If you can get your hands on a Windows 98SE floppy boot disk produced by 
a 98SE OS, you can use it to format the hard drive with a system ( /S ) 
parameter. This makes the computer bootable from the hard disk. You can 
then copy the CDROM driver to the hard disk, create/edit the config.sys 
file to include the CDROM device driver, hook up the CDROM to the 
secondary IDE and either use a power Y/splitter to power both the hard 
drive and the CDROM or power the CDROM from another power supply (stand 
alone or in another computer). You should then be able to use the CDROM 
to install an OS on the hard drive.

This is a simplified description. It has been a long time since I've 
written config.sys, autoexec.bat, and batch files so I've purposely 
avoided those steps.

I hope this helps.

Tom Mayer

Russ Cox wrote:
> I have acquired several Compaq Deskpro computers that were used in a corporation. These are very compact computers w/ hard disk and floppy but no CDROM and no space for one and no OS. I think they would work just fine for limited use, internet and word processing etc. if I could figure out how to load an OS on them.  They have USB and ethernet ports, but they wouldn't be usable until drivers were loaded. There is a secondary IDE connector on the mother board, but I'd have to jury rig a power connection for an IDE CDROM since there's only one power cable from the power supply to the hard disk.  The boot options are limited to floppy, hard disk and Compaq Ethernet controller. So if I could temporarily connect a CDROM, I could boot from a floppy, then load from the CDROM, 
> Any ideas of how I could boot the computer up and load an OS from a CD? What would I have to do to boot from the ethernet connection?
>
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