hey thanks for the tips so far!
the laptop has about 6GB HD inside... the original bios is contained on it. it works great!
I have a 120GB drive that I want to use with it... tested in a Compaq Armada 1700 which is very similar but without the bios-on-the-drive issue.
I have a 3.5GB drive that I can wipe and not worry whatsoever about.
I found the instructions over here:
http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/...hreadId=543501
the drivers I have under control (I think). some of them aren't even available on the HP website, I just got the file name and did some hunting around to turn them up elsewhere (eg the link to the older version of system diagnostics which is dead in the HP thread above).
so I have the "spxxxx.exe" files which create the floppies that I need to use as described in the thread above... but the only option is to make floppies I need to boot from these and need to make cdr versions!
At worst I can eBay a floppy drive for that comp (better yet... LS-120!
). But I am hoping I can bypass that by creating boot cd versions of the necessary compaq disks... after all, it is only a $25 computer
everything is humming with tons of 98se 'hack packs'... wireless, usb, ethernet via usb, cd drive, dvd usb external drive, USB 2.0 carbus I got from eBay for $3, etc etc.
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