Lenovo G570 and replaced HDD, help needed

[bojan]

I bought the new HDD for this lap and now I have problems...
It seems HDD is not partitioned/formatted, because XP-Pro installation stops with message "error found, to prevent damage system stopped". And I am pretty sure the XP disk is for 32/64 bit systems...
Or I am completely wrong here.
When I tried with W7 Pro, installation asks for drivers (probably drivers specific to Lenovo lap ?).
How to proceed?

[bobson]

Hi Bojan,

It seems something is wrong in BIOS settings?
Are you installing from CD/DVD or USB stick?

cheers

bob

[bojan]

Installing from CD... process starts OK but stops.
I had no problems before with XP pro and desktop, Dell D610 etc.

[luka]

Not sure about the XP error message but the Win7 error message indicates that you need to download extra drivers (from Lenovo) which are to be loaded during the Windows installation. If Win7 does not have the drivers than XP will definitely not have the drivers.

In the old days these were copied to a floppy disk... you may be able to do this on an USB stick???
Often the missing drivers were part of the Intel chipset drivers.

Another thing comes to mind, do you have AHCI enabled in bios?

[bojan]

That's what I suspected (missing drivers.. ), I found a number of individual drivers on Lenovo website but not a package...
W7 installer suggests something like that.

I never had to have drivers ready before XP installation before. I always installed them later for specific machine.
As for AHCI - not sure... I will check. This is W7 issue?
Thanks!

[luka]

XP and Win7 (older install DVDs) did not have AHCI support. If this is the problem disabling it in bios (hard drive section somewhere) would allow you to install windows but at the cost of hard drive performance. Otherwise getting AHCI drivers for the installation should not be too difficult.

If I remember correctly, Intel chipset drivers had the missing driver files that allowed to install Windows.

[bojan]

I found on web that some people recommend setting SATA mode to compatibility.. will try this asap.

In the meantime, I am confused with other detail:
Windows7 (and DSS) reports 4 processors in my G570.
However, 2.3GHz Intel Core i5 2410M (listed in G570 specs) is dual processor.
Does it mean G570 has two? I couldn't see that when I opened the bottom lid.

I am hoping XP Pro will recognise (and use) all of them...

And another one: Does XP installs 32-64 bit OS automatically according to H/W or do I have to have specific installation disk?

[luka]

The CPU supports hyperthreading, this is why "two cores" are detected as four. Hyperthreading means that some parts of each of the two CPU "cores" are duplicated while some are not and have to be shared. So in theory "each core" appears as two. Hyperthreading increases performance under some aspects but it is not the same as having two real cores.

Setting SATA to compatibility and not AHCI will probably work. However, it may impact the performance. If I were you I would try switching AHCI off and trying to see if Windows will install. If yes than AHCI is the issue - then I would find the drivers and reinstall Windows with AHCI.
It is possible to switch on AHCI after the Windows installation but it is complicated. Google can help there, or let me know if you get stuck.

XP 32 or 64 flavours come on different installation disc. So whichever disc you have will get installed.

Also beware of 64-bit XP, the driver support is quite limited as its adoption was not that great. Win7 drivers do not work on XP.

[bojan]

OK, will try... :thanx:. However I don/'t remember anyhing like AHCI when browsing through BIOS settings. Maybe I didn't pay enough attention.

As for XP32.. this probably explains why there is no support for XP-64 on Lenovo website.

[luka]

AHCI is the SATA setting, you already found it when you found "compatible".
Different BIOSes may use different names for it but it is the other option to the "compatible" one you found. Probably called "enhanced"???

[bojan]

Luka, thanks you for your help.
I downloaded all the drivers (both XP and W7) and will give it a try tonight. Hope it will work OK....

[bobson]

You can slipstream all drivers and updates into your installation disc.
There are many tools and tutorials how to do it. This way everything you need will be there during installation.

Bob

[bobson]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/239634/how_to_speed_up_windows_7_installs_ with_slipstreaming_and_usb.html

[bojan]

Hi Bob, thank you :thumbsup:
I will leave the whole this job for the weekend.