XP install problem on laptop with docking station 1

[kowderoi]

Hello all,

Slight problem installing Windows XP on a laptop (IBM X30 ultraportable with docking station). I've got a blank hard drive split into two 20 Gb partitions.

The floppy drive and cd/dvd drive are INTERCHANGEABLE, so it's one or the other plugged into the docking station. This seems to be the source of my trouble.

When I pop in my XP installation cd, I get:
"Invalid system disk.
Press any keep to try again."

Tried a linux installation cd, an "ultimate boot CD" and other CD-Rom that are bootable on any of my other PCs. Same message.

All I can do is boot to DOS from a floppy (no CD-Rom drivers installed in this process - absence of drive, see above).

I have a USB port on the laptop and an external hard drive on USB, but haven't gotten around to trying this out yet.

Would it be possible to boot to DOS and run SETUP from the external hard drive (copied there beforehand)? I seem to remember that the XP SETUP doesn't run from DOS (Windows 98 did, I think, but that's another matter). How about booting directly from the USB drive?

Any help or advice would be much appreciated, especially if someone could tell me why this machine (not the newest, admittedly) fails to recognise the install CD (or other boot CD) in the drive?

Thanks in advance!

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kowderoi

 

[stduc]

Sounds to me like you have the boot order wrong in the BIOS.

Your symptoms are compatible with the boot order being

1 Floppy
2 Hard disk

So, when you but the CD in - it tries to boot from the floppy. When you put the XP Cd in it tries to boot from the Hard drive.

Go into the BIOS (Perhaps someone can post how to do this on a IBM X30 ultraportable with docking station) and change the order to

1 Hard Drive
2 CD ROM

Then the machine should try to boot from the hard drive, fail, try the CD and XP setup should start.

If you make the order the other way around the installation will fail once setup want to boot from the hard drive to continue.

 

[kowderoi]

Hi stduc,

Thanks for your input.

That of course is a valid point, one which I did think of. As the FDD and CD/DVD drive are interchangeable, the BIOS offers a slightly different configuration. From memory, it's (order irrelevant):

- HDD
- Removeable drive
- CD-rom
- ISA (numbers and letter, not sure what this is at all).

The BIOS asks you to activate each drive first, putting a cross/plus sign next to the activated drive. As far as I can tell, "Removeable drive" refers to the FDD only. When I try to activate the CD-rom, I get an exclamation mark, presumably indicating a problem of some sort. Could it be that there's a conflict with the already activated FDD as the BIOS is aware that both can't be installed at the same time? Or did I power up with the floppy in place, not the DVD drive, can't remember very well (this was late last night...).

Ok, so I'm getting lots of ideas now, thanks for your inspiration.

I must try this all again at home this evening (at work right now) making sure to:
- install the CD-Rom (= FDD removed) before powering up and going into the BIOS;
- deactivate the FDD in the boot sequence list; and
- activate the optical drive and set first in the list.

Save and exit, reboot with install CD in optical drive. Wish me luck.

If anyone has any specific knowledge of this model, I'd appreciate any ideas.



----------------------------------
kowderoi

 

[bcastner]

Install XP from DOS:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307848&sd=tech

 

[kowderoi]

Hi bcastner,

Thanks for the link. I'll keep it in mind if my other plan doesn't work. It's good to know that sort of stuff anyway.

----------------------------------
kowderoi

 

[barny2006]

here's the setup command in dos: winnt.exe
in windows, it is winnt32.exe
both are located in I386 directory in the xp cdrom.

 

[linney]

See if you can fathom out the IBM support site?

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/s...mily=IBM Notebooks and handhelds|ThinkPad X30

 

[kowderoi]

Good morning all.


Problem resolved, I'm happy to say.

It was in fact linked to the boot sequence in the BIOS. For this particular model it is necessary to activate either the "Removable drive" (FDD) or "CD-ROM" entries in the boot list before setting their rank in the boot sequence. Otherwise the system takes no notice of them and defaults to the HDD (blank in this case). An activated drive has an exclamation mark next to it, something which I had to figure out by trial and error (no manual).

Very simple, really, but this is the first time I've seen this type of setup.

Thanks to all for the valuable information on installing from DOS. I'm not a network administrator, but if I was I bet I'd have to know that sort of thing.

And have a nice day.



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kowderoi

 

[linney]

User's guides and manuals

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/s...Page.vm&operatingsystemind=53385&machineind=0