Topic: Dear Computer People,

[TeaOfJay]

Hey, I just found a laptop in my garage. I've been told by my father that it doesn't work, but since I sturburnly want a laptop I tried to see if it works anyways.

It turns on, and the only thing, from what I can tell, that's wrong with it is that it's missing an OS.

It's an HP pavilion ze5300 Model No: ze5385us. (Don't know if that last bit counts, but I figured I may as well give any information I can)

My question is should I try to get an OS on this sucker or should I just start saving up for a new laptop?

[VixyNyan]

If you can format the drive and install Windows XP on it, go for it.
If not, go buy a new laptop. This thread might help. ^^

[TeaOfJay]

If you can format the drive and install Windows XP on it, go for it.

And how would I go about doing that?

[Rad Lionheart]

Get a Windows XP disc.
Or a pirate copy.
ARGH.

[VixyNyan]

You have to enter the BIOS of your laptop by pressing a key at the start-up screen, usually DELETE, F2 or something else mentioned on the screen. From there you should look into the boot-up sequence settings and see if a CD/DVD drive is set as the 1st boot-up device and the Hard Drive being the 2nd boot-up device. You should have a Windows XP OS CD ready, so place that in the CD Drive and restart your laptop.

You will be see some text saying you should press any key (yes, the any key) to start the Windows XP installation process. A blue screen with a bunch of stuff will load and after that, you will be asked if you want to format your hard drive before installing Windows XP. Do it and then begin installing the OS.

You should pick NTFS file system so that you can store a single file that's larger than 4 GB on the hard drive. Quick Formatting is perfectly fine too if that option is available. Finish things up and when the OS installation is finished, restart the laptop and wait for more instructions.

You don't have to press any keys this time.

[Rockmon]

Despite being MS software, XP was one of the best OSes ever, but now it's hard to get and the somewhat important online updates from MS are fading from existence. So I'd get Ubuntu Linux or the Win7 beta for now and get normal 7 when it comes out.

[VixyNyan]

I survive without these "so-called" online updates. Ever since the Genuine Advantage Validation thingy has been more strict and more bothersome (I had no problem being validated a couple of months ago), I just decide not to update on my latest formatted installation. So far, everything I use runs WAY faster than I could imagine, but my lappy-chan is still overheating because of being Acer Aspire. ;w;

[TeaOfJay]

Yeah, I think the real problem for me is finding an XP disk (Or pirating one, since I'm sure I'd have my dad help me through the process anyways to make sure I'm not doing it wrong.)

So I guess I'll start saving up for a new laptop then.

Lock please.

[Shiki Tohno]

When it comes to updating pirated machines, what I do is just slipstream the latest Service Pack into the installation CD and burn a new install disk with the latest SP applied. Takes longer to do, but you only do it once.


And trust me, pirating an XP CD is easy as pie. If you know how to use BitTorrent and you know how to burn CDs with any application out there (ImgBurn, CD Burner XP Pro, Nero, InfraRecorder, ANYTHING), you can pirate an XP CD.

[TeaOfJay]

Unfortunatly, I can't use BitTorrent.  The connection that I'm on won't allow it.

[Shiki Tohno]

Rapidshares is another option then.

[RMX]

Come on, how difficult can it be to get a pirate XP.

[TeaOfJay]

Okay, now I just learned why the laptop was considered trash.

Turns out that the harddrive went bad, so formating the drive wouldn't do anything.

Now this topic can probably be locked.

[Shiki Tohno]

You CAN change the drive for a new one. They're dirt cheap nowadays on any store, brick-and-mortar or online.