I recently got my hands on an old Dell Latitude C610 laptop and I'd like to revive it using what I have, without spending money on old parts. The catch is, the hard drive is empty and the DVD drive has issues. Since the boot options don't include USB, it seems my only option is to install an OS via PXE. I tried using Serva to set it up, and while I got some communication between the laptop and my PC, I kept hitting a wall with an infinite loop in the log and an error saying the initial menu has no LABELS. I heard that Serva might be using too new a version of syslinux and that I should consider downgrading to version 3.68, but that makes me nervous. Can anyone help me understand what steps I need to take to make this work?
1 Answer
Have you thought about using an external optical drive? That could simplify the process. Alternatively, if you can, make a USB installer for an older version of the OS. You could also consider copying a working installation to the HDD using disk imaging tools if you can get the drive connected somehow. Just be sure to check compatibility with the old hardware!
Unfortunately, the laptop doesn’t support USB boot, and I can't connect the HDD to another system since it's IDE and I don't have any adapters.