Thinkpads Forum

Hi

i have a 570E which has no ultrabay, and no floppy or CD drive.

I have a range of other laptops (Compaq , plus an X41 thinkpadwith dockingbay ).

I need to get an O/S onto the 570e,preferably windows2000 or even failing that a linux boot.

Ive got 2 x HDD ready to use, a 12gig original thinkpad one, and a new 80gig one(unformatted).

I have 2 problems
#1 - I can boot the old thinkpad disk (12gig) in the 570e to a windows2000 recovery console but thats it... it has had partof windows2000 installation deleted fomr the hrd disk so wont run.
I want to install w2000 or xp onto this disk or the new 80gig one but have no CD or Floppy.

#2 -when I put in an 80gig hdd from my compaq (new + formatted + has windows XP installed and works on the compaq) I get a 'read error press Ctr+alt+del' just after Bios. I think that the 80gig disk size is causing this because my bios is at v1... Im assuming that is the problem because surely the hdd with a correct MBR and format should boot and fail alon ghte boot process not with a read error from what looks like bios. So... how do I upgrade Bios without a floppy and no working windows on the laptop...

Any adivce (other than chuck it and buy a new laptop ) welcomed. I would have thought that installing an OS on the Hard disk in another machine such as my x41 and transferring that to the 570e would at least boot it up.

OK - I would consider getting an external floppy - this one would work:- http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... 0107286219 (currently $5 AU) and an external USB drive bay such as :- http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... 0112760681. Mount the 12GB in the usb housing and attach to one of the other laptops, format fat (or FAT32 if the bootdisk you will use later can recognise FAT32) - Copy the i386 folder to it from the w2k pro cd. Install the 12Gb in the 570e. You can then install using the files on the drive by booting from a DOS floppy - see:- http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodte ... x?mfr=true
You could try installing w2k pro on the 12gb on one of the other laptops and then install it in the 570e, but you may just end up with an installation that bluescreens ... but no harm in trying.

You can get an UltraBase from eBay.

You can get an IBM external floppy from eBay and get Linux going with that and a wired network card (I did on a 570).

You can put a copy of a Windows installation disc on a hard drive and put it in your machine, and install from its own hard drive.

This machine should handle an 80GB drive easily. The problem is likely incompatible drive geometry. You need to partition the drive in a ThinkPad (maybe even a 570e) to use those partitions in your 570e. That's tricky without a floppy or CD-ROM to boot from.

I have a 80 gig on my 570E .No problems.
But i do split all my hard drives in to two when i put them in a system.
So i have my 80gig slpit in to two 40's.
I use the 2nd part of the drive to save files , mp3's , video's ect.This way if i ever have to reinstall XP i just format the part of the drive that has windows on it.When done i still have all other files still there.

I never tryed it but can you put say a copy of Win98 or Win 2000 on a USB flash drive and boot up from that and install the OS?
I thought about trying it but i have the base unit for the 570e.

Guys - thanks for the advice..

I put the 12Gig HitachiTraverstar HDD into a t41 thinkpad with a CDDrive.

Installed a clean W2000 install on it, with a fresh reformat to FAT32

It boots fine in the T41 - w2000 boots all the way up and works


when I put this drive into the 570e I get the booting to w2000 messages, it allows me to do F8 to advanced boot options, (safe mode etc), it gets to the white screen that shows the first 'w2000' logo as its booting up - then - I get Blue_Screen_of_Death

Inaccessible_Boot_Device 0x00~007b

Any ideas? Should the HDD have any jumpers set on it ? currently it has no jumpers set at all. Ive run Chkdsk on it through a USB caddy and no errors show up, the drive looks ok. I can get to the drive through usb caddy with my x41 thinkpad so I can edit boot.ini or other things if I need to....

any ideas

By hte way this is my boot.ini
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

bobgarty wrote:You could try installing w2k pro on the 12gb on one of the other laptops and then install it in the 570e, but you may just end up with an installation that bluescreens ... but no harm in trying.

As I said the BSOD was likely .... possibly ide controller driver incompatability.

Boot.ini looks fine

The drive requires no jumpers - if it did the 570e wouldn't even see it ...

If you refer to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314082 it gives some advice for getting round this in XP - may apply to w2k pro too ... if someone can save the indicated registry values from a 570e running w2k pro for you and you merge it with the disk in the t41 - it MAY get round it ...

Thanks Bob, that looks like a fun way to burn yet.an.other hour or two messing around with this!.

I shall attempt it and report back , Ive lost track of the number of thinkpad 3.5" disks Ive chucked out in my years of using them. I dont think any computer of the 5 in my house have a 3.5" disc on them at all.

if someone can create the reg file for you and you can connect to the internet with the t41 running the 12gb - you can just run the merge without using a floppy

A good way to install W2K: Put the drive in a ThinkPad. Remove all partitions. Create one large FAT32 partition. Make it bootable with a DOS or WIN98 floppy so it can boot to a command line.

Copy the Windows installation directory to the hard drive. DO NOT INSTALL.

Move the hard drive to the target machine. Boot to DOS (or W98 or whatever) and run setup.

read carefully:

I have gone through myriad of websites, hundreds of stupid suggesions (CHANGE THE Bios SETTING TO CDROM ETC) and million experiments with old TPs to come to certain conclusions as follows

2. Most old TPs do not boot through USB based CDROMS or USB flash /thumb drives even using proprietary softwares or any number of Linux distros, some claim to solve this booting and install problem.

3. Do not waste time on web; there is no solution. IBM/ LEnovo are not ready to help either with a improved BIOS. So what do we do?

4. USE a USB based floppy drive which is recognised by all old TPs. Tinker with the autoexec.bat and config.sys in boot floppy of win98 or ME or XP or any other custom one with the USBCD.SYS driver provided on IBM website. Attach a USB CDROM to another USB port. Boot through the floppy.

5. The USB based CDROM (external) will be shown in boot sequence once identified. This USBCD.SYS driver is simply great. After the booting through the floppy is complete go to CDROM drive still shown in black and white screen DOS like screen.

6. Go to the windows directory of XP CD and type 'winnt' and voila windows XP will start installation.

7. I have done it 10 times on my TP S30 (supposed to be the smallest TP in the world).

8. By the way old TPs do take 120 GB HDDs. Mine was made in 1999 and accepts 120 GB with no problems at all.

9. Once the XP is installed I use Partition magic to make multiple partitions on the drive. This can be done with HIRENBOOT CD a great compilation of utilities.

10. Please let me know if you need help on the boot floppy. write to me on indianchacha@gmail.com

Point 2. Most old TPs are most old TPs without CDROM drives

and run WINNT through \i386 folder of the XP CD and not windows folder. thanks.

One can use PCMCIA to USB 2 cards to use USB CDROMS and USB based floppy drive in case of 570 E using the above procedure

I admit defeat... I have a business trip coming up and a bank holiday weekend which having not slept much for 5 days after learning more than Iever wanted to know about windows boot partitions and MBRs I have decided to switch tactics and enjoy my weekend.

I gave up - I got hold of a ubuntu installation cD... took the small drive and put it in a compaq laptop, booted from the ubuntu CD, installed Ubunto onto the HDD after letting Ubuntu format it...

Took the HDD out of the Compaq, put it into the 570e. .. and BINGO it works (ok so I had to edit the x11 X graphics config file but its workigng).

Thank you for all the help, I will come back to this no doubt when I can find that elusive floppy drive. But for now - I m very happily hunting down the wireless drivers I need to let my son surf the web with the PCMCIA Wireless card this thing has... Ubuntu runs fast on this machine its working brilliantly. Next step is try the 80gig hard drive

Thanks again for all the advice and help , and sorry I conceded defeat (at least for now... )

I don't know... sounds like you found a way to make things work! Looks to me like it's more of a MS problem than anything else if Linux booted right up. Anywqay, you now have a working laptop!!

Connect the 570's BOOTable HD to another working system via USB and copy the i386 folder from the XP installation CD to it.

Put the HD back in the 570 and run setup.exe from the folder you copied.

James

James I reckon you are correct that would work - however I dont have a bootable disk that boots in the 570e anymore other than the one that boots to linux.

A colleague has located a 3.5" floppy for the 570e for me so I may yet get to revisit it with the 80gigi hard disk which I'll partition into 2x40gig and put Dos then Windows2000 using your method 1st then put unix on it on 2nd partiiton.

Hello !

Here is my method to install the OS on thinkpads without drives :

1. I plug the HDD in another computer,
2. I create 2 partitions (on one of the partitions, you'll later copy your OS CD, so, make sure it's 700 MB free),
3. I make the first partition bootable, by doing a sys c: with a W98 floppy, and I copy the OS files on the 2nd partition.
4. I put the HDD in the original Thinkpad,
5. I boot, I go to the 2nd partition, and I execute the setup.

It worked with my 701CS and with my 560.

W.