Upgrading from XP Home to XP Pro on T60

Hey Everybody:

To save a few bucks I got my T 60 with XP Home instead of Pro, and now I want to upgrade to Pro. What's the easiest way to do this?

I'd rather not wipe my brand-new T60's hard drive clean and have to worry about re-installing drivers, ThinkVantage, etc. I've read a little bit that suggests I can upgrade from home to pro without totally reformatting the hard drive and losing everything on it. Any ideas on this?

Also, if I've already got XP Home SP2, does it matter which version of XP pro I use? I've got an older copy of XP pro student edition that I was thinking about using.

 

I also ordered Home edition (have not recieved a computer yet).
So just wondering why do you want to change to Pro ? Something
you need that exists only in pro ?

 

You can upgrade to Pro without losing your programs, but you'll need to reinstall the drivers no matter what. When you insert the CD, just don't mess with the partitions. You may want to backup anything in C:\Documents and Settings before upgrading, as this folder contains user profiles and documents. Everything else on the hard drive like programs will remain, but they'll need to be reinstalled to be registered with the OS anyway. Important thing is without a reformat, your programs will remain, but will just need to be reinstalled.

 

since you would eventually reinstall most of the drivers, I suggest a clean install of xp pro. just don't mess with the IBMSERVICE partition. and backup your DRIVERS and IBMTOOLS. you may also want to backup xp home folders like I386, VALUEADD, SUPPORT, etc.
all softwares and drivers can be downloaded here: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-62928 and here: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/product.do?subcategoryind=0&familyind=290543&brandind=10&doccategoryind=0&modelind=296521&doctypeind=9&validate=true&partnumberind=0&sitestyle=lenovo&template=%2Fproductpage%2Flandingpages%2FproductPageLandingPage.vm&operatingsystemind=49979&machineind=290545
firstly, download and extract all the latest drivers and softwares in one folder of your C: drive say "UPDATED" then backup this folder in a separate drive, perhaps a CD or a usb hdd. make sure to download and extract the special version of the Software Installer.
run windows xp pro setup. in windows xp pro dos mode setup, choose to quick format the c: drive with ntfs.
when setup is finished, copy back your "UPDATED" folder. install the latest Thinkvantage Software Installer (It should be under "UPDATED"\drivers\win\swinst\) and run it. Include in the driver search folder your "UPDATED" folder, it would do the reinstalling of all softwares and drivers for you. one special case I noticed, though, is the DVD player and creator updates. you should first install DVD player and creator which would be in IBMTOOLS\APPS that you earlier backed up.
this is not what I personally did because mine came with xp pro. but I did make a clean reinstall of xp pro with all the latest hotfixes, less the bloat of third party softwares, from the unattended xp pro dvd i made. I also had Software Installer run at T-13 of windows setup so everything is installed on the first xp pro boot. this is, of course, another topic.
hope this helps, though.

 

Thanks for this walk-through, Glentium; this is helpful. Does anybody know if XP Pro SP 2 and above has native drivers for SATA drives? I really don't want to have to go out and buy a floppy drive just to install the drivers for my T60's SATA hard drive during XP Pro install.

 

Oh I had that problem too.. I'll give you a another walktrough regarding integrating SATA drivers for your T60 but I'm quite busy ATM. I promise to do it ASAP.

 

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-62909

Follow the instructions provided in the above link and you should be ok. There wouldn't be a need to get a floppy drive for SATA drivers.

cheers!

 

The above instruction would work if you have Windows XP already installed and is provided as an upgrade. But it wont work when you want to do a fresh install as suggested in post #4. You will need to press F6 in the DOS portion of Setup, then you will be asked for the floppy disk where you have you SATA drivers. But T60 doesn't come with a floppy drive and harmonica, like me, does not want to purchase one.

To do this you need the files from the link ramian posted above. But you need to edit two files from you Windows XP Pro CD. This means you will have to first copy your install CD to you harddrive and burn in back to a CD. Instructions here: http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp
for unattended installations, this may help: http://unattended.msfn.org/

Now to integrate SATA drivers:
The original instructions (and credit) are posted by zen69x here: http://www.ntcompatible.com/thread.php?id=25442#129028

But these are my entries specific to T60:

In DOSNET.INF:

[FloppyFiles.2]
d1,iastor.sys

[Strings]
iastor = "Intel Matrix Storage Manager driver"

[Files]
d1,iastor.sys

In TXTSETUP.SIF:

[SourceDisksFiles]
iaahci.inf = 1,,,,,,,20,0,0
iastor.inf = 1,,,,,,,20,0,0
iastor.sys = 1,,,,,,3_,4,1

[HardwareIdsDatabase]
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C5&CC_0106 = "iaStor"

[SCSI.Load]
iastor = iastor.sys,4

[SCSI]
iastor = "Intel(R) 82801GBM SATA AHCI Controller (Mobile ICH7M)"

That's it, have fun! Sorry I can't make a detailed walktrough. My time is limiting me to do just that.

 

Not true.

If you change the SATA setting in the BIOS to Compatability before installing Windows, (i.e., following the instructions under "Clean install"), you can do a clean installation. I've done this too many times already. There is no need to integrate SATA drivers.

Not that there is any harm in integrating them, but it is easier just to switch it to Compatability and back to AHCI after installing the Intel Matrix drivers. Moreover, you don't need to re-burn the installation disk if the drivers are updated.

cheers!

 

Okay, ramian is right. It's much easier with the way that he mentioned. I was integrating SATA drivers in desktops long before I had the T60 so I'm used to the 'difficult' route.. anyway, I agree with ramian.

beers!