laptop install without flopy disk

[Peter Teuben]

If you really have *no* other boot device left, but the hard drive,
there is nothing left but using the hard drive!

It would not be impossible to think of a procedure with virtual hardware
(like bochs) to start off a linux, modify the bootsector to boot to an
install partition, which then starts reading media from the hard drive. But
that presumes an older version of linux already on it (perhaps bochs runs on
windows too...). Certainly not something for the faint of heart.

So, i'm afraid your only solution left after that is to take the drive out,
and hook it up via an external HD adaptor to another laptop or deskstop.
Perform the install on it, and make sure it will write a lilo or grub that
will be consistent with the configuration in the laptop. I've actually done
this on occasion, so it does work. THe 3.5<->5.25 IDE adapters can be
mailordered for well under $10, i think i found mine for $3.50 or so. A
google search should get you there. Otherwise, if you have the hardware, some
firewire or usb2 housings may work, but they are more expensive ($50-100).

peter

On 2 Jan 2004, Emiliano Brunettti wrote:

> Hi everybody,
> 
> after testing FC1 on my desktop, i would like to install it also on my
> laptop. However, there is a problem (not strictly related to FC1, but i
> hope somebody can help).
> 
> I cannot boot from floppy disk, since i probably lost my external floppy
> disk :(
> 
> Can't boot from pcmcia cd-rom, and bios doesn't allow boot from usb
> device.
> 
> Is there a way to boot from hard drive and perform a normal fc1 install?
> I think there should be a way, perhaps create a boot kernel image with
> pcmcia support and boot normally from hard drive, but i need some hints
> to do it.
> 
> Can somebody help, please? And, please, forgive me if this is a trivial
> question.
> 
> Thanks a lot
> 
> E.
> 
> 
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