Partitioning C drive and avoiding mbr errors
Guys,
I hope someone can help me here.
I have a Toshiba Portege 3500 (info:http://www.mobiletechreview.com/note..._xp_tablet.htm) with Windows Tablet 2005 installed. Long story short, I gave the laptop to my brother who got virus on it. It was lying about and now Ive decided to resuscitate it back to life with a new installation of Windows XP. However there are a few issues:
1- There is no CD drive. Portege 3500 are notoriously incompatible with external cd drives and only a select (Toshiba) few are boot compatible and they cost upto £80+ on ebay.
2- USB bootup (and SD card) is also out of the question as the Bios does not support it.
The good news is that the laptop as it is right now, does load Win XP tablet. I am wondering if if I should create a new partition from C drive and copy windows XP cd into that and then do an installation from the new partition.
However, my biggest fear is that (and this comes from past experience) after I create a partition with Acronis software, windows will fail to bootup because of MBR error. Now the normal solution for fixing MBR is to run the Win XP cd and fixMBR from there. Again, no cd drive, so that is out of the question and would ultimately mean that computer would fail to bootup.
Can anyone please recommend how to go about creating a partition without encountering the dreaded MBR error and installing XP from a partition?
Salman:
I trust that you are aware that if you install Windows XP then you will lose the tablet PC features that are part of Windows XP Tablet Edition.
If you want to maintain the Tablet PC operating system then could you check a couple of items?
1. Do you currently have a folder named i386 on the disk?
2. Do you currently have a folder named CMPNENTS on the disk?
Is the Windows partition the only partition on the drive or is it the last partition? If so, then resizing it smaller (from the right) shouldn't cause any problems with Windows booting. Whichever partition is currently set Active, keep that partition as Active.If you have imaging software (TI, for example), you could also create an Entire Disk Image backup before making the changes (highly recommended).
MudCrab, thats wonderful news. Yes, its the only partition... Fat32.
RE imaging backup solution, I think it wouldnt make sense as the computer is slow as a snail as it is. Besides, if things go wrong, there is no way for restore as the computer wouldnt boot up...
One more question, what do you specifically mean by active, as in, what steps should I take to ensure C drive remains the active one after the partition? Is there any option which I should be ticking?
Thanks much
Salman:
I trust that you are aware that if you install Windows XP then you will lose the tablet PC features that are part of Windows XP Tablet Edition.
If you want to maintain the Tablet PC operating system then could you check a couple of items?
1. Do you currently have a folder named i386 on the disk?
2. Do you currently have a folder named CMPNENTS on the disk?
K0LO, yes I have sadly accepted that fact. I may upgrade to Win7 as I can get a deep discount on the upgrade by asking my sister to buy the software for me, she works for NHS (National Heath Services in UK).
regards,
Salman:
If you can get Windows 7 then don't bother with XP. The whole tablet and inking experience is MUCH better in Win 7.
Thanks guys, it worked finally. Unfortunately it turns out I have a Cache 2 error for my processor.
Good news is that the partition worked flawlessly. Cheers.