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[bigegg]

OT question, but there's a lot of knowledge on here 

I recently bought a touchscreen till for the shop - ridiculously cheap (a fiver!)

It's currently installed with a castrated version of win NT which won't connect to a network.
There are USB ports that won't work under NT
There is no floppy drive.
There is no optical drive.
(and no way to fit either)
It will net-boot, but not boot from USB


I want to install XP pro (the till came with a licence    )

so: only method I can think of:
Put HD in another PC, install XP, then swap drives back.

obviously, that didn't work.   

So I now have a harddrive that will boot to NT (and has access to the XP partition), but won't boot to XP -
and still has no network, USB, or removable drives.
All the xp installation files are on the HD

After googling, it would appear that re-fitting the HD in a standard PC, uninstalling all drivers and re-fitting in till will allow XP to install the correct drivers.

BUT: is there a way to uninstall the drivers from the XP installation via the NT installation, to save me disconnecting/reconnecting HD (which is a pig of a job)

last resort would be to set up a net install of XP - is this a big deal?

TIA

[TheBoy]

Does the BIOS support USB CDROM booting

I wouldn't go faffing about trying to build it on the wrong hardware, then bodge it to different - being a till, it needs to be ultra reliable, and not carry that sort of baggage.


Most tills do use specific cut down Windows versions, even NT4 even now, or even embedded NT.  Why do you want XP on there, and do you have compatible PoS software?

[Andy B]

......

I recently bought a touchscreen till for the shop - ridiculously cheap (a fiver!) ......

You need to down grade a little ....... 

[bigegg]

Does the BIOS support USB CDROM booting

I wouldn't go faffing about trying to build it on the wrong hardware, then bodge it to different - being a till, it needs to be ultra reliable, and not carry that sort of baggage.


Most tills do use specific cut down Windows versions, even NT4 even now, or even embedded NT.  Why do you want XP on there, and do you have compatible PoS software?

No

It's basically a PC in a posh box - not a "till" - when I say "castrated" version, it's had a few tweaks to make it more "secure" - no tool bar, for instance.

I have some opensource POS software which works OK on XP - not sure about NT. The main thing is that I have the licence for XP, but not for NT.
PLus I just prefer XP.

Can I just copy the /I386 files from the XP disk to the HD, then run the installation program (Winnnt.exe) from the HD I am installing XP to?

[Martian]

So I now have a harddrive that will boot to NT (and has access to the XP partition), but won't boot to XP -
and still has no network, USB, or removable drives.
All the xp installation files are on the HD

Sounds like the machine is well on it's way to being a mess from a software point of view already.
Why can't you get NT4 to connect to your network?

[CaptainZok]

Plug a dvd drive into the mobo and run the xp install disc.

[Martian]

Plug a dvd drive into the mobo and run the xp install disc.

Why spend money & time on connecting an optical drive when it can boot from it's NIC?

[CaptainZok]

Plug a dvd drive into the mobo and run the xp install disc.

Why spend money & time on connecting an optical drive when it can boot from it's NIC?

I was thinking it's probably easier to plug in an old drive than tinker around trying to persuade NT to play nicely with the network booting.

[Martian]

I was thinking it's probably easier to plug in an old drive than tinker around trying to persuade NT to play nicely with the network booting.

The OS doesn't come in to it when booting from the NIC (or any other device).
Given the mess the OP seems to have got themselves in to though, your solution is probably easiest.

[CaptainZok]

I was thinking it's probably easier to plug in an old drive than tinker around trying to persuade NT to play nicely with the network booting.

The OS doesn't come in to it when booting from the NIC (or any other device).
Given the mess the OP seems to have got themselves in to though, your solution is probably easiest.

Standard ide cable and an old dvd drive, molex power splitter if it hasn't any spares and Robert should be your mothers brother.

[bigegg]

oh yeah - forgot that bit :.)

It's got a 2.5" connector, not 3.5" - I've got the adaptor to plug the 2.5" drive into a standard PC, but not got the connector to go the other way.
There's no room to put a standard optical drive in.

I'm thinking of sticking it on ebay as is, and putting the money towards a working system.

trouble is, that's not how I usually do things - I prefer to buy non-working for next to nowt and get it working.
That's how I got my omega.

[TheBoy]

It will provide some option for booting optical media, probably not straightforward, so users don't mess with it. I deal an awful lot in this kind of thing

NT4 is very popular with such devices both for security and the fact XP is a bit naff fOr that type of kiosk application

[bigegg]

I shall investigate further...

I have managed to get the network working, so am attempting to install the till program on NT instead.

If not, I will have a look at fitting an optical drive.

Since you work with them, TB, any comments on a TEC ST60?

ta

[TheBoy]

That's a good few years old! Must be 10 years old I'd say.

Probably hasn't the legs to run xp anyway, certainly not at a speed that pos needs


What software you running on it?

[Martian]

There's no room to put a standard optical drive in.

You don't have to fit it, just plug it in and let it sit there until you have installed the OS.