original post:-

<<<< 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?>>>

Hi,

you have received some suggestions and here i go with mine....

there are DOS drivers available for USB support.

step(1) copy the win 98 folder to a flash drive with the help of another well running system ( i presume you want to load win98 (or se ) since i don't think you will be able to load xp... how much memory/how many slots??)

(2) you create a floppy with these USB support drivers.

(3) after you boot from the floppy, the files will be loaded, and you will reach a stage where your USB port will be detected and you will be asked to attach the device.

(4)attach the flash drive with win 98.

(5) you will be assigned a drive letter for the flash drive.

(6) now format/make active etc of your HDD.

(7) copy the win 98 folder from the flash to C: in your hdd

(8) then access C: and " setup".

(9) the setup process will start.


NOW.... the problem will be finding drivers for the audio/video/NIC card etc.

perhaps if you know the compaq modelno. their site may help

i have very succesfully done this with a HP note book except for the internal modem and audio which somehow were weirdly interconnected. later i learnt that the audio part pertained to the "voice/data/fax" internal modem and got this done also.
 
i have this floppy (about 1.3MB) and can upload to you if you want.

hey.. how do i do this??? i'll see.

HTH and good luck----Venkat

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