I've not owned an X40, but it is from just around the time that the ability to boot from a USB drive was being introduced into ThinkPads. That means that your machine might not have the capability, or even if it does it might not be predictable. If you go online you'll find several tutorials on how to create a bootable USB drive, and if you follow one of these you might have no problems at all, but then again you might be fiddling for hours.
If you do decide to buy an external drive, you might want to splurge and buy a DVD burner; these are now well under $30. (For example, Newegg has the vey nice Asus SDRW-08D2S-U right now for $25 after rebate.) David -------------------------------------------------- From: "Laurence" <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, March 16, 2012 11:42 AM To: <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Thinkpad] How to transfer recovery CD to USB drive for X40?(Laurence) Message: 1 Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2012 20:41:33 -0700 (PDT) From: Laurence <[email protected]> Subject: [Thinkpad] How to transfer recovery CD to USB drive for X40? To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 I have a recently acquired X40. I need load the OS, I believe via USB is my best option. Currently I have the following minimal tools handy: X series recovery CDs. One USB stick of 8GB. One functioning T series running XP. Both machines have wifi cards. No router or network set up. How do I copy the first recovery CD to it so that it becomes bootable After that, what is the best method of loading the successive recovery disks without headache - i) xfer each disk to a separate usb stick? ---- (seems rather ghetto), ii)set up a network, place CD images (what format?) on the network and instruct the X40 to boot from the network (I haven't done this before but am aware the capability is built into thinkpad ethernet cards)? ----- many steps for a simple task iii) something completely different? This should be simple, I don't want to make it more involved than necessary. ? ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2012 18:49:29 -1000 From: "David Ross" <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Thinkpad] How to transfer recovery CD to USB drive for X40? To: "Laurence" <[email protected]>, <[email protected]> Message-ID: <B8D5AA4978A84500999AFFCA855DA833@X201t> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" USB CD drives sell online for around $10 shipped. How much is your time worth? David >>> I had no idea they're that cheap, that's a reasonable solution. I have >>> no interest in setting up a network, share point and whatever else is >>> required to do a pxe boot to save $10 or $20. Still, a USB stick(s) >>> should be fast and painless; is there more than a couple minutes >>> involved in making one into a bootable CD image? _______________________________________________ Thinkpad mailing list [email protected] http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad _______________________________________________ Thinkpad mailing list [email protected] http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad
