Forum Rules - Formats - Spotlights  -  Home - Library - New Additions

Installing Windows NT 3.51 on ThinkPad

Hans83VTHans83VT
in Software
Hi! Long time lurker, first time poster. I've installed NT 3.51 on VMs a number of times without issue. I'm now trying to install it on a ThinkPad 380ED laptop. IBM listed some NT 3.51 drivers for it, so I do believe it was supported. However, when I try to install, it fails. When booting with the floppy disk set, it gets to the first setup screen and immediately freezes the system. I've tried writing the floppy images to multiple disks; it seems to be an actual error in NT.

I've also tried to format the C: drive as FAT16, copy the NT 3.51 files over, and then run setup with the /B option to install it without the floppies. It gets through the initial setup and asks to reboot. When I reboot the system, it blue screens with an INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE error. This happens whether I set the drive to remain FAT16 or convert to NTFS. I also tried different partition sizes - 500 MB, 1 GB, and the full 2 GB drive size. All fail in the same way.

Any ideas how to fix this would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

Comments

  • SlashNetSlashNet
    First of all I'd turn off LBA in BIOS and make a partition that does not cross the 1024th cylinder.
  • SomeGuySomeGuy
    Well, ACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE is usually the result of disk controller driver not finding a compatible controller. Was one of the drivers for this machine a disk controller driver? If so, you will need to feed the driver to NT during the text based part of the setup.

    Does this machine use an IDE controller or something else? Is there anything exotic about this particular controller?

    As suggested, check the BIOS options and see if there are any settings that might increase compatibility somehow.

Sign In or Register to comment.