press return. If the time is incorrect, type the correct time and press return.
You can find more information on dos commands here to become more familiar with it
DOS TUTORIAL : THE BASICS

hi, no will not let me type anythink. If i press f2 it take's me to,
phoenix BIOS utility, if i go to main (tab) it shows me the time and date are wrong.
I set them to the right time and date perss f 10 save & exit.
Reboot and this time i press f2 and the date an time is right and if i reboot and don't press f2 it just goes to a black screen with a small line at the top of the page that is flashing but i can't type if i try an press any kyes i get a bleep sound. the DOS logo page dus not load.