Installing Win XP on laptop

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CyCLoBoT · #1 Post by **CyCLoBoT** » Sat Oct 09, 2004 11:06 am

I am trying to install windows xp on my laptop but I am having difficulty. My laptop doesn't come with a floppy drive and my dvd-rom doesn't work in DOS. So this is what I tried to do to install Win XP:

I created two primary partitions on my laptop hard drive and I copied the entire Win XP cd on the d drive. Then I ran the setup from the d drive and it win xp copied all the files. But when it restarted, I get the following message:

PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel PXE ROM
Invalid partition table.

So how do I install win xp on my c: drive while running the setup from d drive?

MadeInJapan · #2 Post by **MadeInJapan** » Sat Oct 09, 2004 11:29 am

Not sure why your method isn't working, but if your DVDrom can also burn CD's (DVD/CDRW) then you can follow instructions in a thread on how to do a clean install of WindowsXP from your current installation and not have to worry about a separate partition on your thinkpad. This should work with any computer that supports WindowsXP (here is the thread... http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=3827) By the way, did you make the partition bootable (active?) and did you select to boot from that partition? A lot about partitions I don't know, but these things come to mind.

Another thing...you didn't say which series ThinkPad you have. The process is a bit different for each. In my case I have a T30. If you would like the recovery discs (bootable) for this particular Thinkpad (there are 3), then message me.

CyCLoBoT · #3 Post by **CyCLoBoT** » Sat Oct 09, 2004 11:35 am

I have THinkpad i1200 series

MadeInJapan · #4 Post by **MadeInJapan** » Sat Oct 09, 2004 11:39 am

I edited my entry above, so you might want to check it out again. Does i1200 support Windows XP? I'm trying to remember if it does. You won't be able to use my recovery discs. I was assuming you already had Windows XP on your ThinkPad as I was posting above.

Personally I wouldn't recommend WindowsXP unless you have at least 256MB of RAM memory. I think the i1200 will run better and be more stable with Windows 2000 (preferably W2K-Pro).

CyCLoBoT · #5 Post by **CyCLoBoT** » Sat Oct 09, 2004 11:46 am

Then how do I go about installing win2k-pro on my hard disk? I tried booting from the win2k cd and nothing happens after it gets to the point "Setup is starting Windows 2000"

MadeInJapan · #6 Post by **MadeInJapan** » Sat Oct 09, 2004 8:21 pm

I've had the same problem in the past. If your HDD already has NTFS partition sometimes it freaks installation out. What I would do is to use a boot disc for Windows 98 or something and delete the partition and make the partition again with Fdisk. Then you'll have some type of partition but W2K install disc won't know what to do and force the installation to stop and take a look and give you choices to format the partition and proceed with full install.

But then again, I recall that you said you had no floppy drive. Hmmm, that makes things a bit more difficult..... One other option is to buy a cheap USB floppy on eBay or go to somewhere like Bestbuy or Staples, Office Depot and buy one. Make sure your bios is set to boot in the correct order.

Anyone else have a solution to this problem?

myckee · #7 Post by **myckee** » Sat Oct 09, 2004 11:24 pm

Well first off, your XP cd, if it is legit, is bootable. What that means is that when you boot your laptop, and you select boot from cd, then it will be able to boot and begin setup.

If the cd is a copy, then somone forgot or didn't know how to incorporate the boot sector.

Anyway, since you have copied it to your hard drive, you can run setup and install. NOTE: you do not use 'setup.exe'!! It will not work if you use this one. You have to use 'winnt.exe' in the I386 directory!

MadeInJapan · #8 Post by **MadeInJapan** » Sun Oct 10, 2004 2:33 am

I think he's trying to install Win2K now and has the bootable CD for that but it stops in mid-stream. Don't know how he would access the folder and file in Drive D if that's the partition he loaded WinXP installation disc.

So, taking what Myckee said (assuming you really want to try to load WinXP on an i1200), have you tried booting with the WinXP CD?

CyCLoBoT · #9 Post by **CyCLoBoT** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 1:27 pm

Thanks for the help everyone but I think that my laptop is not suitable for installing anything after ME. My laptop came with Win Me initially and I have been able to install it successfully. Maybe my laptop is not advance enough for NT OS.

Yes I have tried running Win Xp setup from the cd and everything goes well upto the point it copies the files to hd. But when it restarts after copying, I get the first Win XP boot screen and it stops there. And same thing goes for Win2K

MadeInJapan · #10 Post by **MadeInJapan** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 10:06 pm

Have you checked the IBM site about upgrading to something beyond WinMe? If it is possible, it gives suggestions on what upgrades if any need to be done. The obvious one of course is the BIOS upgrade. There is a section just for this. I'm not sure of the URL.

Installing Win XP on laptop

Installing Win XP on laptop

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