Thinkpads Forum

Hi, new to this so sorry if this has been covered before...How can i install windows xp into my 240x? Have tried swapping a hard drive from my dell laptop but it does not get past the start up page including safe mode. Assume i will need an external drive but one with machine is only floppy drive. Any ideas, many thanks,

Hi, new to this so sorry if this has been covered before...How can i install windows xp into my 240x? Have tried swapping a hard drive from my dell laptop but it does not get past the start up page including safe mode. Assume i will need an external drive but one with machine is only floppy drive. Any ideas, many thanks,

The partition of thinkpad HDD must be defined by thinkpad! preferably on the very machine you are going to use. If the partition is defined by another system, you are likely to encounter the problem of not getting through the beginning of the boot process.

The way I did it that was easiest on several 240's:

1. Boot DOS floppy on 240x
fdisk - partition the drive, usually one big C: drive, make it active
format c: /s
So now you have a 240x that boots to DOS prompt.
Geometry and partitioning are best done on target device.
2. Remove hard-drive, attach to desktop PC using a 2.5" IDE adapter which is about $5 at most computer stores
3. Copy the i386 folder from a WinXP CD to the hard drive. If you have a copy of smartdrv.exe and other utils you may want to copy those to make the next step go lots faster.

4. Move hard-drive back to laptop, boot to DOS prompt
5. get smartdrv going if you have it, if not okay....
6. cd i386
7. winnt

Answer a bunch of stupid MS questions and off you go.

Hi, thanks for the replies, with ref the ide adapter for the desktop......could i use another laptop rather than desktop. I dont own a desktop!!
Many thanks again for taking the trouble to respond

Hi Kdev.
Are you loading on a new system or an upgrade? If there is an OS
like Win 98. you can buy an IBM CD-ROM, load the driver via the
floppy and that will work.
I have also used Ghost to copy my OS on to my upgrades. If you
have a friend who has a 240X Ghosting should work. Mike.

Hi Mike,
was trying to load xp pro, win 2000 pro already on hard drive!
Have tried to buy external ibm cd rom but cant find one even on e bay, all others seem to be usb. Doubt the computer will boot those drives during installation
Have another laptop but its a dell and have tried swapping hard disk from there as mentioned previously.
Thanks very much for your reply, let me know if you have any other thoughts on the matter....

Hi All;

When I loaded XP on my 240X, I used a cheap 2.5" USB External Enclosure I picked up off eBay for $10 delivered.

1.) Partition/Format the HDD on the 240X as FAT
2.) Remove HDD and replace into enclosure
3.) Hook enclosure up to desktop, copy i386 folder to HDD partition.
4.) re-install HDD into 240X, boot up into DOS, navigte to i386 folder and run setup.

Doing it this way messes with your drive letters, but it is a quick way to get the installation going. (My system partition is "D", while the extra partition is "C". Machine boots up off of "D" No problems.)

Hi Kdev,
Not sure you got my reply. I used an IBM CD-Rom that is made by TEAC Model #CD-210PU off Ebay. You'll need your floppy to load the driver on to your machine. Remember the CD-Rom needs to be
compatable with the 1.1USB port on these 240X units. Most new CD-Roms are 2.0 and some say they are backward compatable.
Yes, Ghost 2003 is by Norton also purchased on Ebay. There is a great site with info on how to use it, http://windows.radified.com/ The manuel sucks.
As you see on my signature XP rocks on these units. Mine runs XP on 80GB, 256RAM(hacked the mother board RAM)2GBvirtial RAM, WiFi Buffalo Card in the 56K modem slot, antenna under the screen bezel. I use it every day and people always ask about it. They love the size and so do I. Mike