Thinkpads Forum

Starting a new thread instead of piggybacking/hijacking from others....

On my previous thread here I am advised to try and boot up my laptop using linux mint. I burned the CD and tried to launch using F12. Pressing F12 at the welcome screen does not work. A message displays on the lower left corner of the screen "Preparing boot device list" but I still get the error:

ERROR
2100: HDD0 (Hard Disk drive) initialization error (2)

My laptop doesn't boot. Can anyone tell me how to use the linux mint to boot my laptop? I'd like to see if I can recover any data from my HDD (that got overloaded by windows updates).

Thanks
Chris

Hi Chris,

It sounds like you need ot enter the computers bios and enable booting from your CDrom disc. The error message is generated because no boot device is found on any of the enabled devices. If your cdrom drive is enabled to boot, then there is a problem with the disc you're using.

When you boot the cd, you probably want to use the option to run the linux from the CD without making any changes to your computer, this way you can verify if your system is working, etc, and recover data if your harddrive works, but from the error you're reporting, it sounds like your harddrive might be dead.

Good Luck

@Chris - Make sure you burned the Mint disk as an ISO and not a data disk. A plain data disk won't boot. It's a mistake made by most people, including myself, the first time trying to burn an ISO.

I feel your pain and I have been in a similar situation one of my workstations (it was the only I had back then).

Neil's post holds true. Do make sure you have the disk burning program set to burn the disk in ISO or disk image mode.

As for what Thinkpad Lover was saying, definitely get an external harddrive enclosure for T61's harddrive so that you don't have Error 2100 come up again.

Just make sure to remove T61's harddrive altogether and boot the machine using the Linux Mint livecd and check to see if the machine is still fully operational. When you have confirmed that, plug-in the external harddrive enclosure (you did get one, right?) containing the T61's harddrive into one of the usb ports on the T61 and see if it shows up on screen.

If a window shows up displaying the contents of your drive, great! If not then you may have to replace T61's harddrive.

TuuS wrote:Hi Chris,

It sounds like you need ot enter the computers bios and enable booting from your CDrom disc. ... If your cdrom drive is enabled to boot, then there is a problem with the disc you're using.

When you boot the cd, you probably want to use the option to run the linux from the CD without making any changes to your computer, this way you can verify if your system is working, ...

Good Luck

TuuS, thanks! I saw your reply on my original post and just need a little more understanding on what you are saying here. I'm assuming (I'm at work & can't check it right now) that once I properly burn the .iso file onto CD and use it to boot my box that a screen will appear giving me the options you write or do I need to enter bios to see these options?

@Neil, thanks. Yes, you're right. I didn't burn it as .iso image. I will burn another one using that file type.

Soul_Est wrote:As for what Thinkpad Lover was saying, definitely get an external harddrive enclosure for T61's harddrive so that you don't have Error 2100 come up again.

Just make sure to remove T61's harddrive altogether and boot the machine using the Linux Mint livecd and check to see if the machine is still fully operational. When you have confirmed that, plug-in the external harddrive enclosure (you did get one, right?) containing the T61's harddrive into one of the usb ports on the T61 and see if it shows up on screen.

If a window shows up displaying the contents of your drive, great! If not then you may have to replace T61's harddrive.

Thanks, Soul_Est, for the instructions on how to use the external hdd enclosure. I didn't buy one yet, because I'm not sure if I'm researching the right type. I'm also not sure of forum rules on specifying a particular brand of product here (I don't care what brand). Would you know if either of these will work with T61 (type 6457)?

• TX 2.5" SATA to USB 2.0 External Hard Drive/SSD Enclosure
  2.5" SATA to USB 2.0 External Hard Drive/SSD Enclosure (Supports 7mm, 9.5mm, 12.5mm HDD/SSD)

The two most likely causes of being unable to boot from a linux liveCD are that the CDrom drive isn't set as a boot option in the bios, or the disc is bad, and since you've confirmed you didn't burn the disc properly, and the data you posted in the other thread confirms your drive is setup to boot, then you can ignore the bios settings.

Just properly burn the disc and boot from it.

Thanks, TuuS. I will try again tonight and post back results.

P.S. Guess it doesn't matter to use Audio or Data CD? All i had was audio...

Chris2011 wrote:Thanks, TuuS. I will try again tonight and post back results.

P.S. Guess it doesn't matter to use Audio or Data CD? All i had was audio...

There is no difference in the discs between a blank CDr disc. You can format them for use as data or videoCD or audio, but that's part of the burning process, the blank discs are all the same, however according to the guide you showed me, you selected a disc that requires a DVDr not a CDr disc. Most linux distribution are available for either type of disc, but you need to use the proper type.

TuuS wrote:... however according to the guide you showed me, you selected a disc that requires a DVDr not a CDr disc.Most linux distribution are available for either type of disc, but you need to use the proper type.

I followed the link listed here to get the linux bootable disc:

ajkula66 wrote:Try downloading and burning (on another computer obviously) a "live" Linux CD from here: http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=83. You'll have to burn it as an ISO (bootable) disk and then use F12 to boot from it.

ajkula66 told me to boot by using F12. I have no idea when to click F12 and have asked that on my thread. Following ajkula66 suggestion, I:

• selected a download from this list mirrors
• here's the options to select: North America - USA - Linux Freedom

How would I know which is DVDr or CDr?
Which one is CDr?
Should I select 64bit or 32bit?

Thanks!

Anything over 700MB will have to be put on a DVD. 700MB or less will fit on a CD.

I don't remember what ThinkPad you are working with, but unless it has a 64bit CPU, you should just go with the 32bit ISO, since that will work with anything.

Oh! Press F12 at the IBM/Lenovo boot splash.