OT (sorta) Removing Linux

[bscott at ntisys.com]

On Wed, 25 Sep 2002, at 2:38pm, farinella at mcttelecom.com wrote:
> I have to remove Linux and install Windows from a Dell Latitude LS laptop
> that currently houses Red Hat 7 with grub as the boot loader.  This
> computer has no floppy or internal cdrom, just a pcmcia card with a Sony
> Vaio cd player attached.  The machine can't boot from this until the
> pcmcia module is loaded.

  Does the system's BIOS (firmware) have support for that particular boot
method (PCMCIA-attached CD-ROM)?  If not, then the BIOS will not see it, and
thus you will not be able to boot from it.

  Normally, one solves this problem by first booting from floppy disk, and
then loading the needed drivers from floppy.  But you already said the
system does not have a floppy drive.

> I have tried a serial port connected floppy drive as well, but can't get
> the machine to boot from that either.

  Same problem.

> Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I might get Windows onto this
> machine?

  Call Dell.  All their systems have lifetime technical support.  They will
be able to tell you how the system is designed to be bootstrapped.  Be aware
that their answer may be to attach a floppy drive that is lost, broken, or
otherwise unavailable to you.

  The only other option is to remove the hard drive, install the HD in
another machine, and copy OS files to it manually to bootstrap it.

-- 
Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
| The opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not |
| necessarily represent the views or policy of any other person, entity or  |
| organization.  All information is provided without warranty of any kind.  |