Getting CD To boot on ThinkPad 760XD

when i got my dell, it wouldnt boot from a cd, so i had to boot from a disk, i was installing linux but that will work for windows too!

I don't have a floppy drive with the laptop.

Pull the HDD, and using another machine install Smart Boot Manager.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/btmgr/
http://btmgr.webframe.org/

I've used it to convince a Compaq LTE 5380 and a couple Toshibas (410CDT and 420CDT) to boot from otherwise BIOS-unbootable CD-ROM drives.

I had the same problem with a Dell Latitude CS. I looked up the BIOS key stroke at power up. Once I had that keystroke I unhooked the internal hard drive and hit the power button (with the proper keys down) and up came the BIOS screen. Once there I made the boot sequence 1. Floppy, 2. CD, 3. Hard drive.

Numbers 2 and 3 were switched and that is why my CD woudn't boot. After I saved the new BIOS and restarted with the CD inserted it worked perfectly and I installed "Lindows".

Just Google your bios keystroke for your laptop.

Good luck

P.S. unhooking the internal hard drive was important for me, it had Windows NT Workstation with no administrative options on it. So it wouldn't let me open the BIOS program with it plugged in.

Apparently all Thinkpad 760 models will not boot from CD-ROM. Rats.

Fortunately, I do have an external 2.5" USB2 enclosure. I've backed up everything to the hard disk on one of my desktops. As soon as I can get Win98 to boot on a desktop, I'll set up the laptop hard disk.

It would be really nice to put OS/2 Warp v3 or v4 on it, but due to not having a floppy drive that's a little difficult. Not to mention that it only has 32MB RAM.

So far the only quirk that has come up is on occasion when doing something the computer will power off completely. If I try to install an old Win9x game it does it. When I uninstalled the drivers for one of the HP printers installed to the system, on restart it shuts down.

I'm not sure if it's a program or Windows or hardware or the lack of a charged battery.

That's what SBM is there to fix. It should let you boot from unsupported CD-ROM drives. I did have trouble witht he old 2x CD drive that was stock in mt 410CDT, but the 4x module fromt he 420CDT worked fine in either one. Even if you get Windows installed from another machine, you might want to install SBM so you can boot from a CD later. It will also let you boot other partitions on a HDD too.

The laptop had two issues:

1) Flaky AC adapter. It would never charge past 1%, regardless of the length of time it was plugged in. Also at times when it was connected it would not power on. I have a replacement that appears to work - the battery is now at 13% after a couple of intermittent hours. Not bad for a laptop that was in a junk bin for who knows how long.

2) Flaky hard disk. I took the original drive out, wiped it on a desktop and installed Windows 98 SE. After the install completed, it would not boot Windows. Same problem when transferred back to the laptop. I have a 2GB drive from an old Compaq laptop. With that drive installed it boots to WinNT 4.0 workstation. Once it is ghosted, I'll see about getting Windows and the SBM installed.

Question - with SBM, how do you tell it to install to a secondary master drive?

Thanks!

It's installed to the laptop's hard disk, but only shows the hard disk and the floppy. Of course the floppy does not exist.

Have you gone through the SBM menus to detect the drives? I haven't done it in months, but you might also need a disc in the drive for it to be seen. Like I posted above, one of the Toshiba drives was too old and decrepit to work with SBM, but a single model newer one did.

I tried using the SBM menus to detect the drive with a bootable 98 SE CD in the drive. No luck.

On another note, I had backed up and wiped the drive and installed 98 on another computer. When it tried to restart, only a black screen appeared.

After running FDISK on it and installing 98 from the desktop computer, 98 SE now works on the laptop. As far as I know I have all the drivers installed and it now plays a mean game of Sierra 3D pinball.

I did find a workaround for a non-booting CD-ROM drive.

Today I found 2 external thinkpad floppy drives for $2 each at a local thrift store. Surprisingly, they work with my model, although one has an incorrect cable.

I have just brought up a bunch of the old 760's. They were once quite a well regarded little laptop. NASA flew 'em back in the mid to late 1990's.

Anyway, I keep around an old BackPack drive which enables loading Windows onto these antiques; in my case Win 98SE.

It's tough using the BackPack without a floppy drive, though, and the units I worked on all had floppies.

Absent a floppy I would have Ghosted a completed Win 98SE OS onto the 760 HDD from image. This image would have included the .cab files.

Win 98SE does a nice job of reconfiguring itself when it discovers a new environment.

There is a downside: am pretty sure the 760 requires special drivers which are not within Win 98SE. These files are available, but not readily available from IBM or Lenovo. For me they were a PITA but I finally got 'em.

I went to that same booth two weeks ago when I got the 760XD and there were a slew of 760EL laptops. No floppy, hard disk or power brick.

I went on Sunday and there was one 760EL with something slightly amiss with the keyboard, two 770 models (forgot the letters after them) with no HD or power adapter. Would have really liked to get one of the 770 laptops, but without the HD sled it's not worth scrounging for something to place a HD into.

What I ended up doing was running FDISK on the drive, partitioning it on a P3-600 desktop, installing 98SE and reinstalling the drive back into the ThinkPad. Surprisingly the video drivers were detected by 98 (the laptop has a Built For Windows 95 logo), and I burned the other drivers to a CD and installed them from there. Later I found two external floppy drives with cables from a Paws For Cause thrift store for $2 each that the laptop will boot from.

The only issues left with it:

1) When the fan kicks in the laptop does not appear to get any cooler and eventually overheats. I normally place it in hibernation and let it cool down before continuing.
2) Some of the rubberized coating has worn off of the top of the laptop. Shiny. Minor issue.
3) No cabling for the TV IN/OUT connectors. Considering it's a P166, that's not a big deal.
4) I now have a 10/100 PC Card, but it currently does not like accessing the internet. Don't know why yet.

I have a thinkpad 760e but i dont have a floppy drive and i cannot boot from internal cd drive. The bios don't support it.

I have installed win 2000 from the original owner, and i want to install W95, the old one. what can i do?.

Someone told me "use smart boot manager" but i don't know how to use it, and sorry for my english i'm learning it a few month ago. Thanks for any help !!!

Is there a particular reason you want to use Win95a? Perhaps because it does not contain IE? If so, I understand. Or perhaps because of its ultra compact nature. Win95a builds can be amazingly small and fast. I am a fan of Win95a.

Anyway I know Win95a was available on CD, but I never have seen a copy. My own copy of Win95a is on floppies which I realize does not help you. You might be able to find Win95a on CD on eBay.

Maybe you could consider using Win95b, which is readily available on CD. If size is an issue, you have the option of using 98Lite, which I think will work with Windows 95b (not sure). This would allow you to eliminate IE, and other crap and bloat in '95b. Don't forget ten years ago, when this software was current, Firefox did not exist. That was then and this is now. Today you just eliminate IE with either 98Lite or nLite (depending on your OS), install Firefox, and you are good to go. Maybe that would even work for you with your current Win2K install. You would have to use 2000-XPlite though. That's what I have been running for several years.

My best counsel, though: get yourself a floppy drive. They are really inexpensive. It should not cost you more than a couple of dollars for a used one. With a floppy drive you can do anything you want.

On the other stuff, FWIW, here is a reference:

http://www.abaara.com/pac/98lite

Whatever you decide to do, good luck to you!

Thanks for your words but I have been looking for a floppy drive here in my country but it's imposible to get, the thinkpad 760E was imported several year ago and there is no way that I can find one of this.

Now in the other hand i got my W95 CD Version.

There in not too much things to do, the only hope is: someone tell where to find the "smart boot manager" or something like that and teach me how to use it.
Thanks to all of you and try to save me !!! good luck

Get one of these:

http://www.bay-wolf.com/hddadapter.htm

(Doesn't have to be this company... these things are a dime a dozen.)

remove the hard disk from the laptop and plug it into a desktop. If you *really* want Windows 9x *ugh* you can use a DOS disk to fdisk and format /s (make bootable) the HD. Then simply copy all the WIN95 directory off the CD to the HD. Then put the hard disk back in the laptop, boot from the DOS boot sector you installed, cd \win95, and run setup.exe. Viola.

The mere thought of Windows 95 makes me break out in hives, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

--Peace

Thanks to you but ,the first time i open the machine looking for the hdd to do what you say, WOW ... the IBM hdd for this model (760E)is not like the others hdd's there is no adapter for this hdd, I try to find an adapter for this one but IBM says "it not exist" at least to the users.
I need to find another way, Thanks anyway !!!

The hard drive in your Thinkpad (and mine) is actually enclosed in a case. Before you can use a standard 2.5" to 3.5" hard drive adapter, you need to remove it from that case.

With the one I had, a sticker was on the top that wrapped around the sides. After that is removed, you will see two screws where the little handle for the case is. Remove the two screws and the nuts that the screws go into. After that is done, you need to separate the lid from the base. Once that is done you can gently move the short cable that connects the hard drive to the connector on the outside of the case away from the handle.

After separating the cable from the hard disk, you could use it with one of the drive adapters.

I will try removing the case .
Thanks a lot to you all Bye