Thursday, May 22, 2008

Windows XP SP2 install on Thinkpad T61

If the windows install says "No Hard Disk Found", then
1) Go to BIOS setup (F1 at BIOS screen)
2) Select Config
3) Select Serial ATA (SATA)
4) Select "Compatibility"

Once you've installed Windows XP, be sure to download the "Intel Matrix Storage Management Driver," as specified below. Once the software is installed, you may go back into the BIOS setup, and do the same as above--but set it to "AHCI" instead.

Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver/SATA Hard Drive
Windows XP does not include support for the SATA hard drive out of the box. To install, you have two options. ONE, have the hard drive in "Compatibility" mode, which will allow you to install XP without worrying about drivers. SECOND, you can download and extract the drivers to an external storage device, and install them when the XP installation asks if you'd like to manually install any drivers. Note that, in my experience, the first option is easiest--afterall, you can easily install the drivers after XP is installed, and then switch back to AHCI mode.

If you're interested, the drivers are available here (they also contain detailed instructions on both methods of installation):
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-62909

Problem: During installing the Audio Drivers, if you see "HDA Audio Bus Driver required for Installation", then download Microsoft hot fix KB88111 from URL
and then once you install this, XP should say "Found New hardware". Now, install your audio drivers.

Additional Information
http://seamlesstrust.org/trustwiki/index.php/Windows_XP2_install_on_Thinkpad_61

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks Anil - Your blog saved me a lot of time!

Unknown said...

Thank u very much! u saved a lot of potentially wasted time :)