TP 760xd - Failed Win2K Install - How to Recover?

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mrmambo · #1 Post by **mrmambo** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 8:40 am

Hey, there:

I have a ThinkPad 760xd that I've had in storage for about 6 years. It's running Win95 and I think has 48 MB of RAM and a 2 or 3 Gig HD. I've tried updating to Win2K (SP4), but it's failed and I can't recover:

I was having problems connecting via modem above 28 kbs and tried flashing an IBM/US Robotics PCMCIA card modem; after that I kept getting various errors.

Bottom line - I tried fixing it all kinds of ways (regedit, switching modems, removing extra programs), but couldn't get it to work. I tried installing Win98, but my serial number wasn't working.

I then tried installing Win2k - it checked out the HD, all seemed well, and then it kind of crashed at the end of the first part of the install. It got back to the Win95 desktop, rebooted itself, and then started having problems - messages about not having enough disc space. Now it keeps trying to continue the install in a command prompt kind of environment, but keeps hanging and suggests I copy the install files to the HD manually.

Question is - how can I wipe the drive and reinstall and/or how do I get the Win2K install to move forward? I tried booting to BIOS by holding down F1, but there's no way to initialize the drive from there or force it to boot from the CD (only HD, FD, and PCMCIA devices are allowed).

I tried downloading and using the floppy disc loader IBM has on its site:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... BOD-3N5KWE

that I thought would enable CD-booting, but the extract/install to floppy for that kept crashing at 20% on my other machine. I am able to boot off the floppy, but then have no clue how to go about forcing it to install/boot off the CD.

Any thoughts? The Win2K disc I have is Professional with SP4. And, don't laugh - but I'm primarily a Mac guy; I'm so used to holding down the "C" key to force the Mac to boot off a CD, so this is driving me crazy!

Thanks -

-Mark-

whizkid · #2 Post by **whizkid** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 10:39 am

Since the 760XL will not boot from CD, you need the W2K boot floppies.

The W2K CD has a tool for making boot floppies on it. Use another Windows machine and run that software and make your little stack of disks. NT took 4, and I think XP needs 6, but I'm not sure exactly how many W2K will need.

Boot from the floppies and when you get to the point of selecting your hard disk to install on, delete all the partitions, and create a new one.

The 760XD should be able to use the first 8GB of a hard disk.

The other issue you may be facing is that you might actually have less hard disk than you think. My 750P came with a 170MB drive... yes 0.17GB. But 2GB could be enough for W2K.

The page you linked to was for re-imaging from the CD that came with the system. It's not useful for installing W2K.

Here are some tips for getting W2K to work with very little memory. If your machine runs slow, you can try some of these tips: http://www.nexle.dk/daniel/win2000-32mb/

Let us know how it goes!

leoblob · #3 Post by **leoblob** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 9:52 pm

I just did a WIN2K install using boot floppies, and it takes 4.

I think one issue is that 2 - 3GB hard drive. I seem to recall the WIN2K set-up saying it needs at least 1.5GB... and if that 760XL already has (partial) installs of WIN95 and/or WIN98, there might not be enough room. Probably should wipe the hard drive and start over. I know it's not fun, but IMO you end up with the best install that way--even if you do have plenty of hard drive space.

mrmambo · #4 Post by **mrmambo** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 5:04 pm

Thanks to you both - I created a Win95 boot diskette that booted the system. I then added the CD drivers to enable me to access the drive, but it hasn't worked yet. It boots up, says it successfully loaded the CD drivers, but says that D: is an invalid drive.

I looked at:
http://cmmg.biosci.wayne.edu/dwomble/bootdisk.html
for the process
and
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIE-38CEKN
for the CD drivers

For kicks and grins I tried copying over the contents of the boot floppy to the C: drive, modifying the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS to point to the CD drivers on the C drive, but no go ... I get a on-screen graphic telling me to insert a floppy.

No one I know has a Win2K install anymore; they're all WinXP.

Does it really have to be Win2K diskettes? Isn't the point to get the system booted from the A: drive and then run the install from the D: (CD) drive? I'm hoping there's something stupid I'm doing that can be easily remedied.

Thanks -

-m-

Nolonemo · #5 Post by **Nolonemo** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 7:10 pm

Here's a link to Win2k boot diskettes.

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

leoblob · #6 Post by **leoblob** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 7:36 pm

mrmambo wrote:Does it really have to be Win2K diskettes? Isn't the point to get the system booted from the A: drive and then run the install from the D: (CD) drive?

No you don't need WIN2K diskettes. You can boot your computer from a WIN98 boot floppy. Have it load the drivers for your CD ROM. Then it will return to the A prompt. At the A prompt, type

D:\i386\winnt32.exe

Where D is the drive letter of your CD. I know this works, since I just loaded WIN2K a few days ago using this method. One think to keep in mind, the first thing that happens is that EVERY file on the CD will be extracted and copied from the CD onto your hard drive. Make sure you have the free space. Also, it's VERY slow. It took 2 hours on my PIII/733/133 with a 52x CD ROM... after that, the installation process starts.

EDIT: In my earlier post, I knew about the 4 boot floppies since I TRIED to load WIN2K with them, but it didin't work out (I think one of the files was corrupted). So then I used the method in this post...

desdinova · #7 Post by **desdinova** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 11:05 am

mrmambo wrote:No one I know has a Win2K install anymore; they're all WinXP.

If it makes you feel any better, I'll be running win2k until programs stop supporting it.

Then I'll probably switch to linux or mac x86.

leoblob · #8 Post by **leoblob** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 11:06 am

BTW, you cannot assume that the CD drive will be assigned the letter "D" after you load the (temporary) CD drivers from the boot floppy. The boot floppy may establish a RAMdrive and that "drive" will be D... so you may need to try "E" as the drive letter for the CD, to get the install to work. (This could be the reason you got "invalid drive" when you tried D before.)

MadeInJapan · #9 Post by **MadeInJapan** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 5:52 pm

Go here:
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
download the one for Windows98 (No RAM Drive).
excecute it and make your floppy.
Make sure that Fdisk.exe is on the floppy...if not, then copy it from somewhere.

Boot with your floppy...Fdisk and delete all your partitions and make one large one for your hard drive.

Next, reboot with this again, and carefully read the drive letter for your Win2K cd-rom....I think it makes it "R" or something like that.

at the comand line type "R" (without the " " if it is R) and then type install or setup. This should set up Win2K like it needs to be set up.

Good luck.

leoblob · #10 Post by **leoblob** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 11:28 am

"There are 84,000 paths to the top of the mountain"

TP 760xd - Failed Win2K Install - How to Recover?

TP 760xd - Failed Win2K Install - How to Recover?

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