I don't have a floppy drive, and it never seems to recognize the "boot USB memory sticks" I've tried. The next time I'm near a CD burner, I'm going to try the Hitachi site that Robert suggested. I think it's still under warranty, but it's going to be a while before I can be in the same place as the computer and a phone long enough for a support call during work hours. (I'm offsite at MySQL training). So, I'm piece-mealing and flying by the seat of my pants until then. <div>On 2/28/07, Simon Ruiz <<a href="mailto:sruiz@mccsc.edu">sruiz@mccsc.edu</a>> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Ugh. I know that, especially with SATA drives, sometimes you need to get drivers from the manufacturer and have them on a floppy disk (do you even have a floppy drive?) for the Windows Installer to be able to work with unrecognized hardware. A big PITA, if you don't mind me saying, but usually possible. Take a look at <a href="http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_install_windows_xp_on_a.htm">http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_install_windows_xp_on_a.htm </a> Is the Installer CD you're trying to use some sort of recovery disc that came with the hardware? I'm guessing not, cause those should definitely have all the correct drivers on them. The other possibility is that you're having some form of hardware malfunction, if the CD that's supposedly custom-made for that hardware configuration (I'm assuming this, if you're getting a repair disc from Lenovo) is having issues with ram disk and crashing when you try to run the formatting tool. Out of curiosity, do you happen to still be under warranty? This is one of those situations where a little chat with the hardware providers might be worthwhile. They would probably be able to tell you whether this is some sort of hardware failure, or maybe it's an issue other owners of that hardware configuration have had before... Ubuntu installs and works flawlessly on it, you say? Score one for the home team. Sim?n ________________________________ From: Michael Steigerwald [mailto:<a href="mailto:mikesteigerwald@gmail.com"> mikesteigerwald@gmail.com</a>] Sent: Wed 2/28/2007 11:05 AM To: Simon Ruiz Cc: <a href="mailto:edubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com">edubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com</a> Subject: Re: Dual boot (XP) best practice FWIW, it's a SATA disk. I've downloaded the repair CD image from Lenovo and can boot from it. However, it complains about an error using RAM disk. It crashes whenever I try FDISK32. I wonder if the CD image is bad, so I'm going to try a fresh one. TIA for any additional suggestions. On 2/27/07, Simon Ruiz <<a href="mailto:sruiz@mccsc.edu">sruiz@mccsc.edu</a>> wrote:         You can find photos of the different connector types below:         <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT_Attachment">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT_Attachment</a> - IDE         <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SATA">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SATA</a>         If the Windows CD's fdisk can see the hard disk, though, it shouldn't be a driver problem. I haven't the slightest clue why the Installer wouldn't be able to see something Microsoft's fdisk can see...         Is there perhaps some form of "factory formatting" option in fdisk? I dunno, I'm grasping at straws here...         Simón         ________________________________         From: Michael Steigerwald [mailto: <a href="mailto:mikesteigerwald@gmail.com">mikesteigerwald@gmail.com</a>]         Sent: Tue 2/27/2007 3:01 PM         To: Simon Ruiz         Subject: Re: edubuntu-users Digest, Vol 9, Issue 20         Thanks for the complement.         I assume it's IDE, but I don't really know how to tell.         The fdisk I'm referring to is what I run from the installer command shell I get into from the Rescue a Broken System startup option. -- Michael Steigerwald 4041 12th Ave S. Minneapolis, MN 55407-3239 <a href="mailto:Steiger@UMich.edu">Steiger@UMich.edu</a> 651.261.2098 </blockquote></div> -- Michael Steigerwald 4041 12th Ave S. Minneapolis, MN 55407-3239 <a href="mailto:Steiger@UMich.edu">Steiger@UMich.edu</a> 651.261.2098