Reformating with clean XP partition

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bulgarian388 · #1 Post by **bulgarian388** » Tue May 23, 2006 12:17 am

Hi guys, just got my T60p, 2.16Ghz 1GB etc... Anyway, for one I get that bug with the 512MB video ram. Don't really care about it. What pisses me off is that I can't seem to be able to reformat the HDD with a clean version of XP. It goes throught the entire startup process and in the end it says it can not find an HDD. The diagnostic utility says everything is fine. I even tried installing XP from within XP with the installation wizard set to "New Installation". Even that fails when the laptop restarts and tries to load the setup files from the HDD with a BSOD. Can anyone lend some helping hand. I just want to reformat the HDD and get rid of all the junk that comes with this laptop.

viper11885 · #2 Post by **viper11885** » Tue May 23, 2006 12:45 am

You need to change the SATA setting to Compatibility mode which is in the BIOS > Config screen.

The XP setup will then recognize the hard drive.

christopher_wolf · #3 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Tue May 23, 2006 1:00 am

Also, that isn't a bug by the way; the "bug" is ATI's HyperMemory system at work. It optimizes an area of the memory for faster pre-caching and other graphics related operations.

sergeycentral · #4 Post by **sergeycentral** » Tue May 23, 2006 1:03 am

follow the "Installation instructions" at:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 09#install

I would also save the directories

c:\drivers
c:\swtools

as you can avoid downloading all the drivers/software

dont expect that the thinkvantage system update software will update all of your software, it doesnt..

also for me and maybe other the ibm's ati drivers have compatibily issues with running gfx intensive games.. i use omega drivers instead.. but have not been able to figure out how to install ati.com's drivers...

anyway.. good luck!

bulgarian388 · #5 Post by **bulgarian388** » Tue May 23, 2006 9:33 am

Thanks guys. I got it figured out now. It is reformating, however, I got spooked when I was removing the previous partitions and I kept the hidden one. Is anything special about it? Does the ThinkVantage software run off of there?

Also a little late, already downloaded the drivers. I am going to try to use the original ati drivers, but if that fails then I'll just either mod the current Catalysts with the mobility modder, or get the Omegas.

Thanks for the help guys.

sergeycentral · #6 Post by **sergeycentral** » Tue May 23, 2006 4:40 pm

bulgarian388 wrote:...I kept the hidden one. Is anything special about it? Does the ThinkVantage software run off of there?

This is the restore/recover partition. It launches when you press the blue ThinkVantage button on boot. Part of it is also controlled from the C:\ drive that you formatted.. however I heard that someone was able to install it back to working order.. you'll have to search the forums or ask around..

I decided to get rid of the partition because it took 5gb

let us know if you get the modded ati.com drivers working...

Reformating with clean XP partition

Reformating with clean XP partition

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