Can Windows7 run on a T61P?

[hellosailor]

I'm trying to upgrade from Vista, and the Win7 advisor says sure, go for it. Then about three hours later when Win7 says it has started and is transferring information and files...it aborts and says Win7 can't be installed on this hardware.

The only complaints in the upgrade advisor are, oddly enough, bogus ones. It thinks the Thinkpad EasyEject and Presentation Manger tools are installed (they were uninstalled several reboots ago) and it thinks the Google Toolbar is installed. That was uninstalled long ago, recently reinstalled and r-unsinstalled just to be sure, but no...Win7 is sure it is still there.

Is there any list of T61P specific hardware, or Lenono specific hardware, that might abort a Win7 installation this way, while passing the upgrade advisor tests?

Or some specific failure log that the Win7 upgrade tries to write? Because the bogus messages about software that might not work, which isn't here, aren't any use at all.

There are T61Ps running Win7, right?

[richk]

I don't have any specific answers regarding T61 machines, but I can say that I had a similar problem on my desktop. The upgrade advisor thought everything was great, but it just didn't work. Finally, I gave up, after screwing around with it for a couple of days, and I ran the windows 7 "easy transfer". Generally these sorts of tools are worthless, but this one ran pretty well. It moved all my application settings. I did need to reinstall applications, but that process was much easier because all the settings were moved. I don't remember if I needed to move favorites, bookmarks and outlook inbox. I know I made a copy before I started and cannot remember if I used them. I recommend installing windows 7 onto a different disk and keep the old one in a drawer in case of disaster. I don't know about how the activation process will go if you have an Upgrade copy of win-7 and a pre-installed vista with no vista disk. My guess is that you could do it over the phone, but I'm not sure.

In case you are interested:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... y-transfer

[GomJabbar]

Seeing as how there are Windows 7 drivers listed for the T61p, I would say yeah...
I run Windows 7 on my somewhat older T42!

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 67853.html

[mixz1]

I am running Win7 Ultimate on a T61p 6459-CTO with 3 GB of RAM. Installed with no problem. Continues to run with no problems. The only advice I can give you is DO NOT do an upgrade install. Back up your data, do a clean install, get the ThinkVantage System Update V4 tool to download the hotkey and other machine specific drivers, avoid Access Connections, run Windows' native update client and then restore your data.

The machine experience with Win 7 vs. Vista will be immediately noticeable. You'll also be pleased with how quickly Win 7 will install. You'll have a functional machine in less than an 45 minutes and should be completely finished with all updates after 3 hours. Again, forget about an upgrade. Do a clean install.

Good luck!

[hellosailor]

"DO NOT do an upgrade install. Back up your data, do a clean install,"
Thanks, but that's out of the question. A clean install means about four days worth of program installations for me, and all those discs are safely stored at home. Where I won't be for quite some time.

So a clean install is simply out of the question, even if I wanted to invest most of a week doing it. (Yes, I have a lot of legacy apps.)

[billp117]

I think we had this conversation before and the group pretty much said to not upgrade and do a clean install. Perhaps you can keep Vista until you get back home.

One other thought...your legacy programs are running now. That is no guarantee they will properly run under Windows 7.

[hellosailor]

I'm aware of that, Bill. I expect that everything running in Vista (NT6.0) will continue to run in NT6.1 (Win7) and the XP virtual box is known to run the one app that I haven't been able to run in Vista.

They're old but "NT compliant" to a large extent, written and certified under NT not just 9x.

The queer thing is, Win7 says it can't be installed ON THIS HARDWARE and of course, we know it can be installed on this hardware. And actually, already has been installed on this specific hardwrae--since the fail message comes up only after it says it is migrating programs and files to the newly running Win7 installation, on the same hardware it says it can't be installed on.

Catch-22?

I can't believe there's no detailed failure log hiding someplace. Every high school programmer gets taught to write failure logs on installs, surely MS isn't hiring the ones fresh out of GRADE SCHOOL? <G>

[billp117]

Perhaps a call to MS is in order...good luck.

[ciaeyes]

I've got it running on my T 61P with 8Gigs of ram and absolutely no problems whatsoever. It's been running with it since last thanksgiving and performs better than the Vista crap it came with. Best system I've ever had!!!

[sktn77a]

My son upgraded his T61p (8889) from Vista to Windows 7 no problem, all of the computer's hardware installed correctly. The biggest problem is peripheral hardware driver support. The windows 7 drivers are mostly stripped down versions such that hardware may work (eg printers) but many of the OEM driver features don't work. Also, quite a lot of hardware won't work properly at all (eg Lenovo's own screen top Webcam).

[CanadianWolf]

I did a clean install from windows xp pro (dual boot 7/XP pro actually), 3 gigs of ram 6460 machine, no problems at all. Windows 7 - 64 bit, have yet to have a problem with any software not running either, tho maybe i'm just not running much that comes from pre-xp... It runs better on 7, faster, fewer driver issues when plugging in new cameras or hard drives, its been absolutely problem free.