Toshiba Portege 3500-Need some help guys

Ok will I got a free tablet laptop,the Toshiba Portege 3500 did not come with any recovery disc are a hdd for the matter.I had a extra hdd I put in there but the thing is the tablet laptop does not have a internel dvd drive,thats how toshiba made it which makes it very frustrating for me.And only some usb Toshiba externel dvd dvies will work on them but there expensive to buy so Im kind of stuck tying to install a new OS on here.I already tried two usb dvd drives but its a no go.So if anyone has a solution for this that would be great.

 

How about installing onto the hard disk from another computer, and then transfering the hard disk back? Or booting from a USB flash disk with XP/Vista install CD/DVD on and made bootable?

 

Yeah this is the best idea, I have a Hp TC1100 Tablet with no OS cd or CD boot option, the best thing to do is just hot swap the HD just after the XP installation has written set up files to the drive, then, it should continue to install and configure itself to the tablet.

 

Sounds good,will give it a go,thanks for the help.

 

Just an FYI...I'm fairly sure that if you plan on using the tablet functions of the PC you need a special Tablet PC edition of Windows XP.

You can also see if the computer can do a network boot. I've personally never tried one before, but I'm sure you can find a tutorial somewhere for doing it.

 

Network boots are pretty tricky to set up, even if you have windows server which should support it. The hard disk swap is the best way, once you can find XP tablet edition

 

Will I got Tablet XP,now need to see if this will work.I have a old laptop and I pulled out the hdd and thru it in the tablet and it booted up fine,I would just use that hdd but its only a 4 gig :110: and it has Windows Millenium on it,the other hdd I have is a 30 gig so I'll be fine with that.Now lets see if I can pull this off.

 

Well I formatted and installed Tablet XP on the hdd using another pc,but when I install the hdd in my Tablet Laptop it will not boot XP at all,just a blank screen.Also I dont know how do a HDD swap when the laptop doesn't have a internel dvd drive build in to access the XP disc.

 

Copy the contents of the disk to a folder on the hard disk. When it asks you for a location, just point it to the folder.

Not sure on the other problem I'm afraid

 

Yup I have never seen a laptop without a dvd drive built in,I guess if I still cant get it to work than I'll just sell it as is,thanks for all of your help guys.

 

Hi Pikkon,

I had a similar tablet laptop many moons ago and finally gave up on it! A great idea, but uber crappy to upgrade. I now own a HP Pavillion which is far easier and has everything built in. Why the need for a tablet PC?

 

Well I got the tablet for free so I wanted to bring it back to life,if i had just the recovery disc then I could get it to work.

 

Sorry it took me so long to see this topic.

I used to have a 3500 and I know what you're going through. I'm pretty sure that I have a backup of the restore discs sitting around here if you think that would help.
Let me know and I'll find them and mail them out or something.

Also, if you're looking to sell it I'd be willing to take it off of your hands for a reasonable price.

 

That would be great if you had the restore disc,would really appreciate it.
I have tried doing the way of installing XP without using a dvd drive using dos but man its confusing.But if I cant get the 3500 to work than yes I will sell it to you for a good price.

 

Finally got it working.:dance:

 

Out of curiosity, how did you do it in the end?

 

Well I had to format the hdd to fat 32,then I installed DOS71CD OS on my laptop hdd.After that I copied XP to the hdd as well.Booted up DOS right on the hdd,installed XP from there.This is the tutorial I used.
http://www.syschat.com/install-windows-xp-without-floppy-cd-463.html
This laptop is pretty sweat,now that it actually works.

 

If you still want the restore discs PM me with an address and I'll drop them in the mail this week.

I have a Compaq TC100 I love xp tablet and all of it's features.

 

Wow thanks,thats very nice of you,I can pay for shipping and buy the disc from you.

 

Don't worry about it. It's just a set of cdr's that I made while the originals were still in my posession and the shipping will only be about a dollar max.

EDIT*

Blaaarghhh... these are 7200 restore copies. I know I have 3500's. I'll take another look.