T60 save HD/XP opinions

[t60tilitdies]

As helpful as instructions would be, I'm wondering more opinions on what path you might take in my situation. Heres the current:

Beloved T60 HD goes kaboom during a rescue recovery reformat (yeah,shoulda check battery levels b4 starting)
Can't boot back into it, uneducated guess is a corrupted partition table (tho I have little to no clue on such matters)

Fastest way to get back up and running was Ubuntu via a usb drive. Did, using it as a learning experience, probably avoiding my real prob as well.

Wanted to try Windows 8. DL'ed the iso. Of course it prefers internal drives.(usb would be mud Ive read)

So I ask, WWT (hinkpad)F (anatics) do?

Consider my XP (and my time with it) done and just format/install Win8 prev? (Im ok with the data lost) Am I risking any thing such as log in fingerprint securities and such? (I can redo them I just dont want to turn my machine into a paperweight trying to get BACK to windows)

If this is the step, can the Thinkpad tools/utilities be reinstalled. If they are a loss, how BIG (estimating) of a loss are we thinking this is?

Should I fight to reclaim my XP somehow, someway?

Any other ideas I haven't considered?

Like I said, what your course of action would be is what Im wondering. Pros/cons would be great too. I think I need a direction more than direction(s) if that makes sense.

Thanks so much.

P.s. My pie in the sky idea is buy a SSD but its not financially doable currently.

[JeffCullen]

That machine is pretty long in the tooth... unless you've got it well specced/upgraded, I'd be inclined to stick to XP... I tried W7 on an average-spec T60 once and was pretty underwhelmed with the performance... I can't imagine 8 would be any better...

[Raceboy]

Max out the RAM on the T60, buy an SSD and install W7.

[t60tilitdies]

Max out the RAM on the T60, buy an SSD and install W7.

Thank you for the suggestion although Im afraid its not feasible (I can't afford the SSD, let alone buy a copy of Win 7 as well (hence the using of free Win

I do have 3gb of ram though, if that helps make anything more viable.

[Raceboy]

You can buy 2nd hand smaller ssd and have a big hdd in the Ultrabay for storage. 60gb ssd can be had for ~$50 and it is really worth it.