Thinkpads Forum

I just received a new thinkpad T60 and would like to wipe out the hard drive and then do a clean installation of Windows XP Pro. I find the manual instructions on installing a new copy of Windows XP to be a bit confusing, so I just want to make sure that I get this right.

I don't have the diskette drive that the manual refers to in order to install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver, so I want to follow the "alternate procedure." Is my understanding correct that I can install this driver through the Windows OS, and then reformat the drive and reinstall Windows?

Any clarifications would be very appreciated.

Here we go again. /me sighs.

I understand the sigh, but I also understand the question. There are so many different comments on the board that it gets confusing.

Seems like if you backup the ibmtools and other folders on the Hard drive you should be ok. Then you can use software installer to add what you want.

I just got done with a fresh install on my t60p, so a few pointers.

First off, make sure you burn your R&R media before you blow anything away. I think those will get you back to full factory conditions (anyone confirm?) of the XP pro if things go bad.

Download the network drivers you need to snag everything else once you get the OS installed. I found most of the WinXP drivers worked for Win2003 server.

Go to the BIOS and toggle the SATA to compatibility mode. WinXP, Win2003, etc will treat it as a 'normal' IDE drive. Once you have all the drivers set, then you can toggle it back if you want. Boot from CD and you should be able to install like normal without having to do the slipstream thing. Up to you if you want to blow away the entire disk or leave the 4-5G partition with the utilities, etc.

Install the network driver (wired or wireless, either way works) and hop over to the driver page to snag the rest of the applications and drivers you need for your system.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-62928

heelix wrote:First off, make sure you burn your R&R media before you blow anything away. I think those will get you back to full factory conditions (anyone confirm?) of the XP pro if things go bad.

Yes, correct. Burn the preload image on the disks first for emergency HDD crash or failure. You will never know when it will happen. Better play safe rather than sorry.

What is the "preload image," and how would I go about burning that?

And is the "slipstream thing" the installation of the Intel Matrix...Driver? Am I understanding you correctly that so long as my hard drive is in "compatibility" mode, I don't need that driver installed, meaning that I can install it after installing the OS?

Would you recommend that I keep the 4-5 GB partition w/ the utilities? What utilities are there?

Thanks for the help.

biewen wrote:What is the "preload image," and how would I go about burning that?

And is the "slipstream thing" the installation of the Intel Matrix...Driver? Am I understanding you correctly that so long as my hard drive is in "compatibility" mode, I don't need that driver installed, meaning that I can install it after installing the OS?

Would you recommend that I keep the 4-5 GB partition w/ the utilities? What utilities are there?

Thanks for the help.

The utilities partition holds everything related to the Rescue and Recovery program. Once you have written a set of discs for recovery, it becomes redundant, but if you are the type who doesnt mind redundancy for the sake of safety, leave it there.

So how do I write the set of discs for recovery? I assume that this is the same thing as burning the "preload image" that was referred to earlier.

Push the blue ‘thinkvantage’ button and it will boot into that utility partition and give you the option to burn a set of media. First disk must be a CD, the others can go either way. It took 6 CDs for my system.

The slipstream thing is if you need extra drivers and want to include service packs on your installation media. If you leave the SATA setting like it is by default, you must put the drivers on the CD (as you don’t have a floppy). Toggle it to compatibility and you don’t have to mess with this. After you get the OS running, install the Intel Matrix driver and then you can set the SATA mode back to default.

http://www.nliteos.com/

If you build a custom Windows install CD, you can also trim off much of the fat. Worth looking at if you want to get rid of more than just the third party junk.

I cleaned off the partition. I’ve got multiple HDDs for my thinkpad and a MSDN universal subscription, so no need for the recovery stuff.

Awesome. Thanks a lot everyone. I'll post again once I've fixed it all up.

MOD EDIT: Language Please