The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Installing Windows 7 on a R31 (How to boot?)

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by funkyblue, May 10, 2009.

  1. funkyblue

    funkyblue Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    19
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hey All.

    I want to try running Windows 7 RC on my Thinkpad R31. It has 1GB memory and 1Ghz Celeron Mobile.
    The issue is how.

    It has a CD-ROM drive and is unable to boot from a USB-DVD drive.

    Is there a boot CD around that could give USB-DVD and NTFS support so I can access the external DVD drive and run setup from there?

    It's very frustrating as there seems No way to be able to boot/run the Windows 7 setup.

    Advice is appreciated.

    Thanks
    Scott
     
    funkyblue, May 10, 2009
    #1
  2. Greg

    Greg Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    7,857
    Messages:
    16,212
    Likes Received:
    58
    Trophy Points:
    466
    If you have an external CD drive, you should just be able to go into BIOS and enable booting from USB.
     
    Greg, May 10, 2009
    #2
  3. piyush1911

    piyush1911 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    41
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    in bios the external dvd drive will show up and can be set up as first boot device
     
    piyush1911, May 10, 2009
    #3
  4. funkyblue

    funkyblue Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    19
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    It won't seem to boot from it. Only device that shows up in the bios is USB Floppy. I am sure I read somewhere the R31 does not support USB booting.
     
    funkyblue, May 10, 2009
    #4
  5. ZaZ

    ZaZ Super Model Super Moderator

    Reputations:
    4,982
    Messages:
    34,001
    Likes Received:
    1,415
    Trophy Points:
    581
    That would be my opinion too.
     
    ZaZ, May 10, 2009
    #5
  6. funkyblue

    funkyblue Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    19
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    What's that?
     
    funkyblue, May 10, 2009
    #6
  7. funkyblue

    funkyblue Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    19
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    funkyblue, May 10, 2009
    #7
  8. Christoph.krn

    Christoph.krn Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    263
    Messages:
    423
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    How about putting the HDD into another computer?
     
    Christoph.krn, May 10, 2009
    #8
  9. funkyblue

    funkyblue Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    19
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    The first option's post does not make much sense IMO.
    I am trying the second option. Close to giving up!

    I had the drive partitions with a 3GB partition, copied the contents of the DVD then tried a boot cd stupid setup would not run from a DOS prompt. Do you think i can find a simple ISO that can boot straight into an XP command prompt? NOPE!
     
    funkyblue, May 11, 2009
    #8
  10. Kiwi-in-Oz

    Kiwi-in-Oz Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    What I would suggest is to upgrade the CD writer to a DVD Writer. Now days the cost is not that much. The IBM R31 can not boot from any USB device apart from the USB Floppy drive.

    I have done this and can install whatever I want including Windows 7.
    Only problem with Windows 7 is the video driver. There is NOT one.
    Everything else is running fine. Currently Win7 is using a standard display driver.

    In the past I had Vista installed once and managed to find a driver option for vista, I'm thinking this could work for Win7 too but for the life of me I can not find it anymore! Anyone know?


    Kind Regards



    Stew.
     
    Kiwi-in-Oz, May 11, 2009
    #8