R51 Upgrade Hard Drive SSD

[TSOLO44]

Hi , I have replaced the hard drive in my ThinkPad R51 with a kinston Spec SSD 16GB. I am trying to do a clean install of VISTA and get an error message saying the disk controller need to be enabled in BIOS. Any help would be much appreciated.

BIOS version 1.27
Embedded controller Version 1.04

Thanks
Samuel

[RealBlackStuff]

The latest BIOS is 1.29, EC=1.04 is OK.
16GB is too small for Vista.
Minimum HD requirements as per M$: 20-gigabyte (GB) hard disk that has 15 GB of free hard disk space
Also, Kingston is a lousy brand to begin with...

[TSOLO44]

hello, thanks for response. could send motherboard possibly for the change. but is there another way? how do i update bios to 1.29 without operating system on hard drive? tks

[jronald]

The easiest way to upgrade the BIOS is to load XP, then System Update. SU will find the BIOS, and install it for you. That said, RBS is correct. You need a bigger HDD. Vista is a HOG. You also need a very fast (aka as HOT) CPU for that machine and at least 2 gigs of RAM.

Installing Tvista on a Z60t (simular machine) was a no go for me. Putting it on a Core 2 Duo with 2 gigs of RAM is tolerable, but not ideal.

If your 51 is not maxed out, give Zorin a try. Its built on uBuntu, looks like Windows 7, has Wine built in and flies on my Z60t. It will run just fine on the 16 gig HDD, and as little as 1 gig of RAM, as well as lower CPU speeds.

YMMV
Ron

[TSOLO44]

many thanks for your post, I will give it a go!
Jerome