Thinkpads Forum

OK I've tried everything I can think of. I set the boot device to CDROM, but it refuses to see it (the DVD drive on my 770ED). I formatted the drive and all the prelim. stuff from the Windows 98 boot floppy, but when I restart the computer, it never boots from the Windows CD! It just goes to the C:\ prompt, and won't let me access any of the drive letters. above C

If I boot from the floppy, and wait until the files are loaded onto the imaginary D:\ drive, I swap out the floppy drive with the CD-ROM, and I type E:\ to try to get to the CD drive. It then says drive not found, and then it says it can't find the A:\ drive.

Do I need to have one of those external floppy cable things so I can have a floppy and CD drive at the same time, or how can I do this?

try smartbootmanager: on my 760--that won't normally boot from the CD--with
this floppy-based utility, it'll boot fine.

Is the CD a copy or the original.....some older drives cannot read burnt disks.

OK I got it to boot from CD, but I get an error:

Cannot boot from CD - Code: 5

I tried 2 discs, both of which boot on my PC. I'm thinking the drive is crap, my copied discs don't work (original is at home 6 hours away), or it's a BIOS problem. The BIOS on this machine are the ones from 6/23/98. From what I've read, you can't update the BIOS without a working, fully charged battery? The one I got with the computer will take ZERO charge. Why dod you need a battery to update BIOS, anyway?

Thanks for the help!

RWDPLZ wrote:Why dod you need a battery to update BIOS, anyway?

In case you lose power during the BIOS update. If you lose power, you can turn the Thinkpad into a permanent anchor for a boat.

I updated the BIOS to the latest version using the method I found on this site, and now the disk boots perfectly! It's installing Windows right now.

Well that didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped. After the computer starts with the CD in, it asks if I want to boot from CD or hard disk. I choose CD. Then is asks

1. Start Windows Setup
2. Start with CD-ROM support
3. Start Without CD support

all of which freeze the computer, because it's trying to start from Windows on the hard drive. The first one tries to load a CD drive driver, but also freezes.

SO I try hold shift and press F5, to get to the command prompt. the computer only recognizes the A and C drives. Typing A:\DIR shows a bunch of files similar to what's on the boot floppy, and shows the total disk size as 909KB. The problem is, the CD-ROM is in now, and the floppy drive isn't even connected. Also, C:\DIR shows an empty hard drive (already used FDISK and formated it to FAT32) which it should be since I'm trying to do a clean install.

Is there a way to make the Thinkpad see the CD instead of seeing a floppy? Or how does everyone else do a clean install on these things? I've installed Windows on plenty of PC's but never a laptop.

You may need a special driver for the cd. http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIE-38CEKN
I would format the C:\ drive, create a folder called "win98" and copy all the files from the D:\win98 folder on the cd to the C:\win98 folder on the hard drive. Then cd to the C:\win98 folder and type "setup".
This way in the future you will not need the win98 cd when you make changes to windows.
Make sure you format the drive in the thinkpad not a desktop computer.

I used that program already to make a disk, but when I put the disc in the thinkpad, it says 'non system disk, eject and hit any key' or something like that. Should I copy the files from that floppy the program makes onto a bootable disc? That's what I was going to try next, copying all the Windows files to a directory on the C drive, but I need the computer to be able to see the D drive first to start the copying process. Thanks!

When you format C:\ make sure it is bootable.
Boot to the C:\ drive with the floppy drive in.
Insert the driver floppy and run the installer on the floppy to install the cdrom drivers. I hope the installer works for you.
Shut down and swap the floppy out for the cdrom.
Boot to C:\ and then copy the files from the cd to the C:\win98 folder.

How I got the DVD/CD drive bootable in DOS:

Using a Windows 98 boot disk and a CD-ROM drivers disk I downloaded from IBM

format the drive and copy system files
format c: /s

restart computer

Copy the files from the A:\ drive to the C:\ drive

at A:\ prompt

copy himem.sys c:
copy mscdex.exe c:
copy ibmtpcd.sys c:
copy config.sys c:
copy autoexec.bat c:

restart computer to prompt, booting from hard drive

Now the computer installs the CD driver when starting up.

NOW, I was able to copy the files from the Windows disc to the hard drive using this method:

To install Windows 98:
at C:\ prompt, type
MD WIN98
creating a folder called WIN98 in C:\

now type
CD WIN98
from the C:\ prompt to go into the WIN98 folder.

With the Windows 98 disc in the CD-ROM drive, type
COPY D:\WIN98\*.*
to copy all files from the windows install disc onto the hard drive

Now from in the C:\WIN98 directory, type
SETUP.EXE
to start windows setup

-----------------------------------------------------------

NEW PROBLEM:

Now I can get through MOST of Windows setup. Now I can get through setup to the point where it is installing device drivers, then it searches for plug and play devices. AT THIS PART, the computer ALWAYS gives a blue screen of death and a fatal exception error.

What might be causing this? Are there any onboard devices I can remove from the laptop/disable somehow? I tried removing that video card thing under the battery, but that didn't make a difference.

I figured it out! This time, I installed windows from the CD, and did a 'reccommended' install instead of custom. Thanks for your help!