Installing Windows 7 from USB on a Thinkpad T61
- by Halik
I am trying to install Windows 7 Professional from USB 3.0 flashdrive, on a Thinkpad T61.
The problem is, Thinkpads BIOS will not detect the flash drive as bootable medium, and won't allow to boot from it.
What I did:
Enabled USB BIOS Support in BIOS (it was on by default)
In startup menu, added USB HDD to boot order (it has '-' sign in front of it)
Created Windows 7 install media with UNetbootin, WinUSB (linux tool) dd and Grub4DOS.
As you can tell, currently, I only have access to Linux machine to make the flashdrive.
What happens:
The T61 BIOS shows '-USB HDD' in boot order menu. The '-' sign suggests that the plugged flash drive is currently not bootable.
The same flashdrive (with the same Windows image on it) is booting without any problems on a Dell D430 and Lenovo Y550.
Also, Ubuntu 12.04 install USB created with Unetbootin shows as bootable ('+' sign in BIOS boot order menu) and boots from the F12 boot menu.
Additional info
thinkwiki.org says that some Thinkpad BIOSes do not use MBR on flashdrives. It suggests using Extended-IPL boot loader, but the provided links are broken and there seems to be no mirrors.
Solution:
http://superuser.com/a/430186/54970