XP install fails on T30

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motero99 · #1 Post by **motero99** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 6:52 pm

I have a T30 on which I had installed a shrink wrapped version of XP. The MB went bad and I replaced it. The XP install was corrupted, so I decided to re-install. It does not work. First, at the time of the first reboot, I get the message that "Windows is rebooting your computer" The computer just hangs whether you let the countdown timer complete or hit enter to start the process. If I manually reboot, it starts but never goes beyond the initial 39 minutes to complete installation. Any ideas? Both memory slots seem to be okay. If I do a restore from the Win2000 recovery disks, it completes and the system runs well. I am tempted to try and find XP recover disks. I beilieve that is not legal, but since I have a legal XP license, might be acceptable if it works. Before I spend any more money on this system or trash it, does any one have any idea why XP is not installing and has anyone tried to install XP from recovery disks to s system that was originally Win2000?

ajkula66 · #2 Post by **ajkula66** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 7:25 pm

OK, to answer a part of your question: I've done recovery with XP disks on the machine that originally had W2K.

Now, are you sure your HDD is good? Have you run a full test on it? I've managed to install W2K in the past on drives that had some corrupted sectors much easier than XP.

To make sure that both your slots (and whatever DIMMs are in them) are working OK, I suggest running a memtest86 for a nice long amount of time and see what happens.

Just off the top of my head, but something to begin with.

Good luck and let us know.

#3 Post by **rkawakami** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 7:36 pm

This may help: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=50592

Then again, it may not as the last poster to that thread also had a similar problem which was not solved with my advice.

mgo · #4 Post by **mgo** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 8:09 pm

motero99 wrote: does any one have any idea why XP is not installing and has anyone tried to install XP from recovery disks to s system that was originally Win2000?

I have installed XP and Vista many times, but not on the T30.

In my experience, I needed to make sure that the drive was formatted using the XP install disk. Then I went to Repair mode on the XP install disk and ran "FIXMBR" and "FIXBOOT". I was then able to install the operating system.

It appears that Windows is very fussy about what's on the drive's boot sector.

Other users on this forum may disagree with my methods, but that's what works for me as a unsophisitcated low level, master boot record tinkerer.

Heck, give it a try. You won't break anything, and it might work.

motero99 · #5 Post by **motero99** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 8:17 pm

Thanks for all of the advice. I have been suspecting either memory or the hard drive. The other think I forgot to mention is that I have been doing a quick format when presented with the option. When I tried the full format, after an hour and a half, it was only at 25% (40 GB drive). A couple of weeks ago I let it run for 4 or 5 hours and it did complete a full format, but the problem still persisted on trying to install XP. I did try an install on a 20 GB drive and it failed in the same way. I do have a 60 or 80 GB dirive that I was using in my work T43 for testing an application. I may try that over the weekend. XP was freshly installed on it a few weeks ago.

#6 Post by **rkawakami** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 9:08 pm

Yes, if the format is taking an inordinately long amount of time, then there's probably an issue with some bad sectors. Check this recent post and see if you can download the appropriate diagnostic for your disk drive:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 834#394834

An alternative is to use PC Doctor's Fixed Disk diagnostics to see if it can read all of the sectors on your drive(s).

motero99 · #7 Post by **motero99** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 3:45 pm

I ran the Hitachi Drive Fitness program and there were no problems. I then ran memtest v3.2. It has now gone through 11 passes without an error. The bios is at the latest level and I restored it to factory defaults. Any other ideas?

#8 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 5:23 pm

Quite often I use Partition Magic 8 (the REAL PM, not the castrated [censored] version from Symantec), to partition and format a new hard drive. A 40GB format takes only a few minutes, and after that I can install XP without any fuss. Did that on my own T30.

egibbs · #9 Post by **egibbs** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:28 am

If you can get PC Doctor running from a CD or floppy it has a Full Erase HDD function that has worked for me in the past when formatting and such failed.

Ed Gibbs

motero99 · #10 Post by **motero99** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 11:24 pm

It turned out to be the modem. I unplugged it but the screws were very tight and I was worried about stripping them. Unplugging did no good. I found a larger screwdriver with a small point which did the trick to loosen the screws. Next try Win XP loaded like a champ. Thanks to all for your help.

XP install fails on T30

XP install fails on T30

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