[NTLUG:Discuss] Breathing life into a really ancient laptop.

[Kelledin]

On Tuesday 10 February 2004 11:27 pm, Steve Baker wrote:
> The huge problem is that it's running Windows 3.1 - and that
> simply won't do...but installing Linux on it is something of a
> challenge because it's external floppy drive has 'died'.  That
> (and the fact that the battery is shot) was the reason it was
> consigned to the back of the closet in the first place.  The
> external floppy has some really weird Compaq-specific
> interface and I can't get a replacement. It doesn't have a
> CD-ROM drive or any kind of network interface.

Well, you could try hooking up a parallel-port ("backpack") 
CD-ROM.  Also, you might try just cracking open the case and 
temporarily removing the drive.  If it's a standard 2.5" laptop 
IDE drive (power and data pins all going through a single IDC 
connector), it should be possible for you to get an inexpensive 
adapter to hook it up to a standard desktop IDE connector.  It 
may take some creative rearrangement of drives in the desktop, 
but it's perfectly possible to make the drive 
standalone-bootable before transplanting it back into the 
laptop.

-- 
Kelledin
"If a server crashes in a server farm and no one pings it, does 
it still cost four figures to fix?"