I had Original Vista in Swedish language installed in my Lenovo Thinkpad T61. When I tried to install Windows XP it showed some error saying it didnt actually find the hardisk. I have digged the net and found that other people also suffered the same problem. But unfortunelty I really had to search hard to find the solution. This is very obvious as there are not many people who have thier hands on this monster.
Here is the trick in simply one line. Go to the bios, change the SATA from AHCI to Compatible, and then Install anything you want starting from Windows XP to Windows 95. Wait a second dont leave just because you have the XP installed, there is a bit more to it, you have to install some of the drivers manually.
- You need to install this UAA High Def Audio Driver before you move on to installing things in step 3.
- HotKey Driver – If you have bluetooth installed, you’ll need this to use fn + F5 to enable it for the bluetooth installation.
- Install the rest of the drivers like Intel Ethernet driver, Bluetooth software, Audio software, ACPI power management, wireless card, and modem driver. Get them here.
Great now you have everything running.. Now its time to Enjoy !
/Reza 
February 13, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Thanks for this Rezaul, I’m glad I read up on this before I dove in….
July 2, 2009 at 7:07 am
Thanks! Thanks! Thanks!
February 29, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Thanks! I was going to freak out when I got that error. Stupid Vista.
John
February 29, 2008 at 7:56 pm
I am glad it helped !
March 2, 2008 at 3:16 am
Dude, thank you so so much. I have a Thinkpad x60 and Windows XP, and have been banging my head against the wall.
March 4, 2008 at 5:35 am
First of all i have to say you Thanks! Dude, I really in bother with Fuckin Vista cuz it doesn’t Accept any Software, CheersUp Dude Thanks A Lot.
March 18, 2008 at 1:36 am
Thank you!!!!!!
March 18, 2008 at 6:05 pm
just use F6 to add additional drivers. Then you don’t need to cripple your SATA controller.
Download the Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver for Windows XP, Vista (32bit) – ThinkPad
July 14, 2010 at 12:15 pm
Thanks! I wasn’t sure if they were the real sata drivers, until I saw your comment. I’m just gonna add them to my XP installation using nLite
March 18, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Download the driver from IBM (do a search from IBM home page for 7tim04ww.exe), extract it, and follow the “5.3 Pre-Installation Using the F6 Method. “
April 6, 2008 at 6:59 am
Thanks!! Screw you Vista, my T61p is too good for you.
May 12, 2008 at 3:39 pm
What version of XP Pro should I buy. Can I buy an OEM license for XP PRO, and then add the service packs? (Like I have done on my toshiba P25), Or an OEM license for XP Pro with SP2, or do I need to buy a non-OEM licenses
Thanks/Phil
May 12, 2008 at 3:43 pm
I am afraid I dont know ! But any Windows XP with a SP2 should work fine, thats my guess !
May 12, 2008 at 3:59 pm
If my xp pro install does not have sp2, can I still install it and then add sp2 afterwards?
May 12, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Yes I think you can. As service pack (SP) are things which are basically upgrades nothing else.
May 12, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Will this work if I do not already have an operating system installed on the pc?
May 12, 2008 at 4:54 pm
I did not understand you properly, but if you meant if SP will work without a OS, I am afraid not. SP’s are different for different OS or softwares.
May 12, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Thank you very much for your help. Lenovo has a one day sale on Thinkpads in Cada today that I would like to take advantage of.
So, here is my question restated hopefully to make sense. Can I install windows xp pro on the thinkpad t61 if there is not already an os installed on the t61? I.e. Can I install windows xp pro on the t61 if xp or vista is not already installed? (I think the answer is yes, but I want to make sure)
May 12, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Yes you can ! 😀 !
June 30, 2008 at 8:59 pm
It was really helful!Thanks so much!
(please remove the previous comment of me on this post,It was just a mistake.thanks)
July 16, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Thank you! You are a saint amongst the midst of the WordPress universe.
Hudin
August 25, 2008 at 7:13 am
Hi,
I did what you suggested (changing SATA) for my thinkpad x60 to install windows xp, but for some reason, the ethernet card seems not working properly. The driver is properly installed, but the internet connection is not good, although the same LAN cable works for my another Macbook. I did install step 1, but again for some reason after installing it, it keeps showing Modem Device on High Definition Audio Bus driver is not found. Would this be the reason for internet not working? Please let me know, and I will greatly appreciate it.
Thank you very much in advance,
Sincerely,
Taesup
August 31, 2008 at 1:03 am
hey Taesup,
I have to say I not sure what the problem is. If its showing “Modem Device on High Definition Audio Bus driver is not found” then obviously the first step was not completely properly. Maybe you may want to try doing it one more time from scratch.
Regards
/Reza
September 29, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Thanks a million. It worked just right for me.
October 3, 2008 at 11:33 am
thank you so much! saved me quite some time
October 8, 2008 at 3:10 pm
thanks, ur info was very helpful
November 17, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Well what I did with this problem (Not on a ThinkPad but just in general) was download the drivers and then rip my XP copy and use nLite to add the drivers and then burn it to a disk so I had a copy with my SATA drivers in the installation 🙂
December 4, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Thank you verymuch Rezaul.
It ‘s Good.
December 18, 2008 at 11:28 am
Hi,
In the device manager I see a “?” beside the “Audio Device on High Definition Audio Bus”. I’ve updated my OS to XP SP3 and installed audio driver 7ka114ww but still no sound.
PLEASE HELP
December 18, 2008 at 11:37 am
@pat ..I had the same problem initially. Have you strictly followed the steps in the blog ? I had a same problem and the order of installation for some reason matters I think. First you need to install the UAA High Def Audio Driver and then move on to step 2 and step 3. Hope it will work.
January 22, 2009 at 4:27 am
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. I had switched from Vista to LINUX and then to XP and figured it was something with the changes in the MBR from Linux and could not figure out what I needed to change. lol what a simple solution. THANKS
February 8, 2009 at 2:43 pm
It sounds like you’re creating problems yourself by trying to solve this issue instead of looking at why their is a problem in the first place.
February 14, 2009 at 4:58 am
Hey thanks so much man when i bought my laptop lenovo said it was new, but apparently it was loaded with some guys username and pass. Now I have xp instead of vista 🙂
March 7, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Thanks dude,
Really thanks a lot. I am so worried i need to call the guys where i bought.
March 9, 2009 at 12:03 am
Hi Rezaul, your solution looks pretty cool. However
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/license.do?filename=mobiles/7kvu13ww.exe
and
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-67853
do not work. Any idea?
April 27, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Hi, I cant understand how to add your site in my rss reader. Can you Help me, please 🙂
July 3, 2009 at 1:15 am
Thank you for the tips. I almost gave up installing XP.
September 24, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Gah! Thank you!! So simple but it gave me such a hard time lol. I hate vista so much and had to go back to XP, I missed it too much.
Thanks again!
November 20, 2009 at 3:23 am
This page helped me big time, but Bob Jones’ Post is correct…you just need to place drivers onto a floppy.
http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/6iim10ww.txt
TXTSETUP.OEM needs to be in root (you may also need to set up a drivers directory)
XP Reload from Scratch
———————–
Before installing the operating system, install Intel Matrix Storage Manager
Driver, as follows:
Notes:
– Be sure to install Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver before installing the
operating system. Otherwise your computer will not respond; it will only
display a blue screen.
– In RAID mode, the following procedures is the ONLY procedure to install
Windows XP successfully.
1. Attach a floppy disk drive to your computer.
2. Download Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver from the Web site and extract
the driver to C:\DRIVERS\WIN\IMSM and copy the driver to a floppy disk.
3. Make sure that SATA AHCI or RAID is enabled;
3-1. Power off the computer.
3-2. Power on the computer.
3-3. Press the F1 key to enter the BIOS Setup Utility when the “ThinkPad”
logo is seen on the screen. The BIOS Setup Utility menu will be
displayed. If a password prompt appears, type the correct password.
3-4. Select Config.
3-5. Select Serial ATA (SATA).
3-6. Make sure RAID* or AHCI is selected. (* ThinkPad W700/W700ds only)
3-7. Press the F3 key, and then press the F3 key to go back to main menu.
4. Make sure that Operating System can be installed from Windows XP CD;
4-1. Select Startup.
4-2. Select Boot.
4-3. In Boot Priority Order, set “ATAPI CD0:” to the top of the list, “1”.
4-4. Press the F10 key to save the new setup, and then select Yes.
The computer will restart.
5. Insert the Windows XP CD into the optical drive, and restart the computer.
6. To install a third-party SCSI or RAID driver first, press F6.
7. When prompted, select S for Specify Additional Device.
8. When prompted, insert the floppy disk that you created in step 2, and press
Enter.
9. – If your system has Intel 82801HEM/HBM SATA AHCI Controller, select
Intel(R) ICH8M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller, and press Enter.
– If your system has Intel 82801GBM SATA AHCI Controller, select
Intel(R) ICH7M/MDH SATA AHCI Controller, and press Enter.
– If your system has Intel ICH9M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller, select
Intel(R) ICH9M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller, and press Enter.
– If you selected RAID mode in ThinkPand W700/700ds, select
Intel(R) ICH8M-E/ICH9M-E/PCHM SATA RAID Controller.
10. To continue the installation, press Enter again. Leave the floppy disk in
the drive until the next reboot; the software may need to be copied from
the floppy disk again when the files are copied during setup.
14. Follow the instruction to complete the Operating System installation.
November 20, 2009 at 5:03 am
BTW, this is the controller in the T61 I have. My model number is: 7664-R7U
“Intel(R) ICH8M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller”
December 22, 2009 at 10:36 am
On the IBM think pad it is no longer loading up to the hello screen, I want to wipe the memory all together and start again. Can you help with this problem….
January 28, 2010 at 10:21 pm
Thanks. But I still have alot do do with my T61p thinkpad. I load Quadro driver and it when blinking.
Any help please!
June 16, 2010 at 6:25 am
Hey Thanks!! I have gone round in circles trying to figure this out.Thanks Loads.
September 3, 2010 at 6:28 pm
Man, I have to thank you. You saved me…
Regards from Brazil.
October 3, 2010 at 6:56 pm
Oh My God!! I had wasted nearly 3 to 4 Hours digging into this.. At last tried this and it worked Great!!! Thanks a lot!!
October 30, 2010 at 4:13 am
Best you could make changes to the blog subject How to install Windows XP in Thinkpad T61 / Reza to something more catching for your content you create. I enjoyed the post even sononetheless.
January 8, 2011 at 5:56 pm
Thanks,Rezaul.
You helped me out from the struggle.
July 18, 2011 at 9:06 pm
thanks! saved me from myself and turned what would have been 5 hours into 3…
August 7, 2011 at 11:07 pm
THANK YOU!!!! you saved me from wasting more time trying to slipstream drivers onto my XP disk.
February 10, 2012 at 11:48 am
So Simple and So Effective …. Thanks
May 4, 2012 at 1:53 am
Thanks!
July 19, 2012 at 8:20 pm
THANX !!!
THANX !!!
THANX !!!
September 12, 2012 at 10:59 am
thanks alot. I strugled for it
September 29, 2012 at 9:51 pm
Awesome! Had problem installing this and this post really save my day!
January 28, 2013 at 7:29 pm
“Go to the bios, change the SATA from AHCI to Compatible”
Ah, thanks for this. I was getting the STOP 0x7B blue screen until I made this change.
Once successfully booted, you install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver from the driver matrix, which adds SATA support to XP; then reboot and you can switch back to AHCI in the BIOS!
November 18, 2013 at 10:22 pm
Thanks, disabling AHCI saved my evening!
June 25, 2014 at 10:54 am
I wasted 3 hours tryign to figure out this issue, following some other advice I found online. Should have just added Thnkipad in the search right off the bat, after checking your instructions I was done in 2 mins. Thanks man, really appreciate it.
March 8, 2016 at 11:09 am
I install windows XP without any kind of problemas just using a Lenovo recovering CD that download from NET. But, after install sp3 i havê a BSOD. Any ideia ? I can start the PC only in safe mode.