Lenovo T500 - Multiple Problems, Starting w/Boot

[GreatestOne]

Ok let me do a quick synopsis of whats happened and hopfully some of you can let me know what is the next step:

1. My friend has a T500, got badly infected he told me, and said he couldnt clean it, so I told him I'll just reinstall Windows and get it redone to be safe. The laptop seems to be originally a Vista OS, but he said he had been using XP for a while. I do not know what kind of virus he had.

2. When I tried reinstalling XP, there is a blue screen error right when the initial screen ends and is about to go to the choose partition section and format... the error code is different depending on what install disk I use, XP SP3 Slipstream I made from the MS site, or an old XP Home disk I have had for a while... for the slipstream, the error is:

(blue screen of death)
[intro]
Check for viruses on your computer. Remove and newly installed hard drives or hd controllers (no new hardware had been installed btw).... Run CHKDSK /F.....
Tech info:
*** STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF78D2524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

And for the Dell XP install is:

(blue screen of death)
[intro]
Check for adepquate disk space.... If a drive is identified in the stop message, disable the driver.... try changing video adapters....
Check for BIOS updates.... Disable BIOS memory (how do you get into BIOS in this model???)... safe mode (nor more safe mode, contents are delated)...
Tech info:
*** STOP: 0x0000007E (0xC0000005, 0xF748E0BF, 0xF78DA208, 0xF78D9F08)
*** pci.sys - Address F748E0BF base at F7487000, DateStamp 3c0bfadb

3. I have tried multiple DOS formatting/partitioning/Kaspersky AV boot scan (which did detect 2 viruses, deleted them) to try to clean up the boot sector and HD. Also ran memtest86, no RAM problems.

4. Now I read somewhere that this particular model needs the SATA drivers to load on XP install, so I have to specify a disk for that. Well there, it can only recognize floppies it seems, even though I have it on a CD, and this laptop does not have a floppy drive. So if I do need to install the hd drivers, how do I do it?

My conclusions are:

- bad hard drive
- boot sector is damaged beyond my control
- Lenovo has particular ways to handle this that I dont know

Please help if u have any suggestions! Thank you.

 

[dot_Zen]

1. Your friend's HDD sounds toast.
2. Your friend may not be telling you everything.
3. Your friend should learn 2 lessons from this scenario.

Suggestion: Isolate known issues. i.e. Remove the OEM HDD and try another.

 

[Joe Average]

Everything I read relates directly to non-existent SATA controller drivers, save for the potential virus issues. If you can locate a 98SE CD and boot off it, you can get to the Command Prompt with Shift+F5 at the second menu then execute two commands:

fdisk (use it to remove all the partitions on the hard drive, totally empty with absolutely nothing on it)

then reboot off the CD a second time, go back to the Command Prompt and use:

fdisk /mbr

That'll clear out that drive as clean as it can possibly be. There will be absolutely nothing on it at that point, and any potential boot sector viruses will be wiped out with that /mbr switch. Then start over again... with the following instructions in mind...

XP doesn't have the necessary SATA drivers, you'll need to integrate them (not even SP3 contains all the most current ones, and that T500 laptop is fairly new on the market, less than a year old sooo...). Here's a guide to integrating the SATA drivers (it's VERY LONG and very detailed so, be warned, I like to be thorough):

http://members.cox.net/br0adband/How_To_Integrate_SATA_Drivers_into_A_Custom_Windows_CD.zip

You can get around all that in the guide if you can use a USB floppy drive with the necessary drivers on it, and pressing F6 during the installation as required, pointing it to the floppy to load the drivers, etc. But you'd have to do that every time you reinstall (just in case) so making a properly integrated installation disc is still the best course of action - do it once, you're done).

 

[dbwillis]

Go into the BIOS and change the Sata mode from AHCI to the other option, then Xp will see the HDD

 

[GreatestOne]

Go into the BIOS and change the Sata mode from AHCI to the other option, then Xp will see the HDD

Dead on man, thanks heaps... i found out bios is F1 on this unit.... i usually try del or F2, but once i got in, everythings good now and am installing XP no problem.... hopefully this takes it all the way.....