c/linuxonthinkpad · by dr_robotBones@reddthat.com · 40d

IBM Thinkpad T20 won't boot or install a new OS

The computer originally had Windows 98 installed on it, but when booting it would give a blue screen of death. I've tried a number of things to try and get this laptop working again:

I tried reinstalling Windows 98 since I have the original official disk, after the install and reboot the system displayed the error: "Invalid system disk Replace the disk, and then press any key" I don't know what it means by "system disk"
I tried installing Devuan daedalus, the last 32 bit version of the operating system. It failed.
I tried installing a really old Linux, Fedora 3. The installer ran successfully enough that the hard drive partitions and names appear on other Linux environments, but the system shows the error "Operating System not found"
I booted up TinyCore linux, which successfully runs as a live environment from RAM. It was the one that detected the previous partitions created by the Fedora installer. It also cannot install onto the hard drive (some USB error? I'm using DVD so idk what that's about). I ran fsck successfully once, it told me the hard drive is dos paritioned. So fdisk -l detects Linux partitions, fsck detects dos, what is going on?
I tried SystemRescueCD, which crashed with a kernel panic.

Is anyone familiar with the ins and outs of an IBM Thinkpad T20? Does anyone know what the "Invalid system disk" error is about, it does not show up in any user manuals I found online. Does anyone know how to get any operating system working on one of these, or a way I can atleast definitively diagnose the issue?

12 points · 11 comments · view on lemmy.world

11 Comments

over_clox@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 40d (7 replies)

Originally came with Windows 98, well that means it has an MBR (Master Boot Record) format boot sector (first 512 bytes), and that sector also contains the (up to) 4 partition tables. And Windows basically never recognized Linux partition tables anyways.

So, first guess off the top of my head, is to delete any and all partitions, repartition it and format it (make sure it's set as bootable status while partitioning and formatting). Note that FDISK and FORMAT for Windows 98 doesn't exactly fully cooperate with other filesystems, I'd recommend Linux utilities to totally wipe it, then install fresh from '98 boot CD (or Linux, that would be cool).

Windows can be a bit stupid about this though, sometimes I'd have to use a low level disk editor to fully erase the MBR sector first. I don't know exactly where you stand, but it seems to me like the MBR is either goofed up or corrupted.

Hopefully not a failing drive though..

toddestan@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 40d (6 replies)

Assuming there's nothing on the drive you care about, if you can get to a DOS prompt, fdisk /mbr should rewrite the MBR which (with any luck) will clear things up as far as Windows goes (Linux partitions may not survive this). The various Linux partitioning tools may also be able to rewrite the MBR, or simply nuke it. In Linux you could also do something like dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=1M count=1 in Linux to overwrite the MBR with zeros, then let the Windows 98 installer partition and format the drive for you.

Also, check in the BIOS that it's set to boot from the hard drive, just in case that's the problem.

over_clox@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 40d (1 reply)

Ahh, but it doesn't. At least not properly.

That's how the TDSS/Alureon malware proliferated for as long as it did.

Even up through Windows 7, you could "fully and completely" format and reinstall Windows, but TDSS would still persist. Why?

Well, the MBR sector format was a clusterfuck of security, containing both code (boot code) and partition table data.

So anyways, go ahead and try to restore a system infected with TDSS.. they bypassed that simple shit.

M$ only checks if there's a seemingly valid boot sector before it bothers fucking with it. So, FDISK /MBR or whatever would never do shit to fix the TDSS infected partition table, thereby leaving the virus to survive complete reformat and reinstall...

TDSS/Alureon was a lesson to a lot of security researchers...

The only pure fix I found was to low level zero out the first 64KB of the drive and start over from scratch.

dr_robotBones@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 40d

The biggest problem is finding software that runs on this thing. Even if its 32-bit, it seems the later 32-bit Linux kernels don't support the hardware and kernel panic, which is probably why I couldn't run SystemRescue which probably has all the tools I need.

dr_robotBones@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 40d

I can try the dd method in TinyCore linux and see if it helps.

dr_robotBones@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 40d (2 replies)

I overwrote the MBR with zeroes but when I tried to install Fedora 3 I get an error trying to format the drive, and the install can't continue. I didn't do Windows 98 because it takes forever and does not report errors.

toddestan@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 39d (1 reply)

I don't know about Fedora 3, but some of those old Linux distros left it up to the user to partition and format the drive. Some, like Slackware, are still that way.

It's also possible the drive itself is bad. 25 years is a long time for harddrive, particularly a mobile one.

I'd be curious if it could boot up an old version of Knoppix (one of the first live CD distros).

dr_robotBones@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 37d

Fedora 3 does have an automatic partitioner, but it assumes you want RAID, which caused some errors. I ended up manually partitioning the drive which was fine, I gave it 102 MB to /boot, 258 MB to swap and 18717 MB to /.

Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe · 5 pts · 40d (2 replies)

Invalid system disk means it's not detecting the hard drive (the disk onto which you installed the OS - the system disk) for some reason.

Given the age of the machine the drive is probably bad.

Edit: could also be the controller on the motherboard, but that's less likely, and the only part that's easily/cheaply replaced is the drive.

dr_robotBones@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 40d (1 reply)

That makes sense but the manual says nothing about this error, which is what makes it so weird.

For hard disk error I should get error code 0200 but there is no code. Maybe the error came from Windows 98 and not the system itself? That would also be weird, how would Windows be able to give me an error if its installed on a hard drive that doesn't work?

Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe · 2 pts · 38d

That's a classic error from every version of Windows - I've seen it lots.

I suspect what happens is the bootloader can be loaded into ram by the bios, but when it switches to running the OS, then the kernel fails to find the partition on the drive (or something like this - it's been decades since I fully memorized the boot sequence).

There could also be some weirdness in the partitioning scheme - I've seen that cause the same error.

Try re-running a Windows setup and have it fully re-partition and format the drive to ensure it's built in a way Windows likes.

I've had Windows boot fail on drives where I partitioned it with 3rd party tools.