Boot Laptop w/o Hard Drive?

[Jeffrey Schronce]

I think I may have myself a shop computer. It is a salvage computer w/o the hard drive.

Can a modern laptop (maybe 2-3 years old) be booted w/o an installed hard drive? Can I boot from CD/DVD to test the laptop to make sure it is worth installing a hard drive?

Thanks!

Jeff

[D_Epler]

It would depend on how old the system was.
Newer systems support bootable CD-ROMs/DVD's...if it is really old it may not.

There is a Linux distribution called Ubuntu and you can often find bootable CD's with it on them - OR you can download a bootable CD image (or ISO file) and then make yer own CD..

Hope this helps..

Dave in Doha

[Jeffrey Schronce]

It would depend on how old the system was.
Newer systems support bootable CD-ROMs/DVD's...if it is really old it may not.

There is a Linux distribution called Ubuntu and you can often find bootable CD's with it on them - OR you can download a bootable CD image (or ISO file) and then make yer own CD..

Hope this helps..

Dave in Doha

2-3 years old. It has XP sticker on bottom and is the HP Pavillion DV5000 line which I believe is a couple years old. I need to look into the bootable CD image thing . .

[SwingKing]

Use a Live CD

Can a modern laptop (maybe 2-3 years old) be booted w/o an installed hard drive? Can I boot from CD/DVD to test the laptop to make sure it is worth installing a hard drive?

You could use a Live CD to boot the machine. The classic one is Knoppix (http://www.knoppix.net) which will load a running Linux setup directly from the CD. It doesn't need a drive present, but will mount it if it is there.

-- Ken

[D_Epler]

Sounds like it is new enough..

http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/download.html

That link has a FREE bootable CD image you can download just to see if the machine runs...

HP also has a pretty good web site for support - I looked but there are TONS of DV5000 models to choose from so I cannot send you to the exact HP support page. HOWEVER, when you do look you can find all the HP-specific drivers you'll need for windows on that specific machine (video, network, etc)

Dave

[bigdaddyjohn]

I would recommend u try Ubuntu. However, it doesn't always work with the HP's. It will either work great or not at all. At most, it will cost you a blank cd to try it.

The next option is to order a cheap hd off of ebay. Expect to pay under a hundred and they are easy to put in. Lots of howto's on the internet.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

HP Pavilion ZV5000.

When I power it up I get black screen with . . .

Intel UNDI, PEX-2.0 (build 082)
Copyright (C0 19976-2000 Intel Corporation

Fire Reaktej RTK8139(X)/8130/810X PCI Fast Ethernet Controller v2.13 (02036)

PXE-E61: Media test failure - check cable
PXE-MoF: Exiting PXE ROM.

If flashes this over and over.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Blehhhh. Don't waste your time guys . . . screen was on for about 3 minutes and now all the text is bright red, very blurry, with pixels all over the place. Video card or somthing in monitor must be bad.

Probably not worth dealing with . . .

Thanks

[Jeffrey Schronce]

OK, party back on. Hooked up external monitor and it is fine.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Tried ubcd. Same errors coming up. Research shows error could be related to trying to boot from network, so I went in and disabled disk boot, network boot and HD boot leaving only CD boot.

Now it goes to HP boot up screen for a couple seconds then to black with fast blinking cursor. Thats it.

[cgallery]

One of the biggest problems w/ notebooks that start acting up after being on a little while is plugged coolers (leading to overheating). Use nylon cable ties (or something similar) jammed into all the fans to prevent them from hyper-spinning (of course, the machine is off while you're doing this).

Now, take your air compressor and blast out all the vents. If this has never been done before, you'll see little clouds of dust blast out of the notebook. Keep doing this until no more dust.

[Stan]

heh, 'some' of us remember the days of 3.5 bootable floppy disks. With......


DOS.....

[LinuxRandal]

The first portable I had access to, was called a lugable, with 5.25" floppies, and NO hard drive, and a nice, maybe 8" orange screen. Dad brought home from work, quite an upgrade from my cassettes and my Timex Sinclair....