need help,with an ibm x20 notebook and installation of OS

ok, off to my first post...

very strange problem indeed. my x20 notebook has no fdd or cd-rom, so i needed to hook up it's hard drive on my regular pc with an adapter.

made it bootable with a win 98 startdisk (sys a: c:), and copied the installation-cd's of win2k and win98 onto it. then put the hd back in the laptop.

now, when turned on, the x20 boots to normal win98 dos-mode without any problems.

so far so good.

but now, after installing win98, the pc resets normally, but then the installation doesn't continue, instead i get an error "wrong operating system, please change the disk" something like that, it's in german, but basically complains about no operating system found.

now, when i connect the notebook's hard drive back in the regular pc, this boots off of this disk with no problem and the installation continues normally.

1st question:
how can this be? first the notebook boots, and all of a sudden without reason the hard drive is not recognized anymore, or something else... (boot sector?)
any suggestions what could be wrong? hard disk controller?

2nd question:
the installation of win2k (preferred over 98) wasn't possible. the setup from the installation-cd couldn't be started in this dos-version (that of the bootdisks, win98) and trying to do the same with the notebook's hd and the installation disks of win2k (sys a: c:) didn't work out at all.
is it possible in this scenario to install win2k to this x20 without having to do a network install?

thanks in advance for any thought dedicated to this problem.

Naw, you need to hook you Labtop to another computer to do the installation....Or maby a USB Cd drive might work. But i'm not sure about that Because you have to set up you BIOS setting to boot from it.

Ya know, that is something I never attempted before. I usually just got a CD-Rom and hooked it up. I'm gonna look into that....

Does the computer have a network adapter and does it support booting from a lan device?

You can install windows over a lan. I did that with an office I set up in Philly. All new systems just need to be booted up on the network with the BIOS set to boot from lan and bango, an unattended win xp pro vlk install starts right up. It reboots when done, and you ret the bios to boot from the C: drive and bob's your uncle.

The easiest way would be to get a docking station, or port replicator, with a cd-rom drive in the ultrabay. I found several for an x20 at reasonable prices on ebay, but that depends how much you want to spend.

My personal laptop is an ibm thinkpad 570e, and it has no ultrabay for an optical drive. I purchased a docking station for $30 with a cd-rom drive mostly for convenience so I don't have to keep sharing a cd drive or buy an external drive.

it has the option of booting from lan in the bios, i've tried that but without any succes so far...

but what concerns me most is, why the installation doesn't work...

i don't want to buy an expensive doking station or anything of that kind just to find out this doesn't work either... the cheapest way i can think of is to buy an "ide to usb" adapter and hook up any cd-rom i already have!

doesn't anyone find it strange that the installation works fine, but after the reset it doesn't continue? isn't that an indication that something is broken?

usually installing windows 98 directly from harddisk works fine on any pc i had so far...

I think your best bet will be to work on the network installation, and I doubt that you will be able to install windows using anything usb. Have you researched IBM's website for this issue?

By any chance do you know if this laptop ever functioned properly?

why do you think an installation over usb won't work? please explain...

i've researched hundreds of pages on the web for every issue we talk about in this post...

got this notebook from ebay, the seller claims it works properly and has 100% positive feedback.

I could be wrong (that usually happens when I don't do any research), but I don't see how you could install windows using an external usb drive. Usb drivers are normally loaded during the boot process by the operating system. There is probably a way to first load the usb drivers using a floppy, but I assume that you would have came across that already in your research.

My point is that I simply think it will be easier to perform the installation over the network, as that method is well documented in books and throughout the internet.

I don't see anything yet that makes me certain there is something wrong with your laptop. If you aren't willing to try a docking station then I would recommend doing more research on a network installation of windows.

You need to be able to offer the Lan Bootstrapping on another computer on your network. MSDN has articles on doing so.

Some laptops don't offer the ability to boot from a USB device. If it can, then put the Windows install on a USB memory key.