T30 Product Recovery Failure with New Non-IBM Hard Drive

[Comanche5]

Hi guys,
My original IBM HD died last week. I've bought a non-IBM HD at a local store. Although the bios recognizes the HD and I can also install my wife's copy of Windows XP, my IBM product recovery CDs result in error during the install process. I've never had any trouble using these CDs in the past. I have an idea that there is a problem because the HD in non-IBM. Do the Product Recovery CDs have a way of detecting non-IBM parts? Do I have to get an IBM HD to make the Product Recovery CDs work?

Thanks for any help,

Robert

[aditya1956]

Is it a Seagate hdd ? Then these problems are already reported in older threads, Some are:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=30397
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=26684
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=19030
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=8018

IMHO Hitachi TravelStars are the best for a Thinkpad. Ofcourse there are also other makes working well, but switching to a Hitachi is without any weirdness. These are also quite long lasting ones.

Cheers

[Comanche5]

The drives I trid were Fujitsu and Western Digital. Again, this is not a hardware compatibility issue. I was wondering if there was a software compatibility (read: proprietary) issue. Can I use my Product Recovery CDs with a non-IBM hard drive.

Thanks,

Rob

[andyP]

Yes you can.

Does the installation always break down at the same point?

[Comanche5]

After the first CD, the computer reboots and asks to create the recovery partition. After the partition is created, I get an error message stating that the CD-ROM drive cannot be read. If I reboot the computer, it goes through disk 1-3 as if everything installed normally. Once the computer reboots the install process proceeds till 40% and crashes... computer reboots stating that an error in the installation process occurred.

[aditya1956]

1) Check to see that the "Recovery_CDs" are all ok and readable by your CD-ROM drive. You can use PC_Doc to check them.

You can refer to the thread below if you need to down load PC_Doc.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=46902

2)Also pls see that the hdd is completely blank. There should not be any prior partitions. If necessary use some utility to remove all the partitions, and then proceed.

[Comanche5]

I've already done what you have suggested without any success. Have you installed the Product Recovery CDs on a non-IBM hard drive before?

[andyP]

I've already done what you have suggested without any success. Have you installed the Product Recovery CDs on a non-IBM hard drive before?

I have, more times than I can count, not only on T30s but all types of TPs. Right at this very moment I'm recovering an X60s to a 250GB hdd.

[andyP]

.....[snip] Once the computer reboots the install process proceeds till 40% and crashes... computer reboots stating that an error in the installation process occurred.

Just as a thought, is there any "non-standard" hardware present? meaning e.g. a "non-original" network card

[Comanche5]

Everything is stock except the new hard drive. This is getting frustrating. I called IBM a dozen times, each tech gives me a different answer. Has anyone experienced this error before?

[aditya1956]

Your next option should be to "UPDATE" the BIOS to the latest one from the IBM site, becoz from your description of the problem so far, it seems that the only issue which can prevent you now from recovering to a non_IBM_hdd is an old/incompatible BIOS.

If you decide to update the BIOS, then first charge the battery to "Full" and then proceed. If the diskette method is to be used then the floppy should be a new one. Ofcourse you can go for the non-diskette version as well. But read the instructions well before going for any of the styles.

Thanks