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    How to install XP on a 3000 n200?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by championchampion, Apr 18, 2008.

  1. championchampion

    championchampion Newbie

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    I've just bought one of these and want to 'downgrade' to XP.

    I understand that I'll need to install the SATA drivers before XP, and that it's usually possible to do this by attaching the drivers to a boot CD with 'nlite', but when I tried to extract the drivers to attach to the boot CD, it appears that they aren't the correct format for nlite.

    nlite wants '.inf' file, but I no 'inf' file can be extracted from the exe downloadable from the Lenovo driver site.

    Am I being dumb?

    I'd really appreciate some help - I cannot work out how to do this...

    :(
     
    championchampion, Apr 18, 2008
    #1
  2. ZaZ

    ZaZ Super Model Super Moderator

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    Is there any option to set the drive to compatibility mode in the BIOS like on ThinkPads? You can slipstream in Service Pack 2 with nLite. That has the SATA drivers as well.
     
    ZaZ, Apr 19, 2008
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  3. championchampion

    championchampion Newbie

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    Ok, so are you saying that if I 'disable' the SATA mode in BIOS, then install XP (with SP2) then I will be able to reenable the SATA mode after installation?

    Sorry to be dumb.
     
    championchampion, Apr 21, 2008
    #3
  4. championchampion

    championchampion Newbie

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    Dear Christ, is this ever annoying.

    Installed SP2, but if I change SATA into enabled, I get blue screen.

    Also, when i press f6 on windows install, nothing happens.

    :(
     
    championchampion, Apr 21, 2008
    #4
  5. Arki

    Arki Super Moderator

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    I believe you have to install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver before enabling SATA.
     
    Arki, Apr 21, 2008
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  6. championchampion

    championchampion Newbie

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    This is where I get stuck. I don't have a floppy drive (obviously), and so I've tried using nlite to include the sata drivers with the xp install.

    If I do this, should it be as simple as:

    Disable sata.

    Install nlite version of xp (with sata drivers).

    Enable sata.

    Happy happy joy joy?

    Is that correct, or am I missing something?
     
    championchampion, Apr 21, 2008
    #6
  7. jketzetera

    jketzetera Notebook Evangelist

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    If you have installed Windows XP in non-SATA mode, you can actually install the Intel SATA driver afterwards and make everything work. I did it some time ago so my memory is a little fuzzy.

    If I recollect correctly, there is a subfolder in the matrix storage folder. In the sub folder I think there is a batch file called something like "prepare.cmd" (or similar). If you run that batch file in Windows XP, the proper SATA driver is installed on the system. You can then re-boot, change to SATA mode in BIOS and boot back into XP without problems.
     
    jketzetera, Apr 21, 2008
    #7