How can i upgrade a laptop with no cd or network card that is running
windows 95 to at least windows 98. I do have the windows 98 full
edition cd.

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Clarification of Question by pb3400-ga on 31 May 2004 19:07 PDT

It does have a floppy drive

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Clarification of Question by pb3400-ga on 01 Jun 2004 11:09 PDT

The paralell direct cable connect is not an option because i would
have to go out and purchas a very expensive parlell cable. I ain't got
the money. 2nd, i dont want to go out an buy 100 floppies, let alone
spend a whole day putting it on to floppies. And if i were to do that,
how would i? Last, the laptop HD wont fit in the larger desktop IDE
slot.

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Request for Question Clarification by livioflores-ga on 01 Jun 2004 12:23 PDT

What about the serial port?
The cables are not so expensive:
Adaptec - Null modem cable - DB-9 (F) - DB-9 (F):
http://www.thenerds.net/productpage.asp?c=164&sc=336&d=4&pn=070092&s=1

"FastLynx Parallel & Serial Cables":
http://www.sewelld.com/ParallelAndSerial.asp
http://www.sewelld.com/SerialCable.asp
http://www.sewelld.com/ParallelCable.asp

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Clarification of Question by pb3400-ga on 01 Jun 2004 15:12 PDT

Beleive it or not, it has no functioning serial either. There is also
no way for me to get a network or modem card, as it only supports the
old 5V standard

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Request for Question Clarification by livioflores-ga on 01 Jun 2004 20:22 PDT

Hi!!

If your computer has a parallel port follow the instruction on the following page:
"Simple PC to PC Connection Solutions That Save Time & Money":
http://www.lpt.com/Support/DCC-SetUp/dcc-setup.htm

If this lead you to a solution, let me know to post this in the answer
box, if not I must withdraw.

Regards.
livioflores-ga

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Clarification of Question by pb3400-ga on 01 Jun 2004 20:54 PDT

I'm really sorry, but that doesn't solve my problem. Maybe if you
could ask somebody else too take a look at it?
Thanks

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Clarification of Question by pb3400-ga on 02 Jun 2004 21:43 PDT

Is anybody going to look at my question now?

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Request for Question Clarification by jbaltzell-ga on 03 Jun 2004 08:07 PDT

Let me try to summarize what we have talked about so we can try to get
you an answer you are looking for.

You laptop has a floppy drive, but no CDROM.  YOu want to install
Windows 98 on it.  The serial ports do not work, the parallel port is
not an option because of the cost of the cable.  Money prohibits
buying any hardware or support from local computer shops.  Finding old
hardware is not an option because of cost.  100 floppies would be out
of the price range too.

The only option I see is corwin02-ga's option D (Floppy Jockey).  Does
that solution not fill your need?

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Request for Question Clarification by livioflores-ga on 03 Jun 2004 08:58 PDT

I want to add that $9.00 is the average price for the parallel cable,
I think that this is the cheapest and fastest solution.

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Clarification of Question by pb3400-ga on 03 Jun 2004 10:27 PDT

OK, fine. The floppy jockey thing could work, though its amazingly
slow, and i have no idea how to do it so if you could find out how to
do that that would be great. About the paralell, i will check into
that, but it is also amazingly slow.

I would say that the self extractor should work in a very similar way
to the steps I outlined below.  I just looked at the download of
Winzip 9 and it is bigger than a floppy, so getting it to the machine
could be a pain since you would have to span it to floppies too.

Either way, I know this isn't the fastest solution in the world, but I
think it will work as long as the floppy disks hold up.  You might
want to have a few extras around just in case.  :)  Good luck.


Posting Last Comment as answer:
Spanning to multiple floppies:
Here is what you need to do to span the files from your 98 CD to
floppy disks.  If you want to accept this as an answer then let me
know and I will post it as such, but it is up to you since there have
been several people answering this question for you.

1:  Download winzip from www.winzip.com
2:  After installation make sure you have at least 2 formatted floppy disks.
3:  Insert a disk in to the drive, click on "File", "New Archive..." in Winzip.
4:  Select the floppy drive as the place to save the file.
5:  Add the contents of your CABS folder on your 98 CD to the archive.
6:  As the disk fills it will ask for another disk as it needs it.
7:  Take this disk and insert it in to the laptop.  Extract the
contents to a folder on the laptop's hard drive.  As it needs the next
disk it will let you know.
8:  While one disk copies to the laptop create the next disk on the other computer.
9:  Swap the floppies and delete the file you already used from the
floppy in the desktop machine.
10:  Tell Winzip to continue.
11:  Repeat steps 8 through 10 until complete.

Once you get it to a flow it should go reasonably quickly.  Just
remember to delete the old file from the disk in the desktop before
telling Winzip to continue.

If there were a faster way with the constraints in place I would tell
you, but this seems to be the absolute cheapest way.

Great!

I think that you must split the Win 98 CD in severals floppy disks
(they will be more that 100) and then use the floppys to copy the
Win98 CD into the laptop's HD.
It would be better if you can use the paralell or serial port to
connect your computer with another and copy by this way the Win98 CD
in your laptop.
When the entire CD is cpied in your laptop in a Win98 folder, just run
the install file and Win98 will be installed in your laptop...if your
laptop is compatible and still has enough space available.
If you want I can post in the answer box a method to connect your
laptop to another computer with CD driver and transfer the Win98 CD
files into your laptop.

Regards.
livioflores-ga

In order to upgrade to 98 you must rename win.com (in c:/windows)to
win.old.You may also want to try taking the HD out of the laptop and
putting it in a desktop for installation.

I don't believe that there will be any free way to accomplish this
installation.  Maybe we can look a little closer at what you are
doing.  Why do you need Windows 98 on this old laptop?  Is this a
libretto or some other micro laptop?

When it comes right down to it you have only one easy option and a few
hard ones.  The easy option is to borrow/purchase an external parallel
(I am assuming that this laptop has no USB since it has 95 on it) or
PCMCIA CDROM drive.  If you can get your hands on one it will be
reasonably easy to accomplish the install.

Another way would be to borrow/purchase a PCMCIA 10 Base (I assume
this old laptop will not work with the newest laptop network cards)
and copy files from the network to the drive so you can install.  This
all assumes you have other computers, you have a hub/switch/router
that is 10/100 so it can talk to the slower old network card and you
have the knowlege to connect this machine to the network and copy the
cabs folder to the laptop.

And as mentioned before you could go out and purchase the floppies
needed for this, but the process would be LONG.  If you decide to do
it this way I'm sure one of us could find you instructions for copying
all that data to floppy.

There are several ways to accomplish this 

a. use a null modem cable (cheap and easy you can make one yourself
from any serial cable you have) see here for details on the wire
layout

http://www.lammertbies.nl/comm/info/RS-232_null_modem.html#conc

you can use the most simple 3 wire cable


b. use a parallel connection (fastlynx) the cable wireing is a little
more complicated then a null modem cable

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/docid/1998121609495725

see here for the pin out

c. buy a PCMCIA network card provided the laptop has a PCMCIA slot 
a non brand card will cost you about $11 

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=283439&pfp=SEARCH
 

D.floppy jockey
Actually it can be done with 2 floppies and a lot of jockeying 
what you need is an archiving program (RaR or Ace) that can make user
defined partial archives and has a store funtion (compressing CAB
files is pretty useless) www.winrar.com has a shareware program for
this

Archive the CD to files the size of a floppy (1.44 mb) (this is a
preselect option) and copy all of them one by one to your Laptop by
alternating the floppies


E. Get a yahoo account with storage (assuming the laptop has a modem)
and copy the files from one PC to the yahoo storage , then download
them again (a very lengthy process)

F. Go to any decent smalltime computer repairshop and ask if you can
borrow their external CD Drive or if they can do the copying for you
(will probably be cost prohibitive)

G. Buy a converter from small IDE (laptop) to large IDE (PC) and copy
the data on your home PC to the Laptop Drive they cost between $4 and
$10

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/insidecomputer/la2tode3hadr.html

this is just an example , there are a plethora of shops that sell them

looking at all your comments 

- no working serial ports
- old standards on pcmcia
- no cd rom
- windows 95 installed

The first thought that comes to mind is , will windows 98 work on the machine
secondly , why would you go through all the trouble to install a new
OS on an obviously old and only half functioning machine ?

Since money seems (even amounts as low as $5 to $10) to be a big
prohibiting factor and windows 98 has larger memory requirements than
windows 95 so you will be facing a memory upgrade for your laptop
(laptop memory is rather expensive) I see little merrit in actually
upgrading the machine

Um, the laptop already has 64 MB ram, as it was an amazingly expensive
laptop at the time, a Satellite Pro.

Spanning to multiple floppies:
Here is what you need to do to span the files from your 98 CD to
floppy disks.  If you want to accept this as an answer then let me
know and I will post it as such, but it is up to you since there have
been several people answering this question for you.

1:  Download winzip from www.winzip.com
2:  After installation make sure you have at least 2 formatted floppy disks.
3:  Insert a disk in to the drive, click on "File", "New Archive..." in Winzip.
4:  Select the floppy drive as the place to save the file.
5:  Add the contents of your CABS folder on your 98 CD to the archive.
6:  As the disk fills it will ask for another disk as it needs it.
7:  Take this disk and insert it in to the laptop.  Extract the
contents to a folder on the laptop's hard drive.  As it needs the next
disk it will let you know.
8:  While one disk copies to the laptop create the next disk on the other computer.
9:  Swap the floppies and delete the file you already used from the
floppy in the desktop machine.
10:  Tell Winzip to continue.
11:  Repeat steps 8 through 10 until complete.

Once you get it to a flow it should go reasonably quickly.  Just
remember to delete the old file from the disk in the desktop before
telling Winzip to continue.

If there were a faster way with the constraints in place I would tell
you, but this seems to be the absolute cheapest way.

jbaltzell-ga,
That is just fine. 1 question though, since the win 95 machine doesn't
have an unzippper, should i use winzip self-extractor, which i own, to
make the zip .exe? The floppy thing is fine, pleae post it in the
answer box to claim your guys's payment for ALL your HARD work!

Yes use Winzip to extract the exe(and other files)from the zip files.