A31p unable to boot from HDD\DVD drive

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biggie · #1 Post by **biggie** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 5:00 am

Just brought a 2nd hand A31/p but i'm unable to install windows.
I can't boot from DVD\HDD :-

I have tried the following:-

1) Removing the HDD and formatting & copying the XP installation files using another laptop. Placing the drive in the thinkpad machine still gives me a blank screen when I attempt to boot from it.
2) I have tried the DVD drive in the docking station\Laptop but still can't boot from it, using a windows XP installation CD.
3) Tried using floppy installation disks for XP(professional) to install windows (Media centre edition). Which should be ok as they're both variations of XP. After disk 6 it doesn't seem to read\accept what's in the DVD drive.

I can boot from floppy disk but I'm unable to boot from DVD\HDD all I get is a blank screen with a cursor. I'm not sure if it's just a DVD issue.

Bios seems to recognise both HDD & Memory.

Any Ideas ?

sakkara · #2 Post by **sakkara** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 9:54 pm

if you boot from floppy boot disk can you access or read any files on c:
??

biggie · #3 Post by **biggie** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 4:41 pm

sakkara wrote:if you boot from floppy boot disk can you access or read any files on c:
??

I can access my C drive.

I just formatted using FAT32 on a different PC and when I place the HDD in the thinkpad I get NTLDR is missing. Which is an error message you get when you upgrade to XP (which I haven't done )

.

When I place the HDD back in my other laptop it boots fine starting the XP installation.

Please help guys as this is driving me crazy

sakkara · #4 Post by **sakkara** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 5:16 pm

what happens when you try to boot from your windows XP disc ?
i had the same sort of problem i had to use a win 98 boot disc and F DISK drive and recreatebthe primary partition !!

try deleting all partitions on drive and then recreate them and format drive THEN try to reinstall ...

biggie · #5 Post by **biggie** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 5:58 pm

sakkara wrote:what happens when you try to boot from your windows XP disc ?
i had the same sort of problem i had to use a win 98 boot disc and F DISK drive and recreatebthe primary partition !!

try deleting all partitions on drive and then recreate them and format drive THEN try to reinstall ...

can't boot from XP disk as it doesn't seem to recognise my DVD drive.

I tried deleting all the partitiona when I was installing XP on a differrent laptop reformatted them etc etc. but when I place the drive back in the thinkpad I get the same problem.

sakkara · #6 Post by **sakkara** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 6:16 pm

can you access your c: drive if the dvd is not in the laptop ??
try taking it out and then rebooting and see if you can access the drive from dos

biggie · #7 Post by **biggie** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 12:02 pm

I can always access my C drive if I boot from a DOS disk.

I copied over WINME to the HDD and then ran setup.

Even that failed during install something about not liking the drive because it may by Win NT format. Even though it's been formatted to FAT32.

sakkara · #8 Post by **sakkara** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 2:48 pm

cant see why i have run win XP PRO in my A31P on a fat32 drive and a NT drive
have you tried resetting your bios to the default ?
flashing the bios ?
installing an earlier operating system such as win 98 ?
was there an operating system installed when you bought it ?
another hard drive ?
checking your boot sequence in bios ?

just throwing around ideas here !!

have you got the original IBM recovery disks ???

sakkara · #9 Post by **sakkara** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 8:18 pm

so did you get this up and running ???

A31p unable to boot from HDD\DVD drive

A31p unable to boot from HDD\DVD drive

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