Hello guys and gals, and thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

Time line of issues and how I got to where I am. I might be giving too much useless information, but maybe it will help someone recognize the problem I might have.

Laptop worked fine with 512 memory.

I added 1 more gig of memory, and computer ran fine.

Two days after adding memory took computer to the park, used it with battery, shut it down, and when I got home it wouldn't start. Battery went 100% dead (figured just coincidence)

Started using computer with the AC cord, and ever so often it would totally freeze. I would be moving the mouse around and it would lock up on its track and the whole system would stop responding. I would have to do a forced shut down. This happened totally at random. Sometimes 5 minutes after bootup, sometimes 3 or 4 days after bootup.

About two months after that, the computer started having problems to boot up. I would have to turn it off and on a couple of times before it would start, until one day it just wouldn't start at all. As an experiment I took the dead battery out, and left it out. It started booting fine since then, and it stooped freezing at random.

About a month after I started using the computer without the dead battery inside, it started freezing up with firefox and IE when ever I use a Flash based video chat room. Only the brwoser (FireFox or IE) stops responding, but the rest of the computer keeps responding. If I try to end the firefox process it doesn't kill the application, only way to kill application was by rebooting.

I backed up all my files, created a list of the programs I wanted to re install later on, a decided to do a full restore to factory settings.

About the restore (what I need help with).

The computer would boot up fine, and work fine as long as I didn't use visit sites with Flash in them.

I attempted to do the Thinkvantage recovery method (a fresh factory install from a partition), but it never found partition. When ever I pressed F11 at start up to access service partition it would take me to Bios instead. Lenovo states I more than likely deleted the partion.

Thinkvantage also lets you roll back to a previous state. I was able to select a previous restore point, I start the recovery process, but it just reboots to the exact same conditions. I tried all the restore points and none worked.

I then tried to use the windows XP restore points. Same problem, I can select a restore point, but when it attempts to restore it gives me some kind of error message.

I then found a link with all the drivers for Lenovo, so figured I would use an XP copy that I have, install that and then manually install the correct drives. Fresh install no glutware. I modified Bios.. SATA to compatability, and to boot from CD. When I boot with the XP CD it just goes into a black screen with the cursor on top, and I can't type anything. Left it like that up to 30 minutes and nothing happens.

Figured maybe the XP CD was bad. Tried it on 3 different machines, and when I boot of off the CD it goes right into the blue windows xp install screen.

I then purchased one of those bootdisks from bootdisk.com I was able to boot to DOS, delete all the partitions on C: drive, do an FDISK, and then Format C:. Figured I was ready. I booted from XP CD and got the same problem, black screen.

I then made my c disk bootable with a utility on the Bootdisk i purchased. I can boot to C: without a CD or Floppy.

I found some instructions, that stated once I am in DOS, i can go to the CD rom drive, go to the i386 folder, and then run winnt.exe to start the installation. When I do this I get an error about "insufficient memory"

I then copied the i386 folder from the CD to the HD, and ran winnt.exe again, and got the same insufficient memory error

I am pretty sure that usually, if one just "formats c:" and then boots from the XP CD the CD takes care of the install, but since that wasn't working, I deleted the partition again, and ran FDisk again. This time I wanted to perform a "format c: /s", but when I try that I get the "insufficient memory to load system files. Format terminated"

I am totally lost at this point, I have no idea what else I can try/do. I don't have extra memory laying around to try, I don't have another HD to play with, etc.

In conclusion, as of now I have a computer that can boot with a bootcd onto DOS while loading the CD rom drive. I can access the C: drive, create/delete partitions, and fromat the drive. I just can't seem to do a "format c: /s", or install XP.

Can anyone guide me onto the right direction as to how I can load XP again onto this machine?

Thanks

so is that a boot CD you bought, or a boot floppy? In other words, do other bood CD's work fine, just not XP?????

If so, I'd build a UBCD4Win disc, or an Ubuntu disc, and repartition and reformat your hard drive. Seems like something on the harddrive is causing the install to hang up....

Thanks for the quick reply Y2k

Yes, it is a boot CD (no floppy drive). I am able to boot into DOS with two different CDs. At one point I also made a CD that runs at boot to try and fix/find my restore hidden partition.

So yes, I am pretty sure both the CD rom and the XP CD are working fine.

I have no experience with "UBCD4Win disc, or an Ubuntu disc" but I will go read up, and see if that might work.

My cousin also suggested I do an "fdisk /mbr" as he also thinks there is something on the HD that is preventing it from running a windows install.

those are both bootable operating systems. UBCD4Win is a bootable XP, while Ubuntu is a very popular form of Linux. Both have hard disk utilities that let you manipulate drives with familiar, windows GUI style interfaces.

The only other thing I can think of is possibly the SATA issue. On my Toshiba, I had to install SATA drivers into my XP disc (slipstreamed them), as there was no compatibility mode that worked. Of course, I could still run the XP disc, it just didn't see the hard drives. I wonder if that might be causing the install to choke???

Lenovo is actually one company that makes a nice restore disc, so it might be worth purchasing a replacement at some point if you can't get things working. My Toshiba's OEM install was full of bloatware, but I've had 3 Thinkpads, and I really like the features IBM/Lenovo installs.

hey u must format ur entire disc using disk manager.it will fix the MBR and all other disk problems.DM is an console program so u can run from an (* boot disk or any bootable floppy..okall the best .bye