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Posted by Nigel R on February 9, 2005, 5:45 am
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I recently did a complete reinstall on a Compaq Armada 7800 which came
with CD-ROM but no Floppy.
Had to do quite a lot of Google research as HP-Compaq's Support Site
is not detailed enough.
Steps I did:
1. Got a laptop floppy drive from Ebay and replaced the CD-ROM with it
(it slides out if you operate a catch).
2. Got a SPARE Hard Drive from Ebay (if you plan to destroy all you
data you don't need this).
3. Created a DBAN floppy http://dban.sourceforge.net/ HANDLE WITH
CARE!
4. Went to Compaq site and Dowwnloaded the DIAGNOSTICS DISKETTE and
the SETUP DISKETTE for this model of laptop - created a Floppy from
each - need both at hand.
5. Loaded the DBAN Floppy, booted, and entered the AUTONUKE
(self-explanatory!) command - this will remove all data, partitions,
formatting from any hard drives on your machine. (For this whole
process I first tested using the SPARE hard drive). If you don't do
this step, you might get a "no space to create partition" message at
the next step.
6. Loaded the DIAGNOSTICS or SETUP diskette (I forget which was
first), followed instructions. You will be prompted several times to
switch diskettes. This creates a few MBs of Compaq Bios/Boot
partition. If this was successful, as you reboot the laptop minus
floppy in drive, a flashing cursor appears for a short while top
right. Hold down F10 as it flashes and you will be in diagnostics
mode, proving the bios partition is working.
7. Replaced the Floppy Drive with the CD-ROM again.
8. Inserted Win XP SP1 CD-ROM, & power on. It should boot the machine
& start installing. I tried Windows 2000 but that CD-ROM failed to
boot.
9. During the XP install steps, be careful not to delete the small
partition, instead opt for the larger one that XP creates comprising
the remainder of your disk space. Format only that larger partition
(using NTFS option).
10. Once you get XP running and online, do a Windowes Update from
Explorer to get all the latest security patches etc.
There might be some shortcuts if your old bios partition still exists
(& you see that flashing cursor) - maybe push in an XP CD and it will
start installing when you boot up?
Hope this helps!
sparky0882@yahoo-dot-com.no-spam.invalid (sparky0882) wrote in message
> my laptop wont boot, it gets stuck ant the compaq screen (it doesnt
> even make it to the windows screen). it gives me a message a couple
> of time(1782-disk controller failure)and then in about 15 min. it
> tells me that there is an incorrect disk in drive, however there is
> no disk in the drive. what i would like to do is wipe it cleen and
> start all over. i know that there is a way to do this i just cant
> figure it out. when i push any button it just beeps at me. can you
> please help me?!?!?!? i have the windows operation disk to get it
> started back up if i can wipe it clean. if there is anything that i
> can do let me know. thanx
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