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I have dell latitude c400. OS is damaged and i want to reinstall it, but laptop has no CD or Floppy drive. USB is not recognized as bootable device. what to do?
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If you're tryng to format the HDD on a Dell latitude C400 (or install an OS), this thing will not boot to any USB devices (flash drives, pen drives, external USB cd-rom drives, etc.) - just ain't gonna happen since the BIOS doesn't support such boot devices. The only thing it'll boot to is (1) docking station, and (2) a Media Bay optical drive.
This laptop will not give you an option to boot from a usb device or even from an external cd rom/dvd. You need to do a network install only for this particular model DEll c400. It is a long process and requires some skill of setting up a RIS server. You will also need a switch or hub to connect your laptop to it. Once your server is setup with dns, dhcp and ris you need to do a network boot and install the os. Get in touch with a professional to do it if your not familiar with this. I tried calling dell as i had a similar issue and they couldnt help me over the phone so they sent over a technician. Technician tried in vbain including removing my hdd and installing the os on his laptop and then putting the hard drive back into mine. It still didnt work. I then researched the net and figured out the only way to do it was via a remote installation.
HI, 1. You need to connect the USB optical drive to the laptop. 2. Restart the laptop at the Dell logo screen press the F12 key a couple of times 3. You would see the one time boot menu.using the down arrow is select USB 4. Insert the windows xp cd in the optical drive 5. Press the space bar when you see the message "Press any key to boot from the cd" 6. Follow the screen prompts after the same.
In case you need more help on how to reinstall the OS . Please revert back
If you already have an USB flas bootable with XP on it, plug in into the laptop, and when the laptop starts, press F12. Then you should select that the computer should boot from USB. If this won't work, try to attach an external DVD\cd unit.
AFAIK all XP disks were bootable so maybe check your bios options.
If they are correct and it still does not boot them goto bootdisk.com and download the floppy setup disks for XP. You could then set your laptop to boot from floppy and install xp from there.
Hi,
This sounds like a dead hard drive. Still, you may want to try:
1. Enter your CMOS/BIOS and verify that your laptop can detect the hard drive. Further check if it is configured to boot first from the HD;
2. Slip in your XP or Recovery CD and boot from that. It may be that the boot section/files of your HD got messed up. When prompted, instruct the CD to repair;
3. Remove your laptop's HD and connect it to a 2nd PC as an external/removable drive using a 2.5 enclusore with USB attachment. Thereafter proceed to diagnose, check and hopefully recover your important files;
4. If confirmed of a defective HD, replace and reinstall your OS.
Hope this be of some help/idea. Post back how things turned up or should you need further information.
Good luck and kind regards.
Go to the Dell website and download the XP video and display drivers:-
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/devices.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&SystemID=LAT_PNT_P3_C400&os=WW1&osl=EN
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