Reinstalling Windows 2000 to T23

[taxdeath1951]

Hi... looks like a lot of smart people here. I'm just a civilian. I have three thinkpads, and am trying to rehab the oldest to make it faster. Have the original CD's that came with my T23 and am trying to reinstall Windows 2000. I get all the way to "installing Devices" when it just quits and hangs.

Any suggestions? Thanks

[emeraldgirl08]

I think you may have to do a clean install. Meaning you have to totally write-over that Hard Drive you want to use.

Try googling "Killdisk" w/o the quotes and use that program to wipe your hard drive. Be very careful though. I made the unfortunate mistake of erasing my primary drive- twice

Any time you want to reinstall the OS to it's factory state you will need a clean slate to begin with. If you have programs or anything on that hard drive you want saved now would be a good time to do it.

[taxdeath1951]

OK... let me ask you. If I download on this T400 Vista machine, how do i use that software to wipe the T23 drive?

Like I said, I'm just a civilian, so you have to expect these kinds of questions. Thanks

[RealBlackStuff]

Killdisk comes in two flavors: floppy and CD.
Download for either of them on your T400 and create the floppy or CD version.
Then boot your T23 from that floppy/CD to wipe the HD.

[rkawakami]

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

I've seen problems when installing Windows that is due to a defective MiniPCI card. My suggestion would be to pull the interface card out and try again. On a T23, it is located behind the rectangular panel to the left of the large IBM label on the bottom of the system. The MiniPCI card is the one which is held in place with two metal arms along the sides of the card; it's about 2.5" x 1.75". This card is either a modem-only or modem/wireless combo card.

Also, as suggested by others, it's best to do an install on a "blank" hard drive if at all possible. I'm sure that the Killdisk program can be used but after you download the program, you probably have to create a bootable disk, either a floppy or CD. Thus, you will need either a floppy drive or have a CDRW drive.

One program that I can suggest using is the one that is provided by IBM for their Thinkpads: PC Doctor for DOS. That diagnostic program, in addition to being able to checkout various parts of the laptop, also contains a utility which can erase a hard drive. But again, you will need three floppy disks or a CD writer program which is able to handle an .ISO (image) file.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... IGR-4YZM3F (floppies)
http://www.kawakami-ca.com/ibm_t2x/ibm_t22_pcdiag.iso (.ISO image)

[taxdeath1951]

Hi,

I looked at that KillDisk site, and can see the benefit to that, but it does make me nervous about erasing anything on the T400 by accident. (I'm no mechanic). Then I saw the note about removing the Mini PC card. I did that, and the machine has now flown past the "hang" screen, has installed the devices, and installed the components and is performing the final tasks.... so there's progress.

Thanks! I'll keep you posted

[rkawakami]

The one "problem", now that you've removed the MiniPCI card, is that Windows will not install the drivers for the modem or modem/wireless functions. You should be able to install a replacement MiniPCI card (which is known to work) and then download any driver/utility you need from here:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-57669

[taxdeath1951]

Disconnecting the Mini PC I card did it. I was able to successfully reinstall. That card is for a xircom mpci 56 winglobal modem, and may have been the source of some other problems, such as hanging when the machine was rebooted before the re-install. I put it back in the machine for now and am restoring data to the machine and then thought I'd look for an updated driver for that modem... does that make sense? Also, the BIOS on the T23 is 1.16 with a 1.06 controller. Would you recommend that I update that?

Thank you so much for your help with this.

[rkawakami]

I believe that all of the cases I've seen with a MiniPCI hanging an Windows OS install was due to defective hardware (the card itself) and not anything to do with a bad driver install. As such, I've tossed those cards away and installed others that I know work.

As far as the BIOS/EC updates goes, I'm of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy. That is to say, if your system is working fine and does everything that you think it should (and doesn't do anything funny or weird), then I'd leave the BIOS and EC alone. Look through the BIOS and EC update histories and see if there's something that applies for your situation and then decide whether it's worth it to perform the update(s):

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... uj20us.txt
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-53335

[emeraldgirl08]

Glad to see you've got it working Taxdeath1951!

Thanks for the tip on the modem Ray!

Like they say, "You learn something new thing everyday."