Blinking Cursor on Lenovo notebook

Operating Systems Windows XP/2000/Server 2003
1

Hi,
I got a crazy problem with a Lenovo T60 notebook.
There I installed XP SP3 normal an a sata harddisk.
But when I try to install XP there on a brandnew SSD,
XP SP3 installs, but on next reboot I always get a blinking cursor
on the corner, left upper screen. Crazy, I tried 3 different SSDs, always the same result,
no matter if I boot via AHCI ot IDE (compatible mode) brand or size of the SSD.
I can do USB boot on the T60 notebook via the same SSD, so strange as much as possible.
Now I found out, what is going on: Even with newest Bios 2.26 from 2011
the Bios cant read any disk with an alignment of 2048 byte.
When I use XP to format the SSD with 63 byte before first partition,
all is ok. This shortens the life of the SSD because of no alignment (I always use classic harddisk for important data(!)) but the speed is 135 Mbyte/s,
normal because it is SATA I
Dietmar

PS: This problem has not been solved before.

2



I think this would require a BIOS modification to work.

3

Keep in mind that this laptop is incompatible with ssds that have SandForce controller.
Also all Kingston ssds dont run on sata 1.

4

@diderius6 - Use 4096 or 1024 alignment instead, does that work?

5

@Lost_N_BIOS

I take a look around, but I do not find any tool, with which I can change the alignment to other values than 63 or 2048 Bytes before 1. partition
Dietmar

6

@diderius6 - I use Diskpart, sorry I assumed you were already setting partition alignment yourself.

From CMD Prompt >>
Diskpart
List Disk << Here, identify which is target disk by name or size, or compare with Disk management
Select disk # << here, put exact correct disk #
Clean
Create partition primary align=1024 << There, change number to what you want to try 1024kb = 2048 sectors (Current issue), so if you want to use 1024 sectors set 512 here, for 4096 sectors set 2048 here (all mentioned = 4K aligned)
Format Quick FS=NTFS
Active
Assign
Exit

You can do this from another OS with this target drive as spare/secondary, or you can also do from Windows 7-10 install ISO, at start of install go to troubleshooting area, then advanced, Command prompt

7

Yesssssa,

I aligned the first partition on an 1 Terabyte Samsung SSD 860 EVO to 4096 bytes before first partition,
checked this with Winhex and voila,
for the very first time this SSD is recogniced by the Lenovo T60 notebook,
I am just installing XP SP3 on it and soon will show photo,
nice, thanks a lot @Lost_N_BIOS

Dietmar

8

@diderius6 - Aweseome to hear it worked for you!
I almost didn’t comment, assuming any 4K alignment would be an issue, glad I opened my big mouth

Be sure you align ALL partitions to some variant of 4K