Cannot install XP on ThinkPad X40 after replacing hard drive

[thinktwice]

Hi,

After replacing the 40 Gb hard drive of my IBM X40 netbook by a larger one (60 Gb), I cannot install Windows XP Professionnal on it from CD.

The CD boots, displays some text telling that it is checking the hardware and then stops.
The screen becomes black.

The drive was partitionned to allow dual boot with Linux and I could install Linux on the drive (inserted inside the X40) without encountering any problem.

If I remove the hard drive, then the CD of Windows starts correctly (in priority before the HDD). This is the proof that the Windows fails when it detects the HDD.

The partition where I plan to install Windows is the 1st one.
It is 8 Gb and was formatted NTFS.

This is the first time that I encounter such an issue.

I want a fresh install and don't plan to clone the previous hard drive.

Should I manually edit something in the BIOS or is there some way to skip this hardware check that Windows seems doing ?

Thank you for your help.

[thinktwice]

Half a solution is to go in the BIOS under Startup > Boot and to completely exclude the hard drive from the boot order (pressing the "x" key).

Despite the CD drive came before the hard drive in boot order, I had problems before doing it.

[thinktwice]

Then came another issue to which I cannot find any solution...

After Windows being installed the computer reboots, but as the hard drive is not in the list of bootable devices, I have to hit the F1 key to set it again.

But then, I get a "Disk read error" and Windows doesn't boot.
Instead the system suggests to press "Ctrl+Alt+Del" to start again, but this does not solve anything (with or without the CD inserted.)

I could seee with a live CD that 3.00 Go of data have been written on the Windows NTFS partition, but Windows does not boot.

Any idea ?

[RealBlackStuff]

Put the HD back in the boot-sequence and try again.
1) USB CD
2) USB HDD
3) ATAPI CD0
4) IDE HDD0

[thinktwice]

@RealBlackStuff : Thanks. I did what you suggest, but no improvement.

Just before the problem, I can see this message :
"IBM Hard-Drive Protection Sensor Diagnostic start".

Then, a blinking "underscore" cursor displays.

After, I get this error :
Err. lecture disque
Entrez Ctrl+Alt+Suppr pour redémarrer

Maybe some problem with the MBR or with the first partition.
I made a verification of the sda1 partition with gParted, but the issue remains.

Before offsetting the partition or installing to another partition, I plan checking the drive with HD Tunes or equivalent as well as with the utility from Hitachi (HGST WINDOWS DRIVE FITNESS TEST).
The drive is a second hand one and nothing is written on it.
With Linux, I could find its serial number, telling that it is an Hitachi at 4200rpm.
However, using the serial number, I could not find the model on Hitachi's website nor on the web. (very strange...)

I have an ICY BOX 2.5'' enclosure for IDE drives, but I'm not sure if I can use it to check this 1.8'' drive or if there is a risk to damage it. Does anyone knows ?

[RealBlackStuff]

The 1.8" pinout is the same as on a 2.5" HD.
The 1.8" connector is on the long side, whereas the 2.5" one is on the short side.

[thinktwice]

Same problem with another ThinkPad.

The setup of Fedora 18 writes the GRUB bootloader inside the MBR (despite a /boot paritition existed). I assume this causes the problem.

Now, how to reset the MBR so that the Windows CD can start again.
Should I write zeros in the first 446 bytes of the hard drive, using dd or shred Linux commands?

[thinktwice]

The problem was caused by the partition table created by gParted.

By cloning the whole MBR, from the previous drive, installing Windows XP was made possible again.

Cloning only the boot code (i.e. first 446 bytes) did not solve anything.
This is why the partition table in the last 66 bytes of the MBR was the problem.

I had many successful partitionning with gParted, but this one was not recognized by the Windows XP installation CD-Rom.

I can see two differences with my previous partitionning.

Firstly, the filesystem for Linux partitions was this time set to ext4 instead of ext3.

Secondly, the partition for the linux swap was set as secondary primary partition.
In my previous partitioning, it was an extended partition.

So, one of these was causing the failure.
Now, I must use gParted again to recreate my partitions, but I'm going to try with ext3 and will backup the MBR before.