vt6200 laptop with screwed HD won't boot 3.4

[Tim_Neobard]

Following damage in transit, my HP laptop has a suspected HD fault. Whether this has any bearing on why 3.4 (5-10-2004 release) doesn't boot I don't know.

I'm attempting to make this into a terminal for my girlfriend. 3.3 seems to boot fine, but freezes after about 1/2 an hour.

I'm downloading 17-5-2004 in the blind hope this'll solve the problem, but if it isn't, what can I do? I've tried simply removing the HD - but the laptop then refuses point blank to boot whatever I do. I don't really want to buy another HD for my laptop, if I did, then there would be no point running knoppix as she's a native windows user.

Is it likely that knoppix is mounting the drive and crashing? Anything I can do? Anyone own a hpvt6200 who can tell me how to stop it searching for an HD on bootup? I've disabled it in the BIOS (I think)

Thanks for any help...

[OErjan]

tru givig the nomount and noswap options at the boot: line.
thet is:
boot: knoppix26 nomount noswap
then buy her a usb pendrive for storage and /home, or even better a usb dvd+rw drive (could be used as a 4G+ hdd).
a new 30Ghdd would be cheaper though.

[Tim_Neobard]

Sounds like a sensible idea. I did get it to boot into knoppix yesterday, but only after I booted with nodma. As soon as I accessed the HD, it crashed.

Thank god they've sorted the sound issue on that laptop! I used to have to mute the sound (I'm sure there was a more technical way of doing this, but I'm lazy as well as poor)

She doesn't need anything nearly as techincal as a pen drive or DVDR - she has a floppy drive. As soon as I gave it to her she tried to access the net and check her emails. That's all she does. And type.

I'll try what you suggested tonight. Hopefully it'll work every time. Can I edit any ini files so it does this automatically?

[OErjan]

yes if you remaster the cd.
otoh you could get a secondhand hdd for 30€ or so. i have bought two 6Gb for 55€ and that included shipping. i have one 712M that you could have for shipping fee, it is not 100% (noisy) but sound afik. hmm, come to think of it, that is a 19mm (3/4") thick 2.5" hdd, not likely to fit anything made after 1996.