Re-install Windows XP on T43: Install won't. SATA problem?

[dkkim]

Hello All,

I've had my T43 for a little over a month now and have
decided to reinstall Win XP from scratch (I've resized partitions
to put in Ubuntu Linux and would like a clean base install of WinXP
to save. Also I've got early WinRot with some of my Windows
applications not playing nicely together).

So, the problem is:
I can't boot the Win XP install disk (original disk a different system).
I've tried with SP1 and with a slipstreamed SP2 disk, and with a
BartPE disk. I've followed instructions on this forum to
use the existing I386 folder to create the bootable slipstreamed
SP2 disk. I don't want to use Rescue and Recovery because it
doesn't like my new partition sizes and I also want a truly fresh
install.

Has anyone successfully done this? I think the problem
may relate to the use of hardware that pretends to be SATA
(SCSI-like) rather than traditional PATA IDE. Other disks
boot OK (including SATA-aware Linuxes and the Acronic Rescue
Disk).

All help appreciated! Thanks,

Dave

[Ground Loop]

One idea, though a bit tedious, is to back up your Linux partition(s) to another drive (or network) and let the R&R Product recover do its thing. It will completely wipe your drive, of course, and install the new R&R partition, but you know how easy Linux restore is, right?

That's what I did.

After the XP installation completed, I ran "ntfsresize" (or qtparted) to shrink the NTFS partition down to the smallest possible size. Burn that to a DVD and you're in good shape if you ever have to do it again -- you can just restore that squeezed partition and ntfsresize it back to whichever size partition you give it.

Good luck!

[dkkim]

Thanks for your solution. I really appreciate your timely
suggestion...

I ended up doing just about that (re-imaging, resizing, then restoring Linux
partitions). Actually, when I re-imaged the system, it didn't install Rapid
Restore. Weird.

Anyway, I did use Partition Magic instead of NTFS resize. Just a bit
easier overall. Have used ntfsresize in the past with good results
except on RAID controllers.

One tool I found useful for all of this was Acronis True Image. It
is quite quick and resizes partitions on restore (could have probably
avoiding getting Partition Magic). I'll probably end up using both
again before long.

Hopefully there will be bootable install disks out there soon that
will recognize the faux SATA controller in the T43. It's been a
pain with both Win XP and Linux installs.

For anyone else attacking this problem, I've been able to
boot with:
-IBM rescue disks (no surprise)
-Knoppix 3.9 2005_05_27_EN
-Ultimate Boot CD 3.3
-Ubuntu Hoary Hedgehog install

Boy, is Knoppix useful.

Best regards,
DK