Thinkpads Forum

I recently bought a used (1999) IBM Thinkpad365XD with Win98SE/3.21 capacity/used: 889 mb/free: 2.34 GB/intel pentium R processor/40 mb ram...94% free system resource. I deleted a whole bunch of temp internet files which came with the TP. I was able to get online with AOL a couple times. Lately I've been having a problem shutting down normally and each time I start up it runs Scan Disk in Safe Mode. It shows several "bad sectors" and will not complete scandisk (I cannot click on Fix It option with my mouse)...and it will not defrag.
I am thinking of completely scrapping this old harddrive, and replacing it with a completely new 6 GB harddrive - I do not want to back up any files since I have nothing of importance to save. Would there be problems installing and getting a new 6GB HD to function? and would a Win98se CD which a friend copied from his desktop pc work with the TP? Also need to know what's the absolute most it could cost for doing this - hardware and labor? and is it worth the expense and trouble to do this?
Thanks for any advice.

I would start with the Win98SE CD. It will boot just fine in your machine.

First, I would get a bootdisk of some kind and delete all the hard drive partitions (using fdisk or Ranish Partition Manager). Then boot the CD and have it make and format a partition for you.

I would see if that clears up the issues. If that goes poorly, your drive may be on the edge of failing.

How much RAM do you have, and what do you want to do with the machine?

Hello chukeej,

Doing the physical replacement of the hard drive is fairly easy as the harddrive is accessible from under the flip-up keyboard. If you’re lucky you might be able to fine the hardware maintenance manual (HMM) from IBM's site. I am almost certain that there is a limitation in the BIOS as to the size of the HD. If your system keeps finding more and more bad sectors every time you start up, it’s a safe bet that the disk is indeed toast. But since your not interested in keeping the data, flushing the old disk is defiantly worth a try and will cost you only a bit of time.
I have managed to install Windows NT 4.0 on my 365, it runs, but it’s not "fast" by any means; I mainly use mine for some light web surfing or for data entry.

Thane

I installed a 6.49GB hard drive in my 365X and the BIOS recognized it no problem. If you are just a little bit handy with tools, changing out the hard drive is not too difficult.

As for your friend's WIN98SE CD, if he made a copy of the installation CD, it will work (it's illegal to copy an operating system and install it on more than 1 machine, but it will work). If he somehow "made a copy" of WIN98SE that was already installed on his PC, it is not likely that it will work.

Whether or not it's all worth it depends on what you want to use the machine for.

thanks to all for submitting replies. Does anyone know where I can access an online tutorial about replacing harddrives, formatting, etc.? Thanks again.