T43 w/ Linux refuses to install Win' because hard drive bios

[Arturus]

My wonderful T43 with linux refuses to install Windows XP, Vista or 7 because, with ANY hard drive (and I have been through dozens of different kinds. To be exhaustive I have used a sata hard drive in the ultrabay, a sata SSD drive in the ultra bay, the original IDE drive in the normal slot, an IDE SD card reader bought at great expense, and several USB's.)

Attempting to install any kind of windows on any of these devices results in the following error.

"This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu." Followed by a subsequent "Windows could not determine if this computer contains a valid system volume."

Now as I'm sure you Tx_series'ians know, there is no option for the disk's controller in the bios menu, or perhaps that's what I'm missing.

To round out the information and make it more clear, the T43 will boot ANY kind of linux, with no hitches. I can boot from USBs and install to USBs. The laptop just despises windows for no apparent reason.

Oh, and as an FYI I also reset bios settings to make sure I'd not missed something in the bios, it didn't help.

A preemptive thanks,
Arthur.

An additional edit: My intent is both to install a new bios and ECP, but also to use the original fingerprint program so that the fingerprints are retained independent of the OS and I never have to worry about changing distros.

[ajkula66]

Welcome to the forum!

When you install the original IDE hard drive, is it "seen" in BIOS?

[Arturus]

Thanks! and yes, the drive is recognised in the Bios. It is also recognised by Ubuntu, and by the Windows installation. Ubuntu can write and modify it fine, but any Windows installation throws a wobbly and gives the aforementioned errors.

[ajkula66]

My experience has been that Windows must be installed first, before Linux...YMMV.

[Arturus]

Wha...? That's absurd. Is there anything I can do?

[Neil]

I've found that whether installing Windows, Puppy or any other flavor of Linux, most install problems can be avoided by zero filling the hard drive using DBAN or some such tool, to completely remove any remnants of the former OS.

That said, I've installed a frugal Puppy several times on an existing Windows partition without issues. BTW, Arturus, have you ever installed Puppy before, or have you always used the LiveCD? I ask because a Puppy install is a little different that other distros...less automated if you will.

[Dos3.1]

I've found that whether installing Windows, Puppy or any other flavor of Linux, most install problems can be avoided by zero filling the hard drive using DBAN or some such tool, to completely remove any remnants of the former OS.

That said, I've installed a frugal Puppy several times on an existing Windows partition without issues. BTW, Arturus, have you ever installed Puppy before, or have you always used the LiveCD? I ask because a Puppy install is a little different that other distros...less automated if you will.

I've been trying to get Puppy (Wary) to install on an A20m with no luck! I even wiped the HD. It works fine running off the CD. Windows 98 installed fine, so opposite problem on another TP!

I've made a USB to boot from, so going to try that next. (Later: nope, that didn't work, as it doesn't want to book from the USB.)

[Neil]

You might try booting with a Plop Boot Manager floppy...that would give you the USB boot option. But somehow I don't think that will solve your problem. Worth trying though, I guess.

[ajkula66]

Wha...? That's absurd. Is there anything I can do?

I've never claimed to be a Linux expert, more of a recreational user, but will tell you what I do know:

Over the past 6-7 years I've owned more T43/p machines than I'd dare count, and have dual-booted various Linux distros on quite a few of them. I've never had a problem, but I *always* installed the Windows first, since that's what I was initially advised by folks who knew more about *nix stuff than myself.

So I'd wipe the drive, install Windows and then proceed with installing Linux...

[Arturus]

Thanks for your help so far guys, in response to the Puppy question, while I have before installed Puppy Linux on another laptop, I have not on this one so that point's moot. I shall give it a spin. I can, however, tell you that I attempted to install Ubuntu Server from a CD onto a 2gb usb drive yesterday, (which I presume to not be relevant, but could be,) and the install failed about 2/3 of the way through. Probably just the usb drive.

I guess the next step is to attempt DBAN?

Also: Do you guys know if one can update the bios and fingerprint data from a Win '98 (or indeed any other) install? My only intention here is to update the bios to remove the 30sec boot wait, and to get some nice OS - Independent fingerprints.

Thanks again.

Edit: Oh, and I thought I should just qualify something: I'm currently running of' a 128GB sata SSD in the Ultrabay. The IDE drive, and the other SATA hard drive that I have have had linux on them before. The mini IDE SDCard has not, and that's the one that I actually got furthest with installing to. (The SDCard was installed to fine, but refused to boot.)

The evidence is stacking up that things will be rosy once I properly wipe the (extra SATA or original IDE) hard drive. Thanks everyone.

[Arturus]

Holy crap! DBAN worked! Thanks so much guys. If any of you have steam, I'll gift you something. Or perhaps something nice in Dota 2 if any of you play. I would never have thought of residual stuff being left on the hard drive messing with a windows installation.

Edit: Huumn. It's now giving a hard drive error when I boot to the freshly installed hard drive, saying that I should reboot with ctrl+alt+del. Well, the hard part's over. I'll just try Win Vista or something like that.

[ajkula66]

Try W7. Runs pretty darn well on the old rig that T43 is IMO...

[Arturus]

Dang. Win XP got through install, but will not boot. Win Vista still refuses to install to the drive. I'm going to give DBAN a second runthrough, then try 7. All the original functionality from win XP works, right? the Bios upgrades? the fingerprint enrolment application, right? that's all I want. oh Microsoft why, why!?

[Neil]

It should not be this hard...and usually isn't. We're missing something...faulty RAM, flakey Southbridge chip, IDK, but something. It's really hard to tell from this distance!

[Arturus]

Yep. Win' Vista still refuses after a wipe. It's interesting that Win XP got through, I'd like to try it out on a sata hard drive, but I have no way to given as there's only one ultra bay slot and all the times I've tried to use a Usb drive as a boot device for XP have just flat out not worked. Some people advertise that they can make an XP usb boot device, but i've yet to have one work.

Anyways, my next options are to proceed with a windows 7 installation via:
1. USB onto IDE
2. USB onto Sata
3. DVD onto IDE.

After that... well, I'm out of options really. I've been going around in circles for way too long.

[ajkula66]

May I suggest burning a disk of memtest86 and running it, first on one slot at the time with moving the DIMMs around, and then on both slots populated?

[Arturus]

You think it's the memory? All right, I'll give it a spin.

[Dos3.1]

You might try booting with a Plop Boot Manager floppy...that would give you the USB boot option. But somehow I don't think that will solve your problem. Worth trying though, I guess.

The Plop floppy allowed me to boot Wary from the USB! Great tool, thank you! But, you were right, I still can't install to the hard drive. I'm going to look for another distro of Linux and keep trying.

[Arturus]

No errors in the memory with each different permutation of DIMM.

I'm going to try Win 8.

[massits]

hello.
I am a Linux user too, the basilar "rule" about the dual boot is to install windows first and Linux after that linux install itself the grub to lauch the dual boot.
be careful with the mount point the best choice is "/" and the drive where install the " grub" has to be the first hhd

I don't know wich distro you have to install, choose a Lde or a xcfe Server X based, that permit to have a very fast thinkpad
remember to connect ever usb driver or 3g modem before installing, that permit at the install procedure to recognize peripherics

just for a your comparison utility, I have :
t43 with
Intel M 2.3 Ghz cpu
2 Gb ram ( 2 x 1 Gb)
a 40 gb pata hdd
a 120 Gb OCZ SSD in ultrabay
3g huwaei e1750 usb card
dvb tv usb card

O.S.
windows XP 3
Backbox 3.2 Linux ( ubuntu based distro xcfe server X )

[Arturus]

The problem's not dualbooting, i'm competent at dualbooting, just did it on my main desktop. The problem is installing windows.

[massits]

is the SSD firmware updated ?

[Arturus]

Yes.

[RealBlackStuff]

Your problem is the Southbridge which has gone South!
(big Intel chip under the wifi card)
Have it re-balled, or get another mobo.

[Arturus]

Huh... That actually sounds reasonable. Of course it's like a diagnosis of Amantadine poisoning, there's not anything that can be done apart from a new body.

Well that sucks. I guess I'll just wait for the T50 motherboard to come to England then.

Thanks for your help.

[davidgurvich]

I had a similar problem with an R61. Couldn't install Vista at all. Using an identical R61 worked in installing to HDD and after that all installations worked on original R61. I also upgraded the firmware on the drive using Lenovo's HDD utility which should affect that one drive but not any others. I still don't understand what happened.

[Arturus]

Sooooo... If I were to send someone a 20gb hard drive, a CD of XP, a fiver for postage and a thank you note, could they possibly install Win XP to it from a T43?

Edit: Would this work from any other laptop, or would it have to be the same motherboard or cpu?

[RealBlackStuff]

This would only work properly via another T43/T43p or R52.
T42 and below, or T60 and up, are not suitable.