Installing English XP on a Japanese R50e

[tabithaboof]

Hiya,

This is my first post so please be gentle:)

I live in Japan and am in the market for a thinkpad. I have found one which looks to have the spec I am after, its called a Thinkpad R50e. I didnt think to write down the model number.

Its basically perfect apart from having a Japanese OS. I have a copy of Windows XP (english) which I would like to use instead.

I am planning fo just reformat and reinstall the English OS. I have looked on www.ibm.com and they seem to have all kinda of drivers and things should I need them.

Can anyone forsee any problems with me doing this? I understand the Japanese keyboard has a couple of ascii characters in different locations but apart from that I dont know of anything.

Any help much appreciated!

[Zeitgeist]

Welcome!

This

http://www-306.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-55165

will help you!

[MadeInJapan]

Very interesting post and right up my alley. I work for a Japanese school here in the states so I deal with Japanese laptops very often. Actually I have one myself that I run Japanese windows on, another that is purely english and my T-30 that runs a multi-lingual version of XP so that I can switch back and forth.

The way I see it, you have several options.
1. If you want to stay purely English, then some of the periferal keys are not going to be the same. For instance the \ [ ] @ : ; " ' $ ( ) _ - and 2 or 3 others are not going to be inputting the correct things, but you can get around this by figuring out what is what and just living with it. Also, the Japanese space bar is smaller and there are keys to the left and right of the space bar that are going to be totally useless. One option here is to buy the Japanese Thinkpad but also buy an English keyboard for it and interchange them before loading up English Windows. This will solve your keyboard issue.
2. Find (if available) a muti-lingual version of Windows that is Japanese based but allows you to switch to English. With this, the start button and all menu items will appear in English.
3. Why do you want to switch to English anyway? Are you going to be working with any at all with Japanese? If so, once you go to English, many Japanese programs will not work on your Thinkpad, where as, if you stayed Japanese, all English programs will. It's just a matter of learning the location of things (menu items,etc.) even if you don't read Japanese, as these are 100% the same as those in English. My suggestion is keeping the Japanese windows and working around the language barrier. You'll learn a lot of Japanese in the process.
4. Buy another Hard Drive and just take the Japanese HDD out and replace with the new one. This way you aren't going to have to deal with the hidden partition, etc. when you try to load English Windows (if that's what you're going to do). Also replace the keyboard with and English one. If you ever want to resell the machine or take it in for service, just pop off the english keyboard and replace with the Japanese one and slide out the English HDD and slide back in the Japanese one.
5. Don't buy the Japanese thinkpad, but buy one from the states instead with worldwide warranty that is covered in Japan as well. This way you won't go through any of the hassles (if you're wanting to stay purely English with this).

Anyway, these are a few of my suggestions. If you have any questions, please feel free to email or PM me.

[tabithaboof]

Thanks very much for the help and advice, especially made in japan. I kind of independantly arrived at solution number 4 as I had a spare 30 gb 2.5 inch drive lurking around from a dead mp3 player. It went much like this,

1 - install windows on second HD
2 - install LAN driver via CD
3 - get really annoyed with isp not recognising thinkpad on network for several hours.
4 - look confused when isp mysteriously finds TP the nextmorning for no clear reason.
5 - Download software installer and all drivers
6 - sit back and gloat that every went mysteriously smoothly

So yeah, should anyone else be thinking about getting a Japanese TP, english windows seems to wrk sweet as a nut on it. With minmumhassle too.

Thanks once again

[MadeInJapan]

Good deal! So, are you going to keep the Japanese keyboard or go for an English replacment? Didn't know if you knew this but in Japan, it's all the rage to replace the Japanese keyboards on Thinkpads with English ones amongst the Thinkpad "mania," as they call them...if they're really hard-core, they're called "IBM-Otaku." Some will pay 4 and 5 times what a keyboard costs over here in the states to get that sleek "western look." Anyway, glad it all worked out for you.

P.S. Where abouts are you in Tokyo...I get over there 4-6 times a year depending on my work and the demands of my boss. Love to go down to the Ayabu area...friend has a bar called the "Hang-over," if you ever get over that way.

[tabithaboof]

Thanks again for all the help! I must admit i didnt know about the English keyboard thing but it doesnt really surprise me. The Japanese are big time into customizing things. A friend of mine here has an old russian camera called a LOMO which he covered with snakeskin (real) from some old handbag, it was awesome. Your comment inspired me to make a thread about this, I started thinking about doing a snakeskin TP.....

I might get a keyboard eventually but I am currently occupied with getting various USB devices to work and a little more ram installed and that sort of thing. Nothing major just the keyboard is a little way down the line.

Ayabu i must admit i havent heard of, im in centralish Tokyo a little west of Shinjuku, thanks for the heads up but im not really a bar type person, more cafes and coffee