Gaming World Forums

General Category => Technology and Programming => Topic started by: Frisky SKeleton on February 17, 2008, 04:11:17 am

Title: i386
Post by: Frisky SKeleton on February 17, 2008, 04:11:17 am

ok, so my dads laptop hasn't been formatted since we got it several years ago.

as seems to be the way now, it didn't come with any software boxes for any of the pre-loaded software, including XP, though it has an i386 folder on it which i heard you can make an install cd from????

how do i do this?

Title: i386
Post by: Stadsport on February 17, 2008, 09:46:46 am

http://ask-leo.com/can_i_burn_the_i386_folder_to_a_cd_and_use_that_as_an_install_cd.html

Title: i386
Post by: Frisky SKeleton on February 18, 2008, 11:25:34 am

Well that sucks.

How much can I delete? can i delete the registry completely?

Title: i386
Post by: the bloddy ghost on February 19, 2008, 02:53:31 am

If you can find the drivers for your laptop's model, you can simply download them, then get another copy of windows xp.

Title: i386
Post by: Monty on February 20, 2008, 07:33:46 pm

That link is 100% bogus! It is possible to make an install disc from your i386 folder. It's how I got my Laptop running Windows XP from Windows 95. I had a Windows XP setup disc that was so destroyed that I couldn't use it anymore. Here's how it was set up:

<Setup.exe and junk> - This is what you need!
<i386> - This is what you have!
<other folders> - Nonsensical stuff... Don't need it.

Simply get the setup.exe junk and your i386 folder (I had to use my i386 folder from my HP Pavillion) and burn them to a CD. This should make it where you can install XP from this disc. Simple simple simple!

And it doesn't matter the brand of computer you have with the i386 folder, it's all the same. My HP had the same contents as the original folder from the disc. It worked fine for installing XP on my 133MHz Pentium MMX Hitachi Laptop with 80 Megs of RAm and a 3.6GB hard disk.

Of course, this knowledge is useless to you unless you have an original copy of a Windows XP install disc...

Title: i386
Post by: Frisky SKeleton on February 21, 2008, 08:57:49 pm

Do you mean the COA thing? I've got the serial number. can you boot from it?

Title: i386
Post by: Monty on February 26, 2008, 05:21:06 pm

Hmm... I haven't tried to. You can try it and find out.

I'm going to try to boot from it when I get a chance and I will let you know.

And yes, you do need the COA, but you need the Setup disc so you can copy the Setup contents onto a new CD with your i386 folder. All of the root files need to go on this new CD.