Windows 8.1 AHCI drivers for T60

[i336_]

Hey everyone!

I recently got my hands on an old T60 to mess around with (:D); my first impulse was to feed it Windows 8.1. It installed fine, but then I realized this was because I'd put the SATA controller in "compatibility" mode. I just switched to AHCI mode... instant BSOD, just like the official documentation says.

The drivers on Intel's website don't list the T60's SATA chipset at all but I tried them anyway, to no avail.

Then I tried the official driver from Lenovo, over here: http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/product ... s/DS000795

I'm downloading the driver, "installing" it in Wine (it's just a self-extractor ), copying the driver folders to a USB flash drive and trying to get Windows Setup to like them.

Setup does one of three things based on what I try and feed it:

• Take one look at the directory I picked, go "NOPE" and say there aren't any drivers in the folder
• Successfully read the folder, but show no hardware options in the list unless I uncheck the "hide drivers that aren't compatible" option
• Read the folder **and show a hardware device** - with the "hide incompatible drivers" option *checked*!!

It's that last thing the Lenovo Win7 driver's doing: it's actually listing the SATA controller as a (seemingly) valid device I'm allowed to pick.

Then I click Next... wait a little while... and then it eventually goes "...NOPE" and decides, and I quote, "No new devices drivers were found." (Yes, [sic] )

Curious... I realize I'm trying to make Win8.1 like Win7 drivers, but it's what gets the X1300 working (yup)...

Any ideas everyone?

- i336_

[Shredder11]

I saw somewhere on the net recently that Windows 10 is running just as smooth and quick as Windows 7 on the Thinkpad T60. I'm going to try installing it at some point.

[axur-delmeria]

So basically, you installed Win 8 with SATA set to IDE/Compatibility mode, and now you want to set it to AHCI.

Have you tried this? http://superuser.com/questions/471102/c ... -windows-8

[i336_]

Agh. I read through everyone's replies, ran off to experiment, and completely forgot to report back... my apologies!

I understand these solutions will work, but at the time I'd decided to just blast Win8.1 and try Win10 directly; IIRC I'd already invalidated the partition at the point I asked my question.

My experience: if the BIOS is in AHCI mode when Setup is run it should work fine.

File this tidbit away though: if you ever get driver issues when installing - Setup can't find your disk, and nothing you try will make it find the disk - the AHCI drivers (or some other part of the driver verification chain allowing the driver(s) to validate) may be corrupted on the install media. The "error" that the disk can't be found represents a driver load fail, not a hardware issue, in this case.

;_;

- i336_