Thinkpads Forum

Hi, I had bought a thinkpad r60 a couple of months back which came pre-installed with windows xp. As soon as I had bought the machine I made those recovery disks which filled 2 dvds.
Wanted to try kubuntu linux on my new thinkpad and started installing it, kubuntu 6. At that point where the installer offers to partition my hard disk, I selected the option which uses the entire HDD for linux(I dunno if my service partition was wiped by doing this). Everything went fine and kubuntu was installed and I used it for like 2 months. After 2 months, I wanted to have XP so that I could play all those new games. Did 2 approaches;

I Approach(Using a XP corporate CD)

I got a windows xp corporate CD(not the recovery disks)and set my bios to boot from dvd drive. I got the initial installation screens after which at one point,the xp installer said that it couldnt find a hard disk. Restarted and then booted into "windows 98 with DOS" and tried the fdisk in the cd, fdisk could find no hard disk.
All this time, linux live CDs could boot and install on the hard drive but not my XP cd which found no hard drive. I got over this one by changing the SATA controlled mode in the BIOS to "compatibility". After I did this XP installation went a few steps further until the point where it asked me to create partitions,format them and select where I want XP to be installed. It also copied files that were needed for my installation to the partition I selected. After copying files it tried to reboot but in vain...it always showed me a blinking cursor. But if i tried to boot again from the CD, I was able to access the recovery console of my previous installation(the point where it asked me to press "R" to access recovery console)

II Approach(Using recovery DVD)

Next i booted my machine through the thinkvantage recovery disks I had made and asked it to recover my system to factory state, deleting all data. After me accepting licenses and stuff, it started to copy some files to some "X:/". After copy was finished it asked me to take the DVD out and restart the machine but couldnt restart from the hard disk. It went to the screen that showed the blinking cursor.

My guess is that it could be some problem with the MBR which was corrupted by the kubuntu installation but I am not sure about it. I could use any help with this problem since I have been stuck on this for 4 days. I read on the r60 support pages about some tool called as repairmbr from IBM that resets the MBR but I dont have a floppy drive to get my thinkpad to boot from a floppy. Is there a CD version of this tool available if this is the solution...and moreover the repairmbr.exe wasnt able to execute on a XP machine(another notebook) and said it couldnt write directly to the hard disk.

Forgot to mention, the blue thinkvantage button on the top left does nothing all the time...

Thanks,

Vijai

If you look for a tool called SuperGrub, I know there is a bootable CD of that, and as far as I rememember, it can restore windows MBR.

Others may have other more thinkpad specific suggestions.

Hi meaninglessNick, I tried that...created a super grub disk and tried to restore MBR, it says, "file not found"...
thanks anyway,

If you have good re-imaging recovery disks, then the following might work (has done for me):

Start the recovery disk from a cold start.
At the first logical blue text screen, exit (F3 or Esc).
Exit again.
You should be at an X: prompt.
Run FDISK and remove all partitions.
Run FDISK /mbr
Shut off the computer.

Now start the recovery disk again from a cold start. That should re-image the computer from top to bottom. As I say, it has done for me.

Good luck, ... JDH

When i do a cold start with the recovery disk in I can either boot from the HDD, which doesnt boot the xp OS or I can boot from the CD. Hitting F3 or ESC takes me to either the "boot from HD" or "Boot from CD" based upon the bios startup order... Is that what you meant jdhurst?

Thanks

jdhurst wrote:If you have good re-imaging recovery disks, then the following might work (has done for me):

Start the recovery disk from a cold start.
At the first logical blue text screen, exit (F3 or Esc).
Exit again.
You should be at an X: prompt.
Run FDISK and remove all partitions.
Run FDISK /mbr
Shut off the computer.

Now start the recovery disk again from a cold start. That should re-image the computer from top to bottom. As I say, it has done for me.

Good luck, ... JDH

No.
I mean: Start the recovery so that screens start showing up. At the first screen where you could proceed, escape from that.
... JDH

Hi JDHurst,

I dont seem to be able to get to the prompt which shows X:\ from the recovery CD. The recovery CD boots into a GUI which has options for system restore, backup data, lets me view system info like memory available and so on...which shows 650-700MB available and an option to restart. I think the recovery software version is 3. Any other things I could try...
Thanks,

vj

jdhurst wrote:No.
I mean: Start the recovery so that screens start showing up. At the first screen where you could proceed, escape from that.
... JDH

Was just wondering if it could be something to do with the Master Boot Record(MBR) which is stale now because of my previous linux installation. It would also be wonderful if someone could point me towards a CD image of the repairmbr app. from Lenovo since I have no floppy drive. Any other help is appreciated...

Thanks,

vj

I have never re-installed from recovery disks, so I don't know if that will be the same problem as when you try it from a Windows XP installation disk.

But, I do know what your problem is with the Windows Installation Disk. The basic problem, is Windows XP installation disks do not support the SATA HD controller (I am not even sure if there is any SATA HD controllers that Windows has drivers for by defualt). Since it has no idea how to talk to your HD controller, it can't find an HD, and thus can't install.

However, you can fix this by going in Bios and selecting AHCI Compatibility mode for the HD. Once you have done this Windows will see the HD and install normally.

After you install windows you should install the intel storage matrix drivers, which include the proper SATA drivers. Reboot and disable the compatibility mode and you'll be all set.

hi dsalyers,
i guess setting the SATA mode to "compatibility" lets windows xp find my hdd and copy some files required for installation to my hard disk. But after the copy process is over it tries to boot up from the partition that contains those copied files but it ends up showing me a blinking cursor at the top left corner...

Setting the SATA mode to "AHCI" doesnt let windows xp detect my hard disk. Maybe u meant the settings the other way...

vj

b_vijai_shanker1 wrote:hi dsalyers,
i guess setting the SATA mode to "compatibility" lets windows xp find my hdd and copy some files required for installation to my hard disk. But after the copy process is over it tries to boot up from the partition that contains those copied files but it ends up showing me a blinking cursor at the top left corner...

Setting the SATA mode to "AHCI" doesnt let windows xp detect my hard disk. Maybe u meant the settings the other way...

vj

Sorry, doing it from memory... Yes, compatibility mode is what you need to install the OS. I would highly recommend, deleting the partitions to the HD, and reformatting before it starts copying files.

i dont mind losing my partitions and data there but no matter what i do it just wouldnt start up the XP OS or the recovery installation on start up...should i set the pre-desktop area to disabled or something while installation,...

thanks,

vj