Start Up disk HELP!

Ok my moms laptop again. Well I found a floppy drive for her laptop. I was able to create a Windows 98 second edition startup disk no problem. Then I get somthing that says boot from cd. Well there is only one slot fo the Cd-rom drive and the floppy drive, so I thought I could quickly take out the floopy drive and replace it with the Cd-rom drive. But for saftey reasons the people at dell decided if a drive is not present then have the computer to shut down. So when I go to replace the floppy drive with the installation disk with the cd-rom drive with the boot up cd it decides to shut down.

I thought I might be able to transfer the files from my Computers cd-rom drive to a floppy and just run it off that. But I need to know what files to put on the floppy.

Well, could you possibly copy the floppy (it rhymes :) ) on a desktop PC and burn it onto a CD-R from there, then use the CD to boot the lappie?


Just an idea, hope it helps :)

NOpe doesn't work. I just tried it. The only thing it picks up is floppys . Maybe I should download another operating system that can boot from floopy and be saved by a floppy. Do you know of any I can run from floopy and that will boot up from auto-run.

Some Linux distributions will boot and recover from a floppy (most, in fact)...
however, if you're making a CD with boot files on, you have to make a Bootable CD instead of just an ordinary CD (it's an option in some CD burning software, Nero for example allows it) If you were already doing that, maybe its a BIOS option to choose which drives to boot from first??

I can't remember the full situation your dealing with, but how about this solution.

Boot from the floppy...
Transfer it to the HDD... (ensure that the Computer will now boot as though you had the floppy in the drive)
Shutdown, Attach your CD-ROM drive, and you should be able to continue your install...

*DISCLAIMER: This is a sketchy solution... it could possibly work, but I'm too buggered to figure out the finer details...*

Yeah, that sounds as though it *should* work, in theory. Of course computers have a mind of their own and theory cannot always be put into practice, but it sounds as though it'll work that way!

Nope that didn't work. Isn't the Windows 98 disk an Auto Run to? I'm not sure but I know that the disk won't run. I have to be able to load an operating system from floopy. I have about 14 floopys right now. If it's possible I could put linux on but what files do I need to copy or should I just copy everything.

What exactly didn't work?
If on attempting to boot did it give you lots of file not founds, you probably just have to change the locations in the config. files..

I don't know the specific files needed for a Linux install, but copying everything seems like a waste of time, for a basic install you'd only need the kernel and some basic programs, then you could get the rest from a CD once it'd booted up.

I can't give a specific list, but try doing a minimal linux install on a desktop PC then copying the contents of the HDD onto floppies or something.
Or, maybe get a linux distro that runs entirely from a single floppy, and then boot with that, copy it to a HDD so it boots from the hard drive then stick the CD rom in and do a fuller Linux install.

Here is one of the available distributions that can fit on one floppy, just as an addition to Rewandythal's post....
LOAF: Linux On A Floppy