Unable to load Win XP

[Yossarian1]

New to the forum, and need help. I have a couple of IT people in the family, and I've met with "have fun with that" to "good luck", nice huh?

I have a IBM Thinkpad X40 (2386-E9U), 2+ years old. The HDD has been wiped clean by the PO using IBM secure data disposal utility 2.0

I have a Sony external USB CD/ROM that the laptop reads and will boot from. I have a new, liscensed copy of XP thanks to a family member at MS (not one of the IT people). XP will start to load, drivers 1st, etc, then I get a blue screen saying Windows had shut down to to a HDD error or something like that. Remedy, try again or it asks you to run CHKDSK, how if nothing is there?

I'm thinking the HDD scrub left the X40 without the lower level format needed to load XP. How do I get that back? I've searched the net, how I found this site. Downloaded and ran PC Doc, UBCD 411, read forums, FAQ's, etc.

Maybe I'm beyond my paygrade at this point but I'm stuck. It seems I need to get a DOS type of link going to format the drive but how? Is that even the right direction?

Why the following of the thinkpad?

Thanks in advance!

[rkawakami]

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

If you have already downloaded PC Doctor for DOS (scroll down to Diagnostic section) for your X40, then you should be able to run the Fixed Disk diagnostics. There should be seven separate tests in that category. Each one of them will only take a couple of minutes at most to run. The exception is the Linear Verify test. That one checks every sector on the disk and can take 15-25 minutes depending on the size and speed of your drive. These tests should tell you if there is a problem with your disk drive or interface.

Assuming that PC Doctor reports no errors and the Linear Verify test doesn't "slow down" or "stutter" in various places during the scan (that indicates a problem with accessing some sectors), then the next thing I can suggest is to run the memory tests.

Assuming those tests pass, then pull out the MiniPCI wireless card and see if you can load Windows. I've seen problems with different MiniPCI cards causing boot, POST or "power" problems and also the refusal to load Windows always at a specific point in that process.

[Yossarian1]

Thanks for the input, but sadly, no go.

Did the diags suggested, passed. Pulled the wireless card, still cannot load Win XP.

I gave up, it was returned to the IT person (who scrubbed it) at the Company it came from.

The answer, bad HDD?

Did or could the IBM scrub utility kill its own HDD?