here thar be drivers :p
Also, you don't need to rip the XP CD for nLite if you don't want to, it can read the files straight off the CD in the drive and copy to HD temporarily as part of the wizard :p
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here thar be drivers :p
Also, you don't need to rip the XP CD for nLite if you don't want to, it can read the files straight off the CD in the drive and copy to HD temporarily as part of the wizard :p
Well, if it's a SATA disk, it clears things up. Somehow,I was getting the impression that the laptop you got was too old to have SATA.
Check the BIOS first, you might be able to run your disk in compatibility mode and avoid slipstreaming the drivers. Then you just manually run the .exe or .bat, reboot using AHCI or whatever and update the driver through Device Manager.
That's the impression I got too, which is why I'm thinking that anything in this thread still might not work. :pQuote:
Originally Posted by Mirage
Realistically though, if the laptop is 4 years old, it's still reasonably likely to have SATA.
The laptop is relatively new (less than a year old).
And, well... nothing worked... The problem persists...
I am thinking that the USB Floppy may very well be the only option now.
Thanks all the same you guys.
Mine's like 3 years old and it doesn't have SATA :p. Maybe mine just sucks though D:.Quote:
Originally Posted by o_OThat's the impression I got too, which is why I'm thinking that anything in this thread still might not work. :pQuote:
Originally Posted by Mirage
Realistically though, if the laptop is 4 years old, it's still reasonably likely to have SATA.
My 6 year old one doesn't have SATA, whilst my 6 month old one does :D Not that that's really saying anything useful :p
Stop spamming the boards, clout! *reports*
If you had a Linux live CD, you could use the dd tool to try imaging the USB drive. I'm not sure if it would work, but given the stage at which the floppy is meant to be recognised, I'd say there's a chance it would (if you're game :p).
- Put the temp.IMA file onto the USB drive like normal
- Download Linux CD (Ubuntu is good), burn and boot (not on the laptop)
- Insert flash drive. It should be autodetected (Ubuntu is good like that) but if it isnt:
- Open the terminal program. You can access it from the main menu on the top bar.
- Type "ls -al /dev/disk/by-id" and note the last result that is of the form "xxxxxxx user user /dev/disk/by-id/sdXY --> /dev/sdXY".
- That is, the "sd" with the highest number and the highest letter.
- While you're at it, note down all results that point to a "/dev/sdXY" device.
- Type "su -c mkdir /mnt/usb; su -c mount /dev/sdXY /mnt/usb" where XY are the letter and number of the last sd device
- In the terminal program (open it if you haven't) type "cp /mnt/usb/temp.IMA ~"
- Then type "su -c rm -rf /mnt/usb/*"
- Then type "su -c umount /dev/sdXY"
- Then type "su -c dd if="~/temp.IMA" of="/dev/sdXY""
- Then try to use it like it were the required floppy disk during Windows installation.
- If you try this method, your USB drive may require reformatting, so back up everything on it first, and we can help you reformat it to restore functionality if you require it. :p
EDIT: Also, if it's a year old I'd say it almost definitely does use SATA (good).
Did he actually burn a bootable slipstreamed CD? :p
I did.Quote:
Originally Posted by crono_logical
I'll try Face's method once the download and classes have finished.
EDIT: Would be easier if I just said smurf it and used a Linux-based OS instead? I want to be able to play Alpha Centuari, Morrowind, and other "older" games, but mostly, the laptop will be used for writing and the like. Does Linux cover these areas reasonably well and solve Windows XP's stupid SATA issues (by not being an OS without SATA recognization and therefore, fail)?
SATA discs weren't even around when XP was released. I put the blame on hardware manufacturers anyway, who don't let the system fall-back to a regular IDE driver in case SATA fails. I know some manufacturers do that, but not all.
Yes and yes, it should work assuming the drive isn't dead.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nominus Experse
OMFG! There are, like, 300 distributions of Linux...
Should I just use Ubuntu, since I'm downloading it for Face's method described above, or should I opt for something else?
I would whole-heartedly recommend Linux, but you should definitely be aware that if you aren't familiar with Unix-like operating systems then it will be a steep learning curve.
These days, distributions like Ubuntu are making huge strides forward in terms of hardware detection and compatibility, which has made setting up things like wireless a damn site easier, and that used to be one of the hardest and least stable things about setting up a home network.
Nonetheless, it's inevitable that you're going to have to learn to use a command line interface. Once you're comfortable with a CLI you'll find that it's far easier and faster to use than a GUI. Mice annoy me now because they take too long to point and click compared to typing out a command. For example, it's faster for me to manually connect to a wireless network using the command:than it is to start up the GUI and wait for it to automatically connect. :pCode:su -c 'wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf && iwconfig wlan0 essid [network name] && dhcpcd wlan0'
As far as games go, you have a couple of well-supported options.
- WINE: I recommend this. It's a re-implementation of Windows libraries, so it's not directly ported from Windows, but re-implementing the behaviour of the operating system. For this reason it's not an emulator (Wine Is Not an Emulator :p). It's making a huge amount of progress towards good DirectX support, and in my opinion, moreso than it's commercial brother, Cedega.
- Cedega: This is a fork of the WINE project that split from WINE quite a few years ago. Maybe 6 or 7 years. It's commercial, so you have to pay, but the goal of the project is to tweak and fix the software specifically to play Windows games well and to provide support for them. There are great success stories with Cedega (games like Oblivion and UT2k4) but I never had a lot of success with it.
- You could also try a virtual machine running XP, however it probably won't be that successful, as DirectX support in most VM software is VERY experimental (if present at all). You also need disk space for a whole XP installation and enough RAM to run Linux, XP and whatever game you're running simultaneously.
- The other solution (and for me at the moment, most preferable) is to dual-boot Windows XP and Linux. You have two OSes on the computer, and depending on what you need to do, just boot into the relevant one. There is a "dd" method to copy a virtual Windows installation to an actual partition, similar to the method I posted above. My laptop currently quint-boots 4 types of Linux and XP. :p
You'll find that most older games will run reasonably well under Linux, but they almost invariably require some (actually usually a lot :p) tweaking, and they usually have minor inconsistencies with the game as run on Windows. Small drawing errors and artifacts usually. I've had Morrowind running mostly perfectly, and Oblivion easily playable. Check out WineHQ for info on WINE. The AppDB has lists of compatible software and success rate information for thousands of different apps.
If you run into difficulties running Linux, there is a huge amount of community support. Post problems here because there are a few total Linux geeks here who are more than willing to help. :p
EDIT: Do use Ubuntu if you decide to go for Linux. It's pretty much perfect for beginners - it eases you into CLI usage whilst maintaining an easily navigable GUI. You can install it off of the live CD after trying it out for a while. I think the thing you'll be most impressed with after installing any type of Linux is the ease of installing software.