Thinkpads Forum

hello

I have a thinkpad 240 that has an operating system error where it cannot find its op sys. I have wanted to load a new one but I cannot get the thinkpad 240 to register the pcmcia cdrom i got as a bootable device in the BIOS. when i go into the bios config utility, it only shows a floppy drive as an applicable booting device. Ive tried a number of things
1) a USB external cd rom drive
2) buying an IBM enclosure slot and putting an ibm drive i have in it and connecting it
3) buying a PCMCIA external cd rom (includes a floppy disk to install drivers i guess) and trying that.

None of these options have worked. I tried looking into a bios update but the latest update didnt say anything about adding this capability to the bios (the ability to boot from external cd rom device)

i love this thinkpad 240, its the perfect size for some writing i would like to do outside of the apartment and so im eager to get a win2000 installation going on it. if anyone can help it would be appreciated

my thanks

darren

There are many ways you COULD solve this problem.

My preferred way:

Note: steps1-3 need to be done on laptop so geometry is set correct
1) Boot a DOS floppy on the laptop.
2) Fdisk the drive
3) format c: /s
4) Reboot from C: just to make sure you get a DOS prompt

5) Remove drive from laptop, use a IDE adapter (about $8 US)
to connect it to a desktop machine
6) Copy i386 folder from CD onto laptop drive
7) Shutdown, move drive back onto laptop

Boot laptop to DOS prompt
9) cd i386
10) Run setup program, think it's winnt.exe, been a few months......

Next time, post this question in the Legacy forum.

Just to add something to the great advice from vincent, I was able to get a friends lappy going by copying the boot files from a win2000 server to a floppy and creating a boot disk. Not sure what OS you are running but the boot files should be the same for XP. The only problem is you will have to find some software to repair the MBR if it is corrupted.

Copy theses files:

NTLDR
NTDETECT.COM
BOOT.ini