I will try to be as detailed as possible, including pictures as i go.
(My laptop is a Dell Latitude CSx, but this will work for any make or model with the same issue)

*Please be...

Click here to read the entire tutorial

The tutorial here is exactly what you need to do! read it step by step. Itr is your only option.

Finally I did it.instal the xp on the laptop.thanks a lot, now a have some extra problems, sometimes the laptop does not turn on, just sit there with the green power light on, nothing else happens, after few tries the laptop boot perfect to xp, and also I noticed the time, lower right corner, does not change, maybe a problem with the internal battery ?? any comments will be gladly appreciated..regards

Yes it could be that the bios battery is weak. You have to be very careful in opening up laptops as the hinges easily break and also the connecting cables are really short. It might be best if done by someone with knowledge of this.

hiya all, i am currently trying to reinstall o/s onto lappy without floppy or cd, wish me luck!!!

i keep getting the 'you havent posted' message.

i have posted.

Big thanks for this article.
I have have wasted a lot of time try to fix my laptop because the cd not working and I cannot install new os.
This is so good, I will try out tommorr ow

hey..i have a Fujitsu Lifebook Series Laptop for a present from a friend, it has windows vista basic installed, but i want to install XP Pro sp2 on it, when booting with bootable cd from XP and detecting HDD, it seem cannot find the hard drive.. why is it so?

and what do you mean by converter?

In some older laptops, there seems to be a problem if you format the drive in the desktop rather than in the laptop. You can boot to DOS in the laptop and you can also start the installation from the I386 folder, but it results in the laptop hanging after the first reboot or a "ntldr not detected" error message.

The solution is to install DOS files onto the C: partition using the desktop, and put format.com and smartdrv.exe on the D: partition. Transfer the drive to the laptop and reformat the C: partition in the laptop itself. Then start the installation using winnt.exe as before - the files will copy across, but the laptop will no longer hang at reboot.

Alternatively, having formatted the C: partition in the laptop, transfer the drive back to desktop and install using the XP boot disk but do not reformat the partition in the desktop.

An additional bug which causes some Pentium II and III laptops to hang on subsequent reboots. When you see the message "Press F6 if you need to install a SCSI or RAID controller" press F5 instead and select "Standard PC" and continue with the installation.

have done it several times now, it works a treat.

thanx

Great tutorial, but I have a small question. I have Tablet PC Fujitsu Siemens, and it doesn't have keyboard, and the only way of putting keyborn on it is via USB, it worked with win2000 installation(and now I have BSOD, and I can't press F8 to enter sfe mode because it is USB keyboard), will USB keyboard work under DOS?