Windows people - need help!

Okay, here's the situation..

A buddy gave me his old laptop the other day, as he'd upgraded to a new computer and didn't need it anymore. (He knows I like to try the newest linux distros on old computers to see how they work)

The laptop is a Dell CSx. It's currently running Windows 98. The laptop itself doesn't have a floppy or CD drive, so there's no way to get anything there. I have an external Philips CD burner, but it's USB, and since I can't get drivers from the CD I'm lost. I can't access the internet because I need the drivers for the card, and I can't get them because they're on CD. Heck, I can't even copy them to a thumbdrive and bring them in that way, because W98 needs drivers to read a USB device and I can't get them because, alas, no CD drive..

Any thoughts? Anybody have a Dell external drive that I could borrow for a few days? Once I can get something modern installed as far as an OS goes, I can use my USB drive and everything.. Or any way to get the USB to work without drivers?

It's weird that it has no CD drive. It should at least have a slot to put one in.

Can't you connect it to the net with an Ethernet cable? If you can't I think your only option is to take the hard drive out, connect it to another computer and copy the drivers and stuff you need on it. The wireless card drivers will probably suffice, since once you're online you can download everything else you need.

Nope, it was intended to use with a dedicated external CD drive. No on the ethernet cable, too, as it's not built in - I've got a PCI ethernet card, but again, no drivers..

some solutions:
1- Try to see if you can get the drivers in from a USB floppy drive.
2- Remove the hard drive, use a IDE/USB thingy, there are some for 2.5 drives, or use a 2.5->3.5>USB. Connect to a healthy PC. Then load the drivers onto the hard drive, put back in laptop, and install drivers from there.
3- See if it has a working IRDA, send driver files to your phone from PC (by bluetooth, cable etc) then IR them across to the laptop
4- Locate the files you need (CD USB Drivers, or the Ethernet cards would be more useful) on the net, or email them to your accoutn etc, if the laptop has a built n modem, use a free provider, and jump back to the age of dial up, go to the site/email, get the drivers, and hopefully u should be set!

I have used a PCMCIA card with a memory card in it to transfer stuff between old and newer laptops.

Jeff

If all else fails pull the drive from the laptop, hook it up to another computer and copy the needed drivers to the HDD.

gorn said:

If all else fails pull the drive from the laptop, hook it up to another computer and copy the needed drivers to the HDD.

Click to expand...

I second that idea. You'll need a 2.5" HD to 3.5" HD IDE adaptor cable, a common item at "real" computer stores.

Does the bios support a "boot from USB" option? If so you might be able to run a "live disk" CD version of Linux like Knoppix - using the USB CD drive. That way the system never even sees Windows and would probably even find your network adapter directly. If that's not an option, most laptops have an IR port and it's possible to do file transfers through IR - assuming the IRDA has been configured and you have another IR source like another laptop. You can also do file transfers with a parallel crossover cable. It might be a little easier than dangling drives around and if you're just pushing a few files around it would work OK.

Why did everyone posting after me just repeat what I had said?
;-)

Thinking this over a little last night, the easiest thing to do is email the drivers to yourself and get the email on the laptop. Then you can installthem and begin your OS fun.

gorn said:

Thinking this over a little last night, the easiest thing to do is email the drivers to yourself and get the email on the laptop. Then you can installthem and begin your OS fun.

Click to expand...

How is he gonna read the email without drivers for the wireless card?
I insist on the drive-moving idea.

98 still has some really old school communication built in. You can drop to a prompt and establish a SERIAL! connection to another pc. Then you can xfer the appropriate drivers.

I'd have to google for the command though.

Actually...... 98 networking will run over a serial link. Hopefully you have the 98 cab files on the hdd though.