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    T41 NDIS DOS drivers and Ghost --For Experts Only

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by LoneWolf15, Aug 17, 2011.

  1. LoneWolf15

    LoneWolf15 The Chairman

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    Hi all,

    I'm at my wit's end at this point. I have a fleet of donated ThinkPad T41 laptops I am trying to get running (I work in education). We normally use Symantec Ghost to create a network image, which boots from a CD, USB, or floppy in an DOS environment. I managed to get this to work at some point in the past with methods I am currently using, and have no idea why I cannot now.

    My problem is that no matter what network driver I use (I have used Intel Pro100 and Pro1000 drivers, the two options available for the T41), the network adapter is never detected. I have tried multiple Intel driver revisions --no dice. I have created the early Bart's Network Boot Disk, and tried to run the WHATNIC program available with it, which just terminates with no information. I have even swapped my image hard drive from one ThinkPad T41 to another, with the thought that maybe the first one was having network problems. Still no fix. I've even tried using Ghost Solution Suite 2.5, which used a Windows 7 PE environment. STILL no dice, and I've never had a problem like this with other machines.

    I just can't see why the NIC isn't being detected. I don't see a BIOS option that would cause this problem, though I'm open to any suggestions. I'm hoping someone else has seen this problem, and can help.

    P.S. Unfortunately, Lenovo's T41 NDIS drivers are in an executable that creates a floppy image. That executable won't run on XP command prompts or newer (perhaps even Win2k) as it uses a direct write-to-disk that the OS no longer allows. I'd have tried those if I could, but can't get to them. I'm one step from loading a machine with DOS to try and get those extracted, but I'm worried that won't work either.
     
    LoneWolf15, Aug 17, 2011
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  2. Colonel O'Neill

    Colonel O'Neill Notebook Deity

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    Does unpacking the executable with Uniextract work? Or in DOSBOX with a virtual floppy img hooked up?
     
    Colonel O'Neill, Aug 17, 2011
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  3. LoneWolf15

    LoneWolf15 The Chairman

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    I had already tried 7Zip, to no avail. I downloaded UniExtract (thanks), but that didn't work either.

    Will DOSBox support USB floppy drives? I haven't used it (I mainly work with VMWare Workstation).
     
    LoneWolf15, Aug 17, 2011
    #3